2017 · Paul Schrader · 113 min · Drama
First Reformed is a devastating meditation on faith, guilt, and environmental despair that features one of Ethan Hawke's finest performances and marks Paul Schrader's triumphant return to the kind of tortured-soul cinema he helped define.
1997 · Andrew Niccol · 106 min · Sci-Fi / Drama / Thriller
Gattaca turned a modest budget and a bold premise into one of the most prescient science fiction films of the 1990s. Andrew Niccol's directorial debut asked what happens when society decides your DNA is your destiny, and the answer still resonates decades later. Ethan Hawke and Jude Law carry the emotional weight with precision, the visual design remains striking, and the central theme only grows more relevant as genetic science advances. A romance that never fully connects and a murder subplot that clutters the middle act hold it back from greatness. But the core idea, a man refusing to accept that his genes define his limits, lands with a quiet power that most big-budget sci-fi never achieves.
2014 · Richard Linklater · 165 min · Drama
Boyhood's 12-year filming experiment transforms a quiet family story into something that feels less like watching a movie and more like watching life itself unfold.