First Reformed

It’s been almost two years since I first watched this, not knowing Paul Schrader whatsoever but more importantly, knowing absolutely nothing regarding slow/transcendental cinema. While I feel like I still don’t fully grasp both ideas, watching Tarkovsky, Weerasethakul, Bresson, Tarr, and Diaz films over the past year has been an incredibly eye opening experience The choice to use 4:3 along with shooting digitally creates a look so specific to this film. The images appear so smooth yet are layered so well. I am aware Schrader has studied the idea of transcendental style and I intend to read his book because what he accomplishes in First Reformed is nothing short of immaculate