GFU: December 2018

Look at that lamp shade... so sloppy. I liked Schrader for his work with Bret Easton Ellis.

Paul Schrader; bless this man for being the only one to say yes when Ellis submitted his script for "The Canyons." Another Ellis masterpiece, although the casting of Deene kinda ruined it- really.

So I had been a huge fan: Cat People, Affliction, Dominion, well, not Dominion although the effects looked like they were only added to get the dvd released. For those who don't know, Dominion was the original Exoricst prequal produced by James Robinson's Morgan Creek Prods (w/ Warner disty). it was so soft, they hired Renny Harlin to come in and re-shoot the entire thing keeping only Stellan Skargaard (great actor) and that British commander w/ the butterfly fetish, okay , maybe a few more. I like Robinson for this. Dominion, by Schrader, was soft, and you could see how bad the make-up was. "Beginning," by Harlin,turned out okay.

Then caME FIRST REFORMED. At first, I loved the well tight, careful, and simple structure and approach. I give Hawke the Oscar for that scene in the doctor’s office- when asked about his bowels. There are some great lines of dialogue here, including: “I think you need to take a step back. Look at yourself before you start to judge others.” Being one of my favorites ( Balq). He beats J –P easy (You Were Never Really Here) BUT THEN came the sloppy, over the top ILLUMINATI – FREE MASON POWER SYMBOLS AND SYMBOLISM.

The 9/11 subliminal pissed me off. Why is he putting that in here- AND WHAT DOES HE KNOW?

Hawke gets mentioned here, too. He was in that room with the bullsh*t eye ball lamp- it is the room, not in the room. He needs to answer, too.

Now, we know Kubrick went so far to have the eye-ball , all seeing eye of the devil ( satan has one eye, hence all the one eye scenes in films) being clipped from the tip of the pyramid on “clock work “ posters. Plus, he glued eye balls on each of Malcolm’s cuffs surrounded by blood. Kubrick did this with taste, style, not sloppy, drunken ridiculousness.

Let’s take a look at First Reformed, a/k/a The Film with the Laptop that Does Not Need a Power Cord or Charge. Amazing tech in this film.

So realistic how, only after an hour meeting with a parishioner, Hawke’s goes from being an admirable, charitable, faith toting reverend who can draw crowds at a landmark without an organ, to a radical environmental climate change militant hell bent on death to the community. Cedric the Entertainer, I’d like to see him get a supporting aCtor nod.

Pyramids. Standard fare. You’ll find them ay all churches. Schrader stops the camera here and lets it stick for likely 33 seconds to let the pyramid imagery reflecting our society soak in. Oh how lovely.

33 - His son will be aged 33 – also the highest Free Mason Level- where the supah powah be at , yo! YOU WILL FIND THIS NUMBER IN MOST ALL FILMS. IT IS REQUIRED TRIBUTE.

jUST A side note here- notice the cgi at play here. There's no way , especially in New York, all that space would be blank. In fact, that banner carries the diner's real name, speciality dishes, and phone number+ more! Schrader wipes it away, puts in a fake "Millies" sign and he almost got us! Notice the white glow on the left- you can see how it was edited.

OMG – Look at that lampshade.

As Michael Caine says in "The Man Who would Be King," "The all-seeing eye of God, err Satan." I wish he could've been a bit more creative. Hawke plays the fool, letting this fly by.