MOVIE - First Reformed

R (1:48)

Limited release May 18, 2018

Viewed Thursday evening, June 21, 2018 with Sandy at Carlisle Theater
IMBd:  7.7/10

RT Critic: 96   Audience:  70
Critic's Consensus:  Brought to life by delicate work from writer-director Paul Schrader and elevated by a standout performance by Ethan Hawke, First Reformed takes a sensitive and suspenseful look at weighty themes.

Cag:  How do you rate a movie like this?  Yes, I liked it....

Directed by  Paul Schrader

Studio A24

Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, 

My comments:  Holy shit, what did I just watch  What happens when you combine loneliness, despair, environmental issues, alcohol and religion? (and barbed wire, Drano, magical mystery tours, and holy roller, born again music...)  Well, watch this movie and you'll find out!  AND, what an ending!

RT/ IMDb Summary:  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 state-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 clergyman 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.

4. A Month of Sundays - Ruth White

2011, Margaret Ferguson Books, Farrar Straus Giroux
168 pgs.
Written for middle grades
Hmph.  Probably shouldn't rate it right now when I'm perturbed with the author.  What's wrong with having a feel-good book once in awhile?  It was like everything was turning out TOO well, so Ms. White decided to end it with a little tragedy.  It was an entirely enjoyable read all the way through until the last 10 pages.  I'm not happy.

Setting:  1957 Black River, Virgina.....Appalachia.
OSS:  When Garnet's mother goes to Florida to make a better life for the two of them, she leaves Garnet with an aunt and uncle that she's never known, finding that having a loving family is pretty special.
The title: Garnet accompanies her Aunt June each Sunday to a different area church while her aunt "searches for God." Good, suitable title.
1st sentence/s:  "Before I was born fourteen years ago, my dad, August Rose, left my mom, Betty Rose, for a carnival singer."

Garnet's unsuspecting aunt and uncle are kind to her, they are quite well off and Garnet has always been incredibly poor.  The grandfather ("Poppy") who never knew she existed is thrilled that he has a granddaughter, and she even finds a good-looking beau.  There's some good looks into what I've always considered "holy roller" churches, the laying of hands, speaking in tongues, tent revivals, baptism in the river, and even faith healing, but the reader is allowed to look and sample and think for themselves.  There's preaching but it's not preachy.

There are also some lines from some old familiar hymns quoted.  It's written so that I could, at times, put myself right into the kitchen with the rest of the family.  I liked it a lot.  Except for the last ten pages.  If there was going to be a tragedy, I would have liked it not thrown in at the very last minute, more towards the middle perhaps????  Darn, darn, darn.

12. What Would Emma Do? - Eileen Cook

For: YA
Published 2009
307 pgs.
Rating: 4
Finished: Feb. 15, 2009 in Las Vegas

A trade paperback that never came out in hard cover, is copyrighted 2009 AND already in the Pima Library at the end of January? This, in itself, is an oddity.

Another oddity - this is the second book in a row - totally unintentionally - that is about fervent Christian-right teenagers being caught as hippocrites, followers, liars - with the still fairthful but honest, THINKING teen being the protagonist.

Emma lives in a small town, Wheaton, Indiana, middle of America's heartland, middle of America's dairy farms, and splat in the middle of the midwestern Bible belt. Pastor Evers leads his Trinity Evangelical flock wihich includes a high school, the setting for this story. Darci Evers, his popular daughter, is the antagonist. Emma's two best friends - one, Colin, a young man that she's known and trusted since she was two, and the other, Joann, who is kind and trustworthy and always there for her, are now, as seniors in high school, a couple. Emma's single mom moved them from Chicago back to her hometown when Emma was young. And lastly, Emma is a runner - is on the track team - is really, really good and hoping for a full scholarship to Northwestern, which is the only way she knows she'll get to leave this small town that she hates.

So. The stage is set for the story. Short chapters. The beginning of each is an italicized "talk" that Emma has with God. Clever and thoughtful and very, very, very funny.

All of a sudden the crowd of popular girls start fainting and having seizures (just like late 17th century Salem, though that is never mentioned), to cover up a drinking/drug party that Darci Evers attended. It goes up and down from there - quickly and with continued humor that I greatly enjoyed.

The ending was disappointing. Build up, build up, drop fast. Darn! Another twenty pages of the kind of action and talk that took place in the rest of the book would have made this a five for me.

10. Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature - Robin Brande

For: YA/7-10
Published: 2007
Rating: 4.5
Finished: Feb. 8, 2009
265 pgs.

This was a grabber from the start. Mena has been totally ostracized by her friends, her pastor, AND her parents- even kicked out of her church. We know that she has written some sort of letter that is has gotten her into this hot water - her pastor and many of her ex-friends' families are being sued big-time. We only slowly get the story, which begins on her first day of freshman year. Not only is she ignored by the friends she grew up with - she is bullied and pushed around and embarrassed. And what these "devout" Christian kids do in the name of Jesus and God -- here, in black and white, is a story for young adults about some right-wing religious fanatics vs. open-minded thinkers. And we're talking right-wingers that don't read or watch anything that hints of magic or sorcery (think Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings) and tithe heavily.

Throw in an intriguing, off-beat biology teacher that's about to begin a unit on evolution, a cute, brainy - and male - science lab partner, and a dozen black lab puppies, and you have a story of how one girl begins to fight back, keeping her love of God and the Bible evenly balanced with good sense and creative thinking. Mena become Bible Grrrrl - so she doesn't cop out on her ideals, but shows her humanity. This is definitely a thought-provoking story, and not one that I've seen tackled quite in this way. I liked it a lot.