First Reformed is a bleak, punishing movie and the furthest thing imaginable from an easy crowdpleaser. But Hawke juices it with an austere sense of grace.

The film is a cry of rage against the polluters and corrupters who, Schrader contends, are destroying the planet, as well as against the commercialisation of the churches and the growth of terrorism.

They are weird moments of almost hypnotic transcendence, but at the center of it is that tortured God's lonely man character perfectly embodied by Ethan Hawke.

Screenwriter and director Paul Schrader was very precise and meticulous in how the film was constructed, and its relentless success of static shots, perfectly framed, evinces both a sense of horror and a sense of calm at the same time.