WED, JUNE 27, 9p:
Miami Beach Premiere Engagement!
FIRST REFORMED
Directed by Paul Schrader/2018/1hr, 48mins.
Starring Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, and Cedric Kyles
Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is a solitary, middle-aged parish pastor at a small Dutch Reform church in upstate New York on the cusp of celebrating its 250th anniversary. Once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the church is now a tourist attraction catering to a dwindling congregation, eclipsed by its nearby parent church, Abundant Life, with its sraedtate-of-the-art facilities and 5,000-strong flock. When a pregnant parishioner (Amanda Seyfried) asks Reverend Toller to counsel her husband, a radical environmentalist, the clerergyman finds himself plunged into his own tormented past, and equally despairing future, until he finds redemption in an act of grandiose violence. From writer-director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver; American Gigolo; Affliction) comes a gripping thriller about a crisis of faith that is at once personal, political, and planetary.
WINNER: Venice Film Festival Green Drop Award
Official Selection: Venice, Toronto, Telluride, New York, Miami Film Fests
“A FIERCE FILM FROM PAUL SCHRADER, ONE OF THE CRUCIAL CREATORS OF THE MODERN CINEMA”-Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“Ethan Hawke is galvanizing in a part he was born to play”-Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
“AN ASTONISHING OTHER WORLDLY VISION”-Keith Uhlich, Slant
