First Reformed

First Reformed is a 2017 American psychological drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader. It stars Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, and Cedric Kyles, and follows a Protestant minister (Hawke) struggling with his faith while serving as pastor of a dwindling historic church in upstate New York. First Reformed was screened at the 74th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2017, and was released in the United States on May 18, 2018, by A24. The film was acclaimed by critics, who gave specific praise to Hawke's performance and Schrader's screenplay and direction. First Reformed was chosen by both the National Board of Review and American Film Institute as one of the top 10 films of 2018. Schrader's screenplay won at the Critics' Choice Awards, and was nominated at both the Independent Spirit Awards and the Academy Awards. At the Independent Spirit Awards, First Reformed also received nominations for Best Film, Best Director; it won Best Male Lead for Hawke. Plot Ernst Toller is the pastor of the First Reformed Church in Snowbridge, New York, who is struggling with a crisis of faith. The film opens with him writing down his thoughts in a journal, which he plans to keep for a year, and then destroy. The church is a 250-year-old Dutch Reformed Church and was once a stop on the Underground Railroad. It faces dwindling attendance, so the church has moved away from its historical focus on Calvinist theology and now serves mostly as a tourist attraction. Toller, a former military chaplain, is struggling with alcoholism and the death of his son Joseph, who was killed in the Iraq War. Toller seeks a deeper spiritual understanding through reading Roman Catholic writers (G. K. Chesterton and Thomas Merton) and mystical books (The Cloud of Unknowing). This leads him to seek support from Abundant Life, the evangelical megachurch in Albany that owns First Reformed.