Where I Watched it: Hulu

English Audio Description?: No

Cast: Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell, and Esai Morales

Written and Directed By: Paul Schrader

I’d love to have more thoughts about this film, but sadly, there’s no audio description. It’s a new dawn, and a new day, and I’m feeling spicy.

Yes, I sat all the way through the film. I’ve also sat through Paul Schrader films before, and he’s very much a director that does things through symbolism. His films doen’t just translate through written word. For example, First Reformed plays a lot with religious symbolism as the movie deals with a pastor in crisis. Here, we have a gardener with a past, supposedly doing a great job of tending to something I can’t see, and Hulu in its infinite wisdom has decided I don’t need to know about.

The thing is, this film is about having a Master gardener, which implies there might be other gardeners underneath the main one, so the garden is extensive enough, and the estate this garden is on is likely opulent enough to warrant such a garden. So these are things that are oddly really important to give us context, and Hulu has continued to determine that accessibility in this form is not a priority for them. I’m not going to stop calling them out so we are at a crossroads.

Paul Schrader is an often talented director, who does have a few misfires. But, he’s asked me to consider the work of this title character, and since I can’t do that, and no blind or visually impaired person would likely be able to do that, the intent of his direction is lost. really, it’s for his benefit that this grade must be given.

Final Grade: Describe Everything. Accessibility Matters. This film is unwatchable on Hulu due to lack of accessibility. Welcome to 2024.