Details, credits, errata: This week’s movie is Paul Schrader’s 2018 romcom First Reformed, a feel-good romp about a fish-out-of-water preacher (Ethan Hawke) in the New York exurbs who finds his faith tested by a beautiful widow (Amanda Seyfried), a conniving businessman (Michael Gaston) and a bumptious supervisor (Cedric the Entertainer). Just kidding, it’s devastating. But it’s very good. Here’s Alissa’s marvelous interview with Schrader, a masterly director and screenwriter with his own eccentric and thoughtful vision of both the world and our mutual faith. We love him. Paul: We love you.
Our lead image is a promo card for The Velocipastor, a film Sam hopes one day to trick Alissa into watching.
Our theme song is Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5’s Muskrat Ramble, made freely available by the Boston Public Library and audio engineering shop George Blood, LP through the Internet Archive. First Reformed is copyright 2018 A24. Brief audio excerpts are used herein for purposes of review and no other copyright is intended or implied. The lead image on this post is courtesy of Amazon. All other material is copyright 2021 Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson.
Episode 26: Taxi Pastor