X
- 2023
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
- 2023
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
Summary Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) is the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens. He is as much devoted to tending the grounds of this beautiful and historic estate, to pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager Mrs. Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver). When Mrs. Haverhill demands that he take on her wayward and troubled great-niece Maya (...
Directed By: Paul Schrader
Written By: Paul Schrader
- 2023
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
- 2023
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
Master Gardener
63
6.1
Where to Watch
Summary Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) is the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens. He is as much devoted to tending the grounds of this beautiful and historic estate, to pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager Mrs. Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver). When Mrs. Haverhill demands that he take on her wayward and troubled great-niece Maya (...
Directed By: Paul Schrader
Written By: Paul Schrader
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 45 Critic Reviews
63
64% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
33% Mixed
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
2% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 45 Critic Reviews
63
64% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
33% Mixed
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
2% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
At 76, more than 20 films into his storied career, Paul Schrader can still deliver a sucker punch.
There’s a fantasy element to Master Gardener that bolsters the movie’s convictions rather than weakening them.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 22 User Ratings
6.1
50% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
32% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
18% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 22 User Ratings
6.1
50% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
32% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
18% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
IN A NUTSHELL:
This drama was written and directed by Paul Schrader. It’s about a meticulous horticulturist who is devoted to tending the grounds of a beautiful estate and pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager. If you’re a fan of this director, you’ll recognize some of the common themes he uses in many of his films, yet the look and feel of this movie is quite different!
THINGS I LIKED:
The talented cast includes Sigourney Weaver, Joel Edgerton, Quintessa Swindell, and Esai Morales.
I love small details that underscore themes or subtle messages. For example, Joel Edgerton’s haircut was carefully designed to resemble the “**** Youth” haircut during World War II. Once we see his **** tattoos, we begin to understand the philosophy he’s fighting against in his own mind.
I hated the jellyfish wallpaper in the main house. That’s another example of an intentional detail that Paul Schrader included to make the viewer feel uneasy. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the director explained that he wanted to create a sense of coldness and that something is missing. Even the actors perform with that same wooden, empty sense that something is wrong.
The director used some creative camera angles that showed interesting perspectives.
In one scene, a character takes his shoes off and walks in the garden. He describes the healing process of nature. You can almost feel the dirt between his toes and his blood pressure lower.
If you love gardens, you’ll enjoy some beautiful ones in the movie. The descriptions of flowers and gardening are insightful metaphors of life.
Shout-out to Meals on Wheels charity. They do good work!
The song at the end of the movie was lovely.
The title of the movie has a double meaning. We know master gardeners to be people who have trained in a certification program as experts in horticulture. But the word “master” also connotes the **** philosophy that Aryans are the master race.
This is the kind of movie that people will skim over, saying it was just okay, but if you were told the deeper meaning behind the director’s intentional choices for various things, you would be much more impressed.
The color palette is pale and muted to allow the flowers and garden to pop. It also asks the question of whether a former drug addict and hater could ever see the true beauty in the world.
There isn’t any humor. It’s intentionally a drab existence except for the beauty of the garden.
THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
The ending wasn’t believable, especially considering Sigourney Weaver’s character.
Some viewers might get bored because it’s slow moving and they’ll wonder when something is going to happen. Look at this movie as a character study. Looking for all of the garden and flower metaphors should keep you busy.
TIPS FOR PARENTS:
Kids will be bored.
Profanity, including F-bombs
We see a man covered in tattoos.
Violence
Lots of talk of drug use and distribution
We see the silhouette of a naked man and woman.
We see a woman throw up and go through drug withdrawals. Yuck.
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¿PUEDEN LAS PERSONAS CAMBIAR PARA BIEN?
¿Nunca habéis reflexionado sobre vuestro pasado y os habéis sentido avergonzados o algo similar? Es decir, os fijáis y os sentís irreconocibles, es cómo sí fueras un tú muy diferente, pues sí, por ejemplo yo me veo como era antes y he pegado un cambio más que drástico, joder, menudo era yo, pues Narvel se siente así pero con un pasado más heavy, un pasado de ideología supremacista que le persigue a todas partes incluso físicamente, detrás, a sus espaldas, como la muerte, que nunca sabremos cuando llegará, de ahí el dicho ¿no?
Para nada soy experto en botánica, pero es un campo más que agradable, repleto de olores que apenas experimentamos en nuestro día a día; el vicio que da oler la tierra mojada, olerla de manera tan exagerada que parece que la estés esnifando, al igual que descalzarse y pisarla, y más maneras de disfrutar la botánica que seguro que dan alivio y colocón pero no puedo comentarlas ya que desconozco de su existencia. Mola ver una película así, cuando se vuelve todo bonito, espiritual y acogedor, y aprender de temas que desconoces pero siempre tiene que ocurrir algo, y más con Schrader, con un pasado deslizante, gamberro y tenebroso cómo el de este jardinero, cómo su apariencia: una mirada amenazante, agresiva… Y la verdad es que no me gustaría verle sin camiseta… Y a lo de “sin camiseta” me refiero más que nada a su pasado. Pero me interesan los personajes: la Sra Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), el jardinero (Joel Edgerton) y la sobrina nieta (Quintessa Swindell). Me conmueven, me encantaría saber más de sus pasados: ¿por qué ahora es jardinero después de todo lo que hizo? Y cuando aparecen las otras dos mujeres, la señora y la sobrina nieta, también quiero saber de ellas. Schrader crea una atmósfera imperdonable en la historia y eso me frustra, porque ésta era para recordarla, una historia más emotiva aún en la que no me cansaría de ver y escuchar hasta saber todo sobre cada personaje y ahí es cuando no me hubiera ido de la sala si no encendían las luces. Para nada me aburre, de hecho, se me hace corta y enamora (término que le encanta añadir a Schrader en su cine, el enamoramiento), pero voy llegando al final de la historia y me va decepcionando poco a poco. Intentaré no olvidarla gracias a los actores y a la botánica. Se merece una versión extendida para llegar a ser una obra maestra.
RICARDO VALERO, JULIO 2023, ESPAÑA.
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The pace of Master Gardener is measured, but there’s nothing relaxing about it.
Even if Master Gardener can feel like a bit of a potboiler moral drama, the heat generated is proof that Schrader can still bring the fire. The filmmaker grapples thornily and thoughtfully with difficult issues and destructive people, finding new ways to approach the questions that still haunt him.
The beauty in Schrader’s work has always been in the relationship between penance and absolution, which feels noticeably absent here. It’s a shame because the trio of Edgerton, Swindell, and Weaver deliver strong performances, and Devonte Hynes’ romantic score with a slight edge of sombreness is nicely atmospheric, but the film’s third act feels too neat and unconvincing, particularly given the sharpness of the conclusion in Schrader’s last two films.
Master Gardener plays less like a thematic finale and more like the director is trying to exorcise himself of his perpetual idée fixe.
Master Gardener is the third film in writer-director Paul Schrader’s redemption trilogy. The series includes 2017′s “First Reformed,” which is good, and 2021′s “The Card Counter,” which is not. Unfortunately, the trilogy ends with its worst entry, an excruciatingly slow white-savior narrative that aims to provoke yet does nothing but bore.
Paul Schrader continues his lifelong battle with bringing these unorthodox troubled loners seeking some sort of redemption from their shady past onto the big screen. This movie is set in the gothic looking south--possibly New Orleans. Signorney Weaver has fun, and gets all the best lines. Paul Schrader rarely disappoints, and even though it's not one of his best movies, it's consistantly good, and he always makes you think.
The EXACT opposite movie of Fast X that also came out this weekend.
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(Mauro Lanari)
Once upon a time there was the "New Hollywood" and Schrader was one of its greatest exponents. An almost obligatory theme for that progeny of filmmakers: the eventual possibility of redemption. Nothing to say about the director's stainless mastery also attested in this film by the sagacious metaphors related to horticulture and "formal", "informal", "wild" gardens; the problem is that he and his peers have shown themselves incapable of keeping up to date on the very topic they had at heart: soteriology. Still thinking of salvation as a second chance or, this time, as a third, means having conceptually stopped at a few decades ago. There is no escape along that road, that way has no exit and the epilogue is even more a false happy ending.
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Writer/director Paul Schrader creates stories about complex people in unusual situations. This one stars Joel Edgerton as the titular character on the grand estate of a rich dowager (Sigourney Weaver). When a new relative is introduced, he's charged with her apprenticeship, but their relationship involves much more. Even with the moody aspects and tough situations, the emotional resonance never goes deep. Fortunately, the underplayed performances of the 2 leads make the movie worth watching. Schrader has a unique approach and simple style that makes his films interesting, if not powerful. This one is quietly redemptive.
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One of dozens of Schrader's films seeking redemption -- but of Schrader himself, working in the shadow of Bresson, with only a show of the rigor and formalism needed to pull it off. His peculiar men, Hollywood flagellants with impossible manias, are all of the same construction, faithless obsessives. None carries the religious conviction to allow the trick to work, nor does the filmmaker himself. The cost of a world without god is you can't use the guy for drama any longer.
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Awards
CinEuphoria Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Valladolid International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA)
• 1 Nomination
