The writer\/director’s latest film stars Joel Edgerton as a reformed white nationalist. <\/p>
When his latest film Master Gardener was preparing to premiere at Venice Film Festival last September, legendary writer\/director Paul Schrader predicted that it could kick off a bit of a storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one is going to p**s people off,\u201d he told IndieWire<\/a> at the time, citing the \u201coutrageous\u201d plot elements of the film which sees a reformed white nationalist begin a relationship with a younger mixed-race woman.<\/p>\n However, ahead of the film\u2019s UK release, Schrader has revealed that the reaction has in fact been a lot less strong than he thought might have been the case.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot less than I anticipated,\u201d the Taxi Driver and Raging Bull scribe told RadioTimes.com<\/a> during an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n \u201cI really thought that I might get considerable blowback, and I have had some \u2013 but not as much as I anticipated. And maybe that has simply to do with the tone of the piece.\u201d<\/p> The film sees Joel Edgerton star as horticulturalist Narvel Roth, who is working for Sigourney Weaver\u2019s wealthy dowager Norma Haverhill while hiding details of his deeply troublesome past.<\/p>\n That past begins to resurface when he\u2019s tasked with taking on Norma\u2019s troubled great-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell) as an apprentice, especially as the pair gradually begin to fall for each other.<\/p>\n The film is a standalone drama<\/a> but has been described as part of a thematic trilogy with Schrader\u2019s last two works, 2021\u2019s The Card Counter<\/a> and the Oscar-nominated First Reformed<\/a> from 2017.<\/p>\n And although Schrader said he did not initially envisage the three films as a trilogy, he\u2019s now accepted that this is an appropriate way to view them.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n