master of puppets

Is 'Master Gardener' Another Paul Schrader Success? Here's What The Reviews Say

Is 'Master Gardener' Another Paul Schrader Success? Here's What The Reviews Say
You've seen "Taxi Driver" and "First Reformed," and maybe "The Card Counter." Now, here's another film in the same vein about an angry man lashing out at a society that's changing underneath his feet.
· 5.1k reads ·
· ·

Paul Schrader is a legendary (and problematic) writer director known for a very particular type of movie. That movie is more or less "disgruntled white male lashes out at his surroundings because he is insecure/upset/ill/racist/sexist or has trauma from a war." They're often violent, vulgar, politically incorrect and feature one hell of a performance by a lead actor (Robert De Niro, Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, etcetera).

His latest, and hopefully not last, film is "Master Gardener," which stars Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver. A lot of the reviews were good, but most of them noted the film's on-the-nose metaphor: a garden having roots that need weeding out in the same way the protagonist's past sins must be.

"Master Gardener" comes out May 19, 2023. Here's what critics have to say about the drama.


What it's about

Joel Edgerton plays a horticulturist with a dark history who mentors the mixed-race grand niece of his stern benefactor, leading to a domino effect of violence, mercy, and unearthed secrets.

[IGN]

As in his best films, not much seems to be happening, but there’s a wealth of mystery and psychodrama beneath the surface. Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) is the head gardener for an estate owned by Mrs. Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver). Everything about the lonely Narvel is self-consciously austere and fastidious. He sits at a wooden desk, a glass of water by his side, and writes into, natch, a journal. Mostly he describes flowers and the histories of gardens, offering this inside baseball with a rueful confidence that’s weirdly hypnotic. Filmmakers often undervalue the appeal of unconventional texture in a narrative, of telling us how things we don’t know about work. Narvel’s flower reveries speak of his hard-won victory over past chaos, and Schrader’s tight and elegant framing, heavy on unemphatic medium shots, mirrors Narvel’s tough, unadorned prose and deliberate diction.

[Slant]

At this point in his career, Paul Schrader ("First Reformed") is simply working from a template: a man in his 40s with a murky past seeks redemption. He has a unique profession. He will define his life by that profession. He will journal about his profession. A younger outsider will disturb his small, hidden life. When times start to get tough he will question why he even journals anymore because it no longer helps him process his (now disturbed) rules and order. And through the outsider, the potential for violence will bubble to the surface, carrying with it a shot at personal redemption.

[Collider]


Joel Edgerton puts the film on his back, literally

So it’s a jolt when, not far into proceedings, Narvel removes his unassuming uniform to unveil a back and torso slathered in neo-Nazi tattoos, sundry skulls and swastikas betraying his now-renounced past as a hitman for a white supremacist gang. Pretty much all that follows in "Master Gardener" is built around this brief, arresting reveal, later repeated in more loaded personal circumstances. The tension between who he was and who he is — if the name "Narvel Roth" sounds hardly real, well, it hardly is — powers Edgerton’s taut, contained, unsmiling performance, which in turn is the film’s most live, unpredictable element. External tension, in the increasingly silly revenge tale that ensues, is harder to come by.

[Variety]

For those of us who have been paying attention to the work of Australian actor Joel Edgerton, it is no surprise that he is absolutely phenomenal in the role. Schrader’s knack for complicated anti-heroes, which arguably apexed in the 1970s when he wrote "Taxi Driver" and made his directorial debut in "Blue Collar," is an archetype Edgerton was clearly born to play. Schrader has continued to give contemporary stars like Ethan Hawke, Oscar Isaac, and now Edgerton a chance to show off the wide range of their abilities, able to remain wholly human while performing deep wells of inner turmoil and hard-earned redemption.

[IndieWire]

Edgerton proves incredibly skillful at pulling off the taciturn brooding necessary to pull off the festering introspection of a Schrader antihero. Unlike Oscar Isaac, whose chilly reserve in last year's "The Card Counter" could come across as slick, there's no such slickness from Narvel. His stone-faced stoicism reflects the steeled heart and focused mind guiding his ascetic attitudes.

[Slashfilm]


This type of film doesn't work for everyone

A charitable reading of "Master Gardener" would be to say that it feels unfinished and unformed — that there might be something here with another pass at the script or a different cast. (Edgerton particularly seems unsure of how to play one of Schrader’s lonely powder kegs.) There isn’t a believable moment between Edgerton and Swindell, whose dialogue is almost always aimed at the audience rather than each other. Envisioned and employed as heavy symbols — especially during an icky, body-baring sex scene, in which her naked love conquers his tattooed hate — these characters fail to register as people. (Sigourney Weaver also appears as the garden estate’s horny benefactress and it’s as if she dropped in from some campy hothouse melodrama.)

[Larson on Film]

Let's just say that Schrader's "Master Gardener" reuses this template again without offering much of anything new or different. I was constantly amused by the many quips and witty bits of dialogue throughout, proving that Schrader is a much better writer than director. He is much more attuned to what's on the page and the words within the script. His visual language is fine, but it's not impressive or memorable in any way. All his shots of flowers and the garden and driving around are unmemorable and don't have any distinct style or look to them. This doesn't get in the way of the storytelling, but it also doesn't enhance it in any specific way either. Some viewers may find themselves moved more by the story than the visuals, while others will find the story dull and without any visuals to give it something more, the film won't be that impressive.

[First Showing]

Remarkably candid, Schrader said that the time he spent making "Master Gardener" was fraught with health issues, leaving him believing it would be his last film up until a very recent uptick in health. If it were his last, it’d be a fine one to go out on: Tender, tense, contemplative and somehow still in your face. But lucky for us, there’s more Schrader in the oven.

[Paste]


TL;DR

But the director’s quintessentially religious vision of transgression and forgiveness never builds the necessary dramatic truth here to warrant much reflection.

[Hollywood Reporter]

Maybe "Master Gardener" is just some old white guy minimizing racism as malleable character flaw (in the individual and in the body politic).

[Vanity Fair]

In the end, "Master Gardener" is ripe with seeds of ideas on the verge of blossoming into something beguiling, maybe even generously healing. What a way for Schrader to close the loop on his long line of tortured men.

[The Wrap]


Watch the trailer:


Comments


Cut Through The Chaos With Digg Edition

Sign up for Digg's daily morning newsletter to get the most interesting stories. Sent every morning.