First Reformed

Religion is a concept that simply can’t solve all of humanity’s problems, whether that be divine or man-made. No matter how hard we look to the sky, divine intervention won’t save us from the mortality we built ourselves. ‘First Reformed’ is a film that chronically follows the life of Reverend Toller, and his constant struggle to maintain a stable belief system in a world that is seemingly full of insanity, despair, and instablilty. The Reverend (played with brilliant emotion by Ethan Hawke) is someone who has experienced immense pain in the past, sending his only son to war for dynastic tradition only to have him die on the battlefield for no real cause, subsequently having his wife leave him after she stated it wasn’t worth it; an intense I told you so that breaks the Reverend with guilt masked in hard whiskey and Sunday masses. Contemporary society will have us believe that we are all doomed to die - climate change is inevitable, deforestation is plowing through the animal kingdom, and greenhouse gas emissions are at an all time high with mass production fuelling all our needs for rapid consumerism. This can all get pretty overwhelming, and despair can take over. These ideas present the change in Toller, his development of pride leads to despair and an ultimate rejection of God, a figure he once found in the past to cope with his trauma. The Reverend now only has his certitude to comfort him, and that leads to dangerous forms of extremism. ‘First Reformed’ is never concerned with trying to offer solutions to our societal issues, it merely highlights that they are present. When a world is depicted so bleak, much pain can destroy a person, and despair can lead to a religious man finding a new form of prayer.