Paul Schrader

OH, CANADA: deathbed confession and so what?

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Photo caption: Richard Gere in OH, CANADA, Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

In Oh, Canada, Leonard Fife (Richard Gere) is a prominent documentarian who is dying, and one of his most successful former students (Michael Imperioli) is honoring him with a biodoc. When he is seated before an Errol Morris Interrotron, Fife demands that his wife Emma (Uma Thurman) take the position behind the camera so he can speak directly to her, and then takes over the filming with an unrestrained, blurted life story. It’s really a confession, and Leo has a lot to confess.

As Leo tells his life story, the young Leo is portrayed (mostly) by Jacob Elordi (Priscilla, Saltburn). Sometimes the older Gere shows up as the young Leo instead of Elordi, which reflects the muddling of Leo’s memory at this final stage of his life.

Besides his achievements as a filmmaker, Leo Fife has been revered as a principled American draft resister who fled to Canada to protest the Vietnam War. Leo reveals that his re-invention in Canada was anything but principled (and that Oh, Canada is a very ironic title). In fact, Leo’s adult life has been that of a weak and selfish man, a man who always takes the easy way, even if that means betrayal or thievery. It would be the life of a sociopath, except that sociopaths don’t feel guilt and the need to confess.

Oh, Canada is a Paul Schrader film. Schrader wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull., adapted The Last Temptation of Christ, wrote and directed American Gigolo and Affliction. All very good. All very dark.

Oh, Canada follows Schrader’s late-career, self-described ‘Man In A Room’ trilogy, following First Reformed and The Card Counter and Master Gardener  I would name it the “Man with a Code Seeks Redemption” trilogy. Likewise, Oh, Canada is about a man’s assessment of his life, but it’s not as good as the previous three, perhaps because Leo Fife never lived by a code, and it’s too late for redemption.

Oh, Canada is a searing portrait of a man confessing his sins, but too late to help anyone else, including those he has hurt. He might feel cleansed on his deathbed, but, so what?

In a nice touch, Fife’s protege shows himself to b just as vile as his mentor and visits one final indecency on Leo.

Gere and Thurman are solid. The Wife thought Jacob Elordi was appropriately smarmy, but I didn’t detect any hint of the self-loathing that the young Fife must have felt. Penelope Mitchell sparkles in a small role as an ambitious production assistant.

There’s one brilliant performance in Oh, Canada – that of Zach Shaffer as Leo’s long-abandoned adult son. Shaffer keeps his character contained in a highly charged situation, registering his emotional reaction only with his eyes. It’s a highly nuanced portrayal of a shattering experience.

I was constantly absorbed by Oh, Canada, as I learned who Leo Fife really was, but left the theater feeling indifferent.

MASTER GARDENER: anything but careless

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Photo caption: Joel Edgerton in MASTER GARDENER. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Paul Schrader’s deeply engrossing Master Gardener came out in late May, when my life was rich and complicated, so I’m just getting around to writing about it. Better late than never, because it’s a worthwhile watch.

Joel Edgerton plays Narvel, the titular manager of a grand estate’s extraordinary formal garden. Norma (Sigourney Weaver), the proprietor of the estate, has the means to keep Narval’s operation well-resourced and well-staffed. Narvel combines an encyclopedic knowledge of plants with a meticulous attention to detail. His team of year-round assistants respect him and buy into his leadership. It’s well-ordered, above all, and then Norma asks a “favor” of Narvel that he cannot refuse – to take on her troubled grandniece as an intern.

The grandniece, Maya (Quintessa Swindell), is a puddle of Gen X attitude, but she’s smart enough to know that she needs to put in the time, if not commit fully. Interestingly, Norma hasn’t had a conversation with Maya since she’s grown into adulthood, and puts off their first conversation until well into the internship. Norma is judgy, and didn’t approve of Maya’s late mother. Norma also relishes her power over Maya, Narvel and everyone- and chooses the time and place of each social engagement.

But, back to Narvel – why is he so exacting in his standards, work ethic and expectations of his team? Is he a martinet, a petty tyrant of flowers and mulch? Does he lack perspective, like The Caine Mutiny’s Captain Queeg consumed by the missing strawberries?

It turns out that Narvel has a past.. A shocking past. And running an estate’s formal garden is the last place you would have expected him to be. There were consequences for the bad decisions in Narvel’s previous life, and those consequences are irreversible. Narvel, far more than others, understands how circumstances and events can change lives forever. That’s why he faces every situation so deliberately. He is anything but careless.

Maya, however, has lived a careless life, and her past threatens all of them. In his bad past, Narvel developed skills that equip him face violence now. And now, facing Maya’s problems, he finds a long-denied chance for redemption.

Quintessa Swindell and Joel Edgerton in MASTER GARDENER. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

The cast is excellent. Edgerton is prefect as a contained man whose regrets power his discipline and determination – and harnesses his determination so as not to lose a second chance. Sigourney Weaver also wonderfully nails the emotional remoteness of Norma, who is also very contained – until she lapses into a Queen of Hearts caprice. Quintessa Swindell, who I hadn’t seen before, is charismatic, and takes her Maya from an apathetic insouciance to someone who has learned, for the first time, what being fully committed really is.

Master Gardener is a Paul Schrader film. Schrader wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull., adapted The Last Temptation of Christ, wrote and directed American Gigolo and Affliction. All very good. All very dark.

Master Gardener is the third movie in Schrader’s late-career, self-described ‘Man In A Room’ trilogy, following First Reformed and The Card Counter. I would name it the “Man with a Code Seeks Redemption” trilogy. When I wrote about The Card Counter, my subtitle was “a loner, his code and his past” – and that would work for Master Gardener, too.

Master Gardener is now available to stream on Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox. As readers have come to expect, I’ve included the trailer below, but I recommend that you don’t watch it because of spoilers; the story is much more impactful when the plot elements unspool as Schrader intended.

THE CARD COUNTER: a loner, his code and his past

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Photo caption: Oscar Isaac in THE CARD COUNTER. Photo courtesy of Focus Features / ©2021 Focus Features, LLC

Oscar Isaac stars in Card Counter, Paul Schrader’s dark portrait of a highly disciplined loner who lives by a code but can’t submerge his past. Isaac’s character, improbably named William Tell, is a professional gambler, who lives in an endless string of motels and casinos.

The first thing we learn about William Tell is his rigid sense of self-discipline – in an OCD display of entering a new motel room and covering each piece of furniture in twine-bound sheets. This is an expert who can win free money at casinos, but resists winning too much, so he doesn’t get kicked out. He prefers anonymity to acclaim. More than anything, William Tell invests in keeping his head down.

It turns out that Tell has been traumatized by things he did as an army guard at Abu Ghraib – and the consequences. It’s no surprised that yet another solitary, emotionally damaged character has sprung from the dark mind of Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, First Reformed).

Oscar Isaac and Tye Sheridan in THE CARD COUNTER. Photo courtesy of Focus Features / ©2021 Focus Features, LLC

Above all, Tell is a man with a code. He meets a young man (Tye Sheridan), also haunted by the aftereffect of Abu Ghraib, who is consumed by a revenge fantasy. Although Tell avoids social entanglements, he is compelled to save the kid from himself.

Although most of The Card Counter takes place in casinos, it’s really not gambling movie. There is some card play and some gaming procedure. This is a character-driven story – and it’s not about who wins or how much. Schrader playfully hints at a big poker showdown, but it’s a red herring.

The role of this intense and obsessive man is perfect for Oscar Isaac and his piercing gaze. I usually don’t warm to Isaac, although he has been proficient in some films that I love: Ex Machina, The Two Faces of January. Maybe I don’t see a sense of humor in there? Anyway, he is stellar here.

Tye Sheridan is excellent as the young man bent on revenge. Tiffany Haddish plays a woman who runs a stable of professional gamblers and lives off her emotional intelligence; it’s a delight every time she is on-screen. The great Willem Dafoe appears in a brief but pivotal role.

I haven’t ever seen a movie character like William Tell, which makes The Card Counter an excellent watch.

FIRST REFORMED: how bleak can we go?

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Ethan Hawke in FIRST REFORMED

In the emotionally bleak psychological drama First Reformed, Ethan Hawke plays Toller, the clergyman in charge of a historic church with about ten parishioners. The church survives as the museum-and-gift-shop arm of a modern megachurch helmed by Reverend Jeffers (Cedric the Entertainer billed as Cedric Kyles). Toller is a very troubled guy, who is consumed by a journalling project, which he says brings him no peace, but only self-pity. Toller is content to perform a weekly service and guide the odd tourist through the church.  That is all about to be disrupted by the church’s upcoming 250-year anniversary celebration, which Toller dreads.

Toller is asked by one of his tiny flock (Amanda Seyfried) to counsel her very depressed husband (Phillip Ettinger).  Few understand depression as well as Toller, who, we learn, has joined the church because of a grievous family loss.  He is also obsessively thinking and over-thinking a crisis, not so much of faith, but of purpose.  And, it is revealed that Toller is in physical pain from a very menacing medical condition.

Toller tells the young husband that balancing hope and despair is life itself.  Indeed, most of First Reformed focuses on the despair.  As First Reformed gets darker and darker, it become more and more intense, all the way up to a ticking bomb of a thriller ending.  The ending is such a squirm-in-your-seat nail-biter that it’s hard to watch, but the payoff is worth it.

Amanda Seyfried in FIRST REFORMED

Writer-director Paul Schrader, has created a serious work of art in First Reformed.  It is a very still movie with a very spare soundtrack.  The aspect of the frame is squarish and sometimes square.  Everything about First Reformed is distilled down to its concentrated core.  Schrader wrote Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ, and directed Affliction and Auto Focus.  So he is no stranger to plumbing the depths of human internal crises.

Ethan Hawke is excellent as Toller.  Hawke’s performances are usually fidgety.  Not here.  Hawke is notable for his stillness as he plays a man who flings himself into reflection and away from social entanglements.

The supporting performances are superb: Amanda Seyfried, Cedric the Entertainer, Bill Hoag as Toller’s lay assistant and Victoria Hill as the woman who wants to rekindle a connection that Toller doesn’t have the emotional capacity for.  All are suitably understated; this movie is so stripped-down to concentrate on the profound, there’s just no room for a Big Performance.

Phillip Ettinger is wonderful as the depressed young husband.  This is a smart, committed and sensitive character who isn’t at all wrong – he’s just obsessing and going off the rails.

Who can be saved from despairing at the human condition? And what does it take?  First Reformed provides an answer in its exceptionally powerful ending.