First Reformed

A pastor fears for the future of our environment

It needs to be stated at the outset that this is a relentlessly dark movie. It's also strangely beautiful, challenging and gripping, with excellent performances all around. Ethan Hawke plays a lonely, grieving pastor at a small-town church in upstate New York. When a parishioner reaches out to him about her husband, an activist obsessed with climate change, he tries to counsel the man, but instead finds himself drawn into a similar obsession with coming environmental peril. The movie hinges on Ethan Hawke's elegant, restrained portrayal of a principled but tortured soul in the midst of a profound crisis.