Review of First Reformed (2018) by Christopher G — 02 Jun 2018

There's a moment in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) - written by Paul Schrader - when Travis Bickle drops a fizzy antacid like Tums into a glass of water when he's sitting at the diner with his friends. The camera lingers on the fizz, either to symbolize the unraveling of Bickle's sanity or to at least add a note of dramatic tension to the story of the film.

There is a direct call back to this moment in First Reformed - written and directed by Paul Schrader - when Pastor Toller drops some Pepto Bismol into a glass of whiskey. At first I felt like I was taken out of the film because the choice they made was very unsubtle as an act of self-referential metanoiesis.

But at the same time, when the camera lingers on the chemical interaction of these two potentially toxic substances as they congealed and expanded on screen, it reminded me of a toxic oil spill destroying the planet, like a Deepwater Event Horizon that symbolized the unraveling of the sanity of the entire fucking goddamn motherfucking planet.

And I saw it. And it was good.

It is well known that Schrader was influenced by French cinema. He has gone on the record many times saying that the idea for Taxi Driver was taken directly from Robert Bresson's Pickpocket (1959). There is another unsubtle reference to Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest (1950) that I must admit had a profound impact on my own sanity. I won't be discussing the impact in detail because it's so personal. And I won't be discussing the unsubtle reference either because it's not in the trailer and explaining it at all would be a spoiler.

But let me just explain that while #DiaryofaCountryPriest took me three days to watch because it's slow, complicated and it's in French, I have a poster of it on my bathroom wall that I look at every time I sit on my throne of funny faces. I ordered it on Amazon and it shipped from somewhere in China and I patiently and lovingly waited for it and I plan to keep that poster somewhere on my wall wherever I move to forever and ever amen. That's how meaningful it is to me.

I don't think First Reformed will be among the greatest movies of all time. It's more of a #TenaciousD style tribute. But I look forward to seeing it again and again. I hope to own it on home video. I also look forward to hearing discussions about it on review podcasts and on many critics' year end Top Ten lists.

My only regret is not having a partner or even a friend to discuss it with. A number of people in the theater were looking at each other (including me) making the WTF gesture at the end. I contemplated inviting some of them to go out to dinner with me afterwards, but this sort of thing is just not done in my country. Hopefully others will see it with friends and have an even better time.

What an impressive American film. Kudos to @a24 for making this happen.

So sayeth the King of Funny Faces.