“I went to see Logan cause everyone was like, ‘This is a great movie’ and I was like, ‘Really?’”
Ethan Hawke is one of those great actors who has always flirted with the mainstream but would rather make some interesting indie movie than be in a blockbuster. Sure, he’s been in mainstream hits like Training Day, Sinister, and The Purge, but he’s still best known for critical darlings like Boyhood, the Before trilogy, and Gattaca.
And his latest film, First Reformed is probably the best thing he’s ever done, and maybe the best movie of the year. Directed by Paul Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Hawke stars as a troubled reverend of a small isolated church, whose life starts to unravel after the shocking death of one of his parishioners. It is a fantastically original and unpredictable movie, and Hawke definitely deserves an Oscar nomination for his performance.
Hawke has been doing interviews to promote the film – and some of his comments seemed to have ruffled a few feathers. In particular, his comments about Logan, the X-Men spin-off from last year where Hugh Jackman played Wolverine for the final time.
Many people loved that film – but in an interview with The Film Stage, Ethan Hawke said that he couldn’t believe that a superhero movie was being so revered.
“Now we have the problem that they tell us Logan is a great movie. Well, it’s a great superhero movie. It still involves people in tights with metal coming out of their hands,” Hawke explained. “It’s not [Robert] Bresson. It’s not [Ingmar] Bergman. But they talk about it like it is.
“I went to see Logan cause everyone was like, ‘This is a great movie’ and I was like, ‘Really? No, this is a fine superhero movie.’ There’s a difference but big business doesn’t think there’s a difference. Big business wants you to think that this is a great film because they wanna make money off of it.”
Understandably, this has provoked quite a lot of reaction.
I’m not mad at Ethan Hawke.
I’m mad at genre biases.
That’s how we get things like the “Best Popular Film” Oscar.
— Matt Neglia (@NextBestPicture) August 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/charles_kinbote/status/1033469707008004096
https://twitter.com/yahboyantman/status/1033421726351347714
https://twitter.com/Cinemixtape/status/1034174651889594368
All I can say is, thank God people are coming to the defense of a movie that made $600 million against a handsome actor who opted to spend his peak years making indie films & working with Richard Linklater.
— Scott Renshaw (@scottrenshaw) August 27, 2018
But seriously, go see First Reformed, you guys. It’s amazing.
