TEASERS EXCLUSIVE Usually, I start with an occupational metaphor, some occupation, that has a richness to it,’ says writer-director Paul Schrader. ‘Whether it be a taxi driver or poker player, something that is more complex than it looks on the surface.’ In the case of his latest film, Master Gardener, Joel Edgerton plays Narvel Roth, a horticulturalist with a dark past working for wealthy estate owner Mrs. Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver).
‘Gardening can be many things to many different people,’ explains Schrader. ‘A rightwinger can say, “We’ve cut out the weeds,” and the left-wingers say, “We would make the world bloom.’” Suffice it to say, Narvel is no Monty Don, but a former neo-Nazi who turns his back on his hateful ideology. Certainly, he dovetails with Ethan Hawke’s priest in Schrader’s Oscar-nominated…
