Ethan Hawke plays Reverend Ernst Toller a middle-aged parish pastor at a small Dutch Reform church in New York. It has a illustrious past, once a stop on the Underground Railroad. Now the congregation is shrinking and the new church, Abundant Life, is bright and shiny and boasts 5,000 congregants. When a pregnant parishioner asks Reverend Toller to counsel her radical environmentalist husband, Toller is hurled into a crisis, “until he finds redemption in an act of grandiose violence.” From celebrated writer-director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver and American Gigolo). First Reformed is a real thriller! Amherst Cinema, 29 Amity St., Amherst.
Pick of the Day 6/11: First Reformed
