“Taxi Driver” screenwriter Paul Schrader is back with another dark tale of a man struggling to leave his past behind with “Master Gardener,” which will be released by Magnolia Pictures on May 19.
In his 2018 Oscar-nominated directorial debut “First Reformed,” Schrader told the story of a pastor and former military chaplain struggling with the death of his son in Iraq and his growing sense of hopelessness over climate change. His 2021 follow-up “The Card Counter” followed a former Guantanamo Bay prison guard whose spartan life of penance is interrupted when a young man comes to him with a plan to murder his torturous commanding officer.
Now, “Master Gardener,” which premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, stars Joel Edgerton as Narvel, a brilliant gardener who is asked by his wealthy employer Norma (Sigourney Weaver) to teach her grandniece Maya (Quintessa Swindell) about gardening to help set her straight after she “fell in with the wrong crowd.”
But Narvel, it seems, once fell in with the wrong crowd himself. Underneath the long-sleeved shirts he wears at all times are tattoos from his time as a neo-Nazi…a chapter of his life that apparently ended when he killed several white supremacists. Now, as he builds a relationship with Maya and Norma becomes ever more demanding and intolerant, Narvel’s secrets threaten to surface and throw his life into chaos.
Watch the trailer for “Master Gardener” in the clip above.
