Ethan Hawke's Acclaimed Religious Thriller Officially Moves to Free Streaming

As one of the greatest actors of his generation, Ethan Hawke doesn’t just have a filmography packed with quality but a filmography bigger than most of his contemporaries. Ever since his first film performance as Ben Crandall in 1985’s Explorers, Hawke has been dazzling and delighting global audiences with work in almost every genre. This is best exemplified in his flurry of 2025 films — including a return as The Grabber in the horror favorite Black Phone 2, as the director and producer of the documentary Highway 99: A Double Album, and as Brian in the comedy She Dances.

But, without doubt, Hawke’s best performance of 2025 came in Richard Linklater‘s Blue Moon, where he portrayed real-life American lyricist Lorenz Hart and had so much script to learn that he broke it down into 13 small notebooks, treating each notebook as individual nightly homework. One of the critical darlings of this year’s awards season, Blue Moon earned plenty of praise for its screenplay, but it was Hawke who received most of the applause. This included the Academy, which awarded him his fifth acting nomination for the role, alongside a nod for Robert Kaplow in the Best Original Screenplay category.

Hawke’s stunning Blue Moon performance, although it was never likely to win the Best Actor prize, was well worthy of its nomination. But of all his modern performances, some would say his best came as Reverend Ernst Toller in director Paul Schrader‘s psychological thriller First Reformed. Following its debut at the 74th Venice International Film Festival, First Reformed earned enormous praise from critics, who praised Hawke’s “standout” performance and the film’s “sensitive and suspenseful” tackling of tricky themes. If you’re yet to catch Hawke’s so-called “best performance,” then you’re in luck, as First Reformed will be available to stream for free on Plex, starting November 1.

• The first film not in the English language to win Best Picture, in the Academy’s
  92-year history to that point.
• It took four Oscars in one night: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and International
  Feature.
• It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019 by a unanimous jury vote, the first Korean film
  to do so.
• The Park family’s modernist house was not a location. It was built from scratch on an
  outdoor lot.

• Seven Oscars, including three acting wins for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee
  Curtis.
• Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress.
• The visual effects were handled by a team of fewer than ten people, most of them
  self-taught.
• Ke Huy Quan had all but left acting for two decades before this role brought him back.

• Seven Oscars, including Nolan’s first wins for directing and for Best Picture.
• Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. both took their first Academy Awards for it.
• Kodak engineered a black-and-white 65mm stock that did not previously exist so Nolan could
  shoot those sequences on IMAX.
• A three-hour, R-rated drama about theoretical physics that passed 950 million dollars
  worldwide.

• Four Oscars, among them Best Picture and Best Director for Iñárritu.
• Emmanuel Lubezki’s win here was the middle of three consecutive cinematography Oscars,
  after Gravity and before The Revenant.
• Antonio Sánchez’s improvised drum score was ruled ineligible for the score category,
  which caused a minor uproar.
• The long-take illusion was built from a handful of extended shots joined by hidden cuts.

• Four Oscars: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem.
• Adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel, with much of his dialogue carried over
  intact.
• Carter Burwell’s score runs about sixteen minutes and is nearly inaudible by design.
• Roger Deakins was nominated twice that year, for this and The Assassination of Jesse James,
  and won for neither.

Was ‘First Reformed’ a Box Office Hit?

• Image via A24

• A24 /courtesy Everett Collection

• Image via A24

• Image via A24

• Image via A24

• Image via A24

• A24 /courtesy Everett Collection

• Image via A24

• Image via A24

• Image via A24

Although the Academy recognized Schrader in the Best Original Screenplay category, Hawke’s performance was somehow snubbed for an acting nomination. This was a similar fate that befell First Reformed at the box office, as audiences snubbed it during an albeit limited theatrical release. Against a reported $3.5 million budget, the movie made just $3.9 million worldwide, with the majority coming from domestic ticket sales.

First Reformed will be available to stream for free on Plex, starting November 1. Stay tuned to Collider for more.

First Reformed