A pastor of a small church in upstate New York starts to spiral out of control after a soul-shaking encounter with an unstable environmental activist and his pregnant wife.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.8/10
IMDb: 7.1/10
Letterboxd: 4.03/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Metacritic: 86
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Paul Schrader
Production
Arclight Films, Omeira Studio Partners, Killer Films, Fibonacci Films, Big Indie Pictures
Cast
Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric the Entertainer, Victoria Hill, Philip Ettinger, Michael Gaston, Bill Hoag, Kristin Villanueva, Ingrid Kullberg-Bendz, Ken Forman, Christopher Dylan White, Frank Rodriguez, Gary Lee Mahmoud, Joseph Anthony Jerez, Sue Jean Kim, Miah Issabella Velasquez, Tyler Bourke, Natalie Woolams-Torres, Van Hansis, Ramon Nuñez
Where to watch
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix Standard with Ads, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A severe, intellectually charged spiritual crisis drama that blends environmental dread, moral anguish, and austere formal control. It’s demanding and sometimes deliberately uncomfortable, but the payoff is powerful for viewers who like films that turn inner collapse into a larger diagnosis of the world.
Best for
viewers who like slow-burn psychological dramas
fans of religious or spiritual crisis stories
people drawn to environmental anxiety and moral despair
audiences who appreciate rigorous, minimalist filmmaking
viewers interested in performances that feel tightly wound and internal
Skip if
you want a plot-driven thriller with clear catharsis
you dislike ambiguity or self-consciously severe art films
you prefer warm, hopeful, or emotionally easy dramas
you’re not in the mood for heavy themes about faith, guilt, and extinction
Overview
First Reformed is one of Paul Schrader’s most forceful late-career films, a grim, intimate study of faith under pressure. It follows a pastor whose private doubts and public responsibilities begin to collapse into each other after he’s confronted by environmental despair and human suffering that he can no longer keep at a distance.
Worth noting
What makes it so affecting is the discipline of the filmmaking: the spare framing, the controlled pacing, and the way every conversation feels like it’s pushing against a moral void. Ethan Hawke gives a remarkable performance, all restraint and corrosion, making the character’s unraveling feel both personal and emblematic.
Bottom line
This is not a comforting movie, and it doesn’t really want to be. It’s for viewers who like cinema that wrestles with guilt, belief, and the possibility that modern life has made spiritual language almost impossible to sustain. If that sounds like your kind of challenge, it’s essential viewing.
Top Letterboxd reviews
kai (4.5★) · 8048 likes
me: what the fuck was that
first reformed: Unit Production Manager
WILLIAM PERKINS
owen (4★) · 4992 likes
ARE YOU WASHED 😜👊🏼/||\_ _/¯ ¯\_
IN THE BLOOD 👋🏼 \ 😳 || \_ _/¯ ¯\_
IN THE SOUL-CLEANSING BLOOD OF THE LAMB 😜👊🏼/||\_ _/¯ ¯\_
Karsten (5★) · 3976 likes
If you liked this film the first time just wait till you watch it a fifth!
demi adejuyigbe (4.5★) · 3399 likes
can god forgive us for not nominating ethan hawke's performance?
i'm absolutely not doing it but just know that a big part of me wanted to write a will smith rap to this song over a remix of "are you washed in the blood"
Kevin Y (4★) · 3213 likes
Ethan Hawke straight up devoured every other Best Actor nominee and contender and now has to watch one of them win an Oscar. No wonder he spends the entire movie wondering what the hell is wrong with the world