"FIRST REFORMED".........GET HIM TO THE CHURCH ON TIME......

First Reformed (2017)    Too bad 'Apocalypse Now' is already taken as a title........

                  If ever a movie earned that monicker, it's this one.......

                  The recently announced Golden Globe nominations snubbed Ethan Hawke's performance  in this film........probably the best, most gut-wrenching piece of acting you'll see in this or any other year.......

                   Seriously, who gives one infinitesimal damn about the Golden Gloves......which we all watch only to see celebrities wash enough booze down their gullets to say potentially embarrassing stupid things in public.......

                    Anybody remember who won Golden Globes last year? Anybody? Anybody?  Buellher?
Buellher?..........we thought so.

                     But we digress......back to "First Reformed" another excruciating examination of a soul in torment from the master of such stories, Paul Schrader ("Taxi Driver").

                      Yes, all film buffs know how much the weight of God and religion hang heavily over Schrader's work, coming from his strict Calvinist upbringing.  So it was only a matter of time before he presented us with the character of minister Ernst Toller (Hawke) a  literally bedeviled Pastor forced into a moral crossroad by a member of his miniscule flock. (Amanda Seyfried).

                    Never one to shy away from over-the-top melodrama, Schrader piles on the misery.....even before an eco-warrior's explosive suicide vest falls into Toller's perplexed possession, he's already afflicted with a tragic family backstory, alcoholism, and the ever increasing agony of a yet to be diagnosed cancer.

                    He doesn't need nailing to a cross......not when he's already pissing blood......

                    Into this woeful stew the film mixes in global warming and the continued rape of the earth by greedy corporate plunderers.........one of whom, a Trumpian sleaze, finances Pastor Toller's little church, a sparsely attended historic tourist stop.

                     Schrader prepares you for a spectacular 'Taxi Driver' type finale.........and we won't dare say another word about it at this point. You need to experience the film for yourselves......

                   We don't know what to make of the overheated plot complications.........but we loved all the fearless, bold moves Schrader takes, referencing everything from '2001' to 'The Scarlet Letter'. Not sure if any of this crazy stuff works as drama, but Hawke makes you believe by the sheer force of his talent

                    And even if"First Reformed" and its strange twists risk becoming borderline silly, no one can deny the raw power of Ethan Hawke's performance. He's a walking, talking open wound......and you can't look away, no matter how much you want to.........

                     3 stars (***), all of them for Hawke.....and he'll have us praying devoutly for a well-deserved Best Actor Academy Award.