Overview
- The film, directed by Mona Fastvold and co-written with Brady Corbet, portrays Ann Lee and the origins of the Shaker movement.
- Seyfried’s performance as the prophetic leader is widely lauded, with several reviews questioning the film’s absence from major award nominations.
- The production embraces analogue craft with 70mm presentations and in-camera matte paintings to create a ritualized, historical aesthetic.
- Daniel Blumberg’s score reworks Shaker hymns and Celia Rowlson-Hall’s choreography stages ecstatic, ensemble-driven worship sequences.
- Critics highlight the depiction of Shaker tenets such as celibacy, communal life, gender equality and pacifism, noting the sect’s later decline to only a few members.