Throughout his life, Paul Schrader has had a complicated relationship to Christianity. He grew up in a strict Calvinist home, went to a Christian college, left the faith and then eventually returned. His latest movie, “Master Gardener,” which hits theaters this week, is the final installment of the director’s “Man in a Room Trilogy,” something he freely concedes was more about marketing than an actual connection between the three films. And while the first in the trilogy, his Oscar-nominated “First Reformed,” was the most explicitly religious, all three movies probe themes such as redemption and forgiveness, a departure from the depravity that characterized many of his earlier films.
