Blog: In ‘First Reformed,’ Ethan Hawke gave the performance of the year — and of his brilliantly unorthodox career

Something similar plays out in Linklater’s other great temporal experiment, “Boyhood,” with Hawke as a divorced dad struggling, over the course of 12 fleeting years, to do right by his kids. You could pair it with the recent “Juliet, Naked,” starring Hawke as a washed-up ’90s indie rocker coming to grips with his relational shortcomings. It was a touching, cheekily self-effacing turn: Here was Hawke the brash, unstoppable Gen-X icon, now a father and (gulp) grandfather, doing his best to muddle through and make amends.