Touches You

Let's be realistic.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This movie was one of the most disjointed pieces of junk I have ever seen. It made no definite statements about religion, ecology, or any of the other subjects it brought up. It took both sides of every argument it presented, in an extremely pretentious manner.

We all (the educated world) know that climate change is man caused, and accellerating. There are clearly companies looking to profit from governments that look the other way to engage in atrocious acts that will eventually rend our planet unlivable. Regardless, using 30 minutes of a motion picture to constantly beat us over the head with that message doesn't let me enjoy an otherwise excellent movie. I get it, climate change sucks, and we should be doinging more to prevent it, but don't let that agenda ruin the chance at acheiving visionary cinema. The movie could have been a clear cut front runner for film of the year, however the politics make it a muddled quagmire. Since this was clearly their intention, I dropped it from 8 stars to 6.Regardless, despite the ignorant pandering that ruins an otherwise fine film, I would wholly recommend this to anyone that enjoys those good, slow burns, with a cinematic footprint striving to emulate kubrick. Fell free to visit the restroom during any of the Climate change lambasting sessions, you won't miss anything important.

A thought-provoking character study of a man tormented by his past, struggling with his present & concerned about the future, First Reformed sets itself up well over the course of its runtime with matters of religion & environment, only to throw it all away in the end.The story concerns a priest of a small congregation whose life spirals out of control after a meeting with a radical environmentalist & his pregnant wife as he soon finds himself grappling with mounting despair brought upon by tragedy, ecology worries & his own dark past.Directed by Paul Schrader, this is my first stint with his directorial efforts and for the most part, the film had my attention. The interplay between characters about lofty themes and how God comes into all of it is quite interesting. The questions it asks have no easy answers. And the central character is compelling too.But what began as a silent meditation on religion, ecology, corporate corruption & our own responsibilities deviates from its path in the next half and even when you come to terms with the sharp turn it took and are on board with where the plot is headed, the film throws another curveball by ending abruptly, leaving you feeling cheated.Ethan Hawke shines in his role by presenting a very nuanced portrait of a man still coping with his past before another tragedy strikes, the aftermath of which shakes his faith in humanity and compels him to take a drastic action. To further reflect his somber life is the muted colour palette while the brooding score brims with a hint of menace.On an overall scale, First Reformed begins on a promising note, manages to keep the interest alive in the middle segments but falls apart in the third act that's much different than what was expected from it and the abrupt cut to end credits feels like a cop-out. It's not the conclusion the film goes for but how it concludes is what irks here. In short, it required a proper closure.

For someone to say Ethan Hawke was born for this role must of lived a pretty morbid life. Yes I'm a fan of Ethan but this film will not be on his list of good films because this movie by no accounts was good.. The pace was horrible. Slow and sluggish. It takes 40 mins. for something to appear and once it does you can end it there nothing else happens.The acting was on par but I didn't see any on screen charisma the characters didn't seem like they meshed well. It could also be the dialogue because when characters star doing things out of character or changing their routines erratically it's hard to relate at all to what your watching. There isn't really much to talk about either with this film the cinematography was avg. Music was a few old hyms and a song written by a conspiracy theorist. There was one scene for special effects and the storyline seemed like it could of went somewhere but the writing was futile and had too many holes. The ending reaffirms my conclusion that this film lacked any mojo, for one whole minute they make you witness the most awkward kiss on screen at the end. All in all I give this a terrible time wasted rating at 3 for 'First Reformed' Ethan can't save this flick don't waste your time attending this funeral.