Master Gardener

Master Gardener supposedly has a contemporary setting. Yet it feels out of time, or belonging to a long gone era. Part of that is the profession of its lead character, and part is Mrs. Haverhill. Both seem like relics from another time and place.

The scale of ideas is big. American social and racial frictions are entertainingly engaged as we work our way towards a shoot-em-up denouement. At 76, more than 20 films into his storied career, Paul Schrader can still deliver a sucker punch.

Paul Schrader wants me to forgive [this character]. No, I don't forgive him. And this is just sloppy filmmaking.

I wish Master Gardener had the wit and courage of Schrader ’s earlier works, instead of relying on some half-baked ideas about masculinity, race and age-gap romance

The weakest of Schrader’s stories foregrounding strong, silent, troubled men.

The atmosphere is initially alluring yet, as the violence begins, this becomes not the film you'd naturally expect or desire — a stiff, stilted drama.

What sets Master Gardener apart is its overwhelming tenderness.

This film simmers with the horticultural potential for violence, just as a seed waits for the right conditions to explode into a plant … But I found it strangely – touchingly – optimistic.

Shrader's rigorous compositions, dense atmospheres, and the specific weight of his reflections are unusual within the abundantly conventional cinema produced in his country. [Full review in Spanish]

A story of redemption. [Full review in Spanish]