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| Scene from First Reformed |
In case you didn't know, A24 is one of the great purveyors of modern cinema. Since 2013, the studio has found a way to innovate independent cinema by turning each release into an event. As a result, A24 A-to-Z will be an ongoing series that looks at every release from the studio by analyzing its production history, release, criticisms, and any awards attention that it might've received. Join me on a quest to explore the modern heroes of cinema by exploring every hit and miss that comes with that magnificent logo. They may not all be great, but they more than make A24 what it is and what it will hopefully continue to be for years to come.
Released: May 18, 2018
Release Number: 65
Directed By: Paul Schrader
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric the Entertainer
Plot: A minister of a small congregation in upstate New York grapples with mounting despair brought on by tragedy, worldly concerns and a tormented past.
Major Awards:
Oscars:
Nominations
-Best Original Screenplay
There was a lot of expectations with the previous A24 film Backstabbing for Beginners. It was to be a political thriller that featured the people who changed history. However, it ended up falling short of any true goal and left the studio looking for another hit. While it deals with global warming as opposed to political paranoia, director Paul Schrader's First Reformed is a film that not only played very well into its themes, it became the one critically acclaimed A24 movie to make it to Oscar night. It came at the cost of controversy from its creator, whose Facebook rants lead to the studio revoking his account. Still, it was a film that was dour in all of the right ways and played into the desires of the moment in just the right ways. It may have not been the studio's only surprise hit, but it was the only one to make more than a few Top 10 lists.
The story begins with Schrader's own sorrow. As he has grown older, he has become more concerned about global warming. His fear of the world has to lead him to contemplate making a film that would reflect just how cynical he views the world. With strong inspiration from the Robert Bresson film The Diary of a Country Priest, which also focused on existential dread. The first draft even shared the same ending before slowly developing into something more complex and original. He would come up with three endings, including the one used in the film, that featured central priest Toller blowing up the church or causing harm to the institution. He settled on an ending that would be full of ambiguity and was maybe one of the more unsettling that he could've gone with.
Schrader would decide to go with Ethan Hawke as Toller because he believed that he embodied a certain kind of actor who could portray the despair in his face. He also cast Amanda Seyfried, who was cast while pregnant. Due to this factor, Schrader wrote her condition into the script. He also cast Cedric the Entertainer, who made the rare occasion to be listed in the cast as Cedric Kyles, if just for the prestige. As far as influences go, he claimed that he wanted to be different from what he had done before. Among the directors, he had chosen as influences were Ingmar Bergman, Bresson, and Andrei Tarkovsky. He would also shoot in 4:3 aspect ratio to help create claustrophobia for actors that Schrader felt added to the film. This was an idea he felt inspired by director Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida. The church scenes were shot in Douglaston, Queens. It was shot in 20 days for a budget of $3.5 million. During editing, Schrader noticed a lot of parallels to Taxi Driver, of which he had written decades earlier and reflected the story of a despaired loner seeking solace in the world.
The film would premiere at the 74th Venice Film Festival. In September 2017, A24 would acquire the rights to the film and would premiere in May of the following year. It was followed up with a lot of positive buzz with many praising Schrader's script and Hawke's performances. This was met with some of the director's best box office, including a gross of $38 million, which was higher than the budget. A24 also released on their A24 Podcast an interview that Schrader made with The Bling Ring director Sofia Coppola to help promote the film. While the podcast had some talk about the film, it was more of a celebration of Schrader's career and his relationship with Coppola and her father. Due to the May release, it had a long way to go to get to Oscar nominations, which didn't seem so certain compared to other bigger films like Eighth Grade from that year.
Schrader and Hawke were very vocal in the months following the film's release. Among the more controversial conversations that Hawke had was his thoughts on superhero movies. When discussing the modern trend, he claimed that films like Logan were great superhero movies, but they couldn't compare to the work of Ingmar Bergman or Robert Bresson. They weren't great cinema. It lead many to try and scrutinize his career, though Hawke has generally been good at not taking paycheck roles that would contradict this. On the flip side was Schrader, who wrote profusely on his Facebook about his thoughts on Kevin Spacey. He wanted to work with the defamed actor. This move received such negative backlash due to Spacey's sexual harassment allegations that A24 threatened to take away Schrader's Facebook page for the rest of the awards season. It was also discussed openly that if Schrader was nominated, he would be receiving his first Oscar nomination for a career that should've had a half dozen more.
The film would receive some of A24's highest reviews of the year. It would receive a 93% on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Hannah Woodhead of Little White Lies lead the acclaim by arguing "Is it too early to call this Schrader's masterpiece?" Cary Darling of Houston Chronicle continued the raves by saying "The latest film from pugnacious director/writer Paul Schrader is as austere and revelatory as a church confessional...It's a bleak portrait of a man in the midst of a spiritual breakdown that is only slightly undone by its rather unsatisfying conclusion." Jeff Beck of The Blu Spot was among those most critical when suggesting that "First Reformed ends up feeling like a film that needed another draft or two to help iron out the wrinkles in its main character's arc." Critics like IndieWire's David Ehrlich would also go on to put the film on their Top 10 of the year. The film would receive one Oscar nomination, Best Original Screenplay, for Schrader. It was his sole Oscar nomination, though he received plenty of acclaim on the way there, including a few Spirit Awards nominations. Still, upon losing the Oscar, Schrader returned to Facebook by suggesting "You can't compete with mediocrity." His cantankerousness remains to this day.
First Reformed was a film that saw a director at the top of his game, managing to challenge himself in significant ways. This would end up paying off, especially as the sole film from A24 to receive an Oscar nomination. While many others would be accused of being snubbed (including Hawke for Best Actor), Schrader's honor allowed the studio to keep their track record of being nominated almost every year for Oscars. The same couldn't be said for the next film, which saw the return of Elle Fanning to the world of A24, which seems to be her home away from home. With a story based off of Neil Gaiman and from the director of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the oddball alien movie felt like a film that was in the studio's wheelhouse, and it managed to definitely be weird, but whether or not it was successful was another matter altogether.
Up Next: "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" (2018)
Major Awards:
Oscars:
Nominations
-Best Original Screenplay
There was a lot of expectations with the previous A24 film Backstabbing for Beginners. It was to be a political thriller that featured the people who changed history. However, it ended up falling short of any true goal and left the studio looking for another hit. While it deals with global warming as opposed to political paranoia, director Paul Schrader's First Reformed is a film that not only played very well into its themes, it became the one critically acclaimed A24 movie to make it to Oscar night. It came at the cost of controversy from its creator, whose Facebook rants lead to the studio revoking his account. Still, it was a film that was dour in all of the right ways and played into the desires of the moment in just the right ways. It may have not been the studio's only surprise hit, but it was the only one to make more than a few Top 10 lists.
The story begins with Schrader's own sorrow. As he has grown older, he has become more concerned about global warming. His fear of the world has to lead him to contemplate making a film that would reflect just how cynical he views the world. With strong inspiration from the Robert Bresson film The Diary of a Country Priest, which also focused on existential dread. The first draft even shared the same ending before slowly developing into something more complex and original. He would come up with three endings, including the one used in the film, that featured central priest Toller blowing up the church or causing harm to the institution. He settled on an ending that would be full of ambiguity and was maybe one of the more unsettling that he could've gone with.
Schrader would decide to go with Ethan Hawke as Toller because he believed that he embodied a certain kind of actor who could portray the despair in his face. He also cast Amanda Seyfried, who was cast while pregnant. Due to this factor, Schrader wrote her condition into the script. He also cast Cedric the Entertainer, who made the rare occasion to be listed in the cast as Cedric Kyles, if just for the prestige. As far as influences go, he claimed that he wanted to be different from what he had done before. Among the directors, he had chosen as influences were Ingmar Bergman, Bresson, and Andrei Tarkovsky. He would also shoot in 4:3 aspect ratio to help create claustrophobia for actors that Schrader felt added to the film. This was an idea he felt inspired by director Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida. The church scenes were shot in Douglaston, Queens. It was shot in 20 days for a budget of $3.5 million. During editing, Schrader noticed a lot of parallels to Taxi Driver, of which he had written decades earlier and reflected the story of a despaired loner seeking solace in the world.
The film would premiere at the 74th Venice Film Festival. In September 2017, A24 would acquire the rights to the film and would premiere in May of the following year. It was followed up with a lot of positive buzz with many praising Schrader's script and Hawke's performances. This was met with some of the director's best box office, including a gross of $38 million, which was higher than the budget. A24 also released on their A24 Podcast an interview that Schrader made with The Bling Ring director Sofia Coppola to help promote the film. While the podcast had some talk about the film, it was more of a celebration of Schrader's career and his relationship with Coppola and her father. Due to the May release, it had a long way to go to get to Oscar nominations, which didn't seem so certain compared to other bigger films like Eighth Grade from that year.
Schrader and Hawke were very vocal in the months following the film's release. Among the more controversial conversations that Hawke had was his thoughts on superhero movies. When discussing the modern trend, he claimed that films like Logan were great superhero movies, but they couldn't compare to the work of Ingmar Bergman or Robert Bresson. They weren't great cinema. It lead many to try and scrutinize his career, though Hawke has generally been good at not taking paycheck roles that would contradict this. On the flip side was Schrader, who wrote profusely on his Facebook about his thoughts on Kevin Spacey. He wanted to work with the defamed actor. This move received such negative backlash due to Spacey's sexual harassment allegations that A24 threatened to take away Schrader's Facebook page for the rest of the awards season. It was also discussed openly that if Schrader was nominated, he would be receiving his first Oscar nomination for a career that should've had a half dozen more.
The film would receive some of A24's highest reviews of the year. It would receive a 93% on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Hannah Woodhead of Little White Lies lead the acclaim by arguing "Is it too early to call this Schrader's masterpiece?" Cary Darling of Houston Chronicle continued the raves by saying "The latest film from pugnacious director/writer Paul Schrader is as austere and revelatory as a church confessional...It's a bleak portrait of a man in the midst of a spiritual breakdown that is only slightly undone by its rather unsatisfying conclusion." Jeff Beck of The Blu Spot was among those most critical when suggesting that "First Reformed ends up feeling like a film that needed another draft or two to help iron out the wrinkles in its main character's arc." Critics like IndieWire's David Ehrlich would also go on to put the film on their Top 10 of the year. The film would receive one Oscar nomination, Best Original Screenplay, for Schrader. It was his sole Oscar nomination, though he received plenty of acclaim on the way there, including a few Spirit Awards nominations. Still, upon losing the Oscar, Schrader returned to Facebook by suggesting "You can't compete with mediocrity." His cantankerousness remains to this day.
First Reformed was a film that saw a director at the top of his game, managing to challenge himself in significant ways. This would end up paying off, especially as the sole film from A24 to receive an Oscar nomination. While many others would be accused of being snubbed (including Hawke for Best Actor), Schrader's honor allowed the studio to keep their track record of being nominated almost every year for Oscars. The same couldn't be said for the next film, which saw the return of Elle Fanning to the world of A24, which seems to be her home away from home. With a story based off of Neil Gaiman and from the director of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the oddball alien movie felt like a film that was in the studio's wheelhouse, and it managed to definitely be weird, but whether or not it was successful was another matter altogether.
Up Next: "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" (2018)
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