First Reformed

This was an amazing weekend in my movie-watching experience. High off of the masterful oddity that is Paul Schrader’s Mishima, I was eager to follow it up with this. So I did, and I am devastated. Such a soul-trembling experience. This film explores globally impactful problems on the personal, intimate plane, and Hawke’s raw vulnerability sells it so deeply. Each technical and writing decision by Schrader truly was the best fit for the film. I can’t fathom a better execution all around. The dialogue was infused with potent questioning of faith and identity as Toller gives into obsessive nihilism. How can one bear the bleak rationale which only consumes, fueled by unanswerable questions? The twisted perception of the world which you loathe yourself for possessing? I loved the ending’s ambivalence because the solution to such despair is not cut and dry. First Reformed acknowledges the individuality of mental struggle in a truly admirable and executively stunning manner. 96/100 I will now retire into an existential coma for the next week.