Despite having a career spanning almost 50 years, many people director and writer Paul Schrader as maybe a one or two hit wonder. Those wonders being the writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.
For me, I can kind of agree. However, I did rather enjoy one of his most recent features, First Reformed.
As for his latest feature, with an intriguing story and a fairly strong cast list, this had a lot of promise.
The first two acts are pretty solid. The lead character is engaging, has enough of a backstory to give you an idea of where this film is heading. Plus, the writing style felt almost like a poor man's Nightcrawler. There were even some interesting of camera lenses used for certain flashback scenes.
However, the final act seems to go off the rails. The build-up was all there, and then we suddenly skip a lot just to get to some sort of ending.
Oscar Isaac was pretty good in the lead, had a strong screen presence and gave us a very interesting character. The support from Tiffany Hadfish and Tye Sheridan was solid enough to be memorable.
But despite these positives, the execution of the final act left a bittersweet taste as I left the screening.
This was still just about passable in the end. The background and set-up is covered fairly well enough to give us an idea where this story is going. But the execution of the final act felt surprisingly rushed, felt as if the missing pieces were left on the cutting room floor and choices were made that felt out of character for me.
I guess Schrader is still searching for his next Taxi Driver or Raging Bull.
Rating: 7/10
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