Master Gardener

"(The film's) characterisations and central relationships are stilted and unrelaxed, and the narrative transitions feel arbitrary and unmotivated."

"Schrader’s commitment to moral ambiguity makes his work thrillingly divisive and near impossible to not have some form of a reaction to."

"The beauty in Schrader’s work has always been in the relationship between penance and absolution, which feels noticeably absent here."

"It's a bland and enervated drama without a single spark of authenticity."

"Edgerton is quite vivid in Master Gardener’s first half, but he doesn’t conjure a sense of past or dormant evil..."

"This is a spare film, crisply performed and quietly staged."

"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."

"Edgerton is the sturdiest thing in a film too leaden and illogical to provoke much thought."

"(Schrader’s) quintessentially religious vision of transgression and forgiveness never builds the necessary dramatic truth here to warrant much reflection."

"Master Gardener... may be (Schrader’s) most accomplished film in years."