The Basics of Philosophy Film Review

Paul Schrader’s The Basics of Philosophy is a dull, disingenuous drama that feels wholly outdated in today’s landscape.

Taxi Driver’s gritty realism and subversive violence helped transform it into one of De Niro’s most propulsive, compelling movies, and First Reformed achieves a similar off-kilter atmosphere through uncomfortable narration that bends the supposed rules of screenwriting. With The Basics of Philosophy, however, Schrader finally pushes this stylistic approach too far, with poor writing, poor performances, and poor editing that feels less intentional and more a consequence of a mere lack of creativity.

The Basics of Philosophy follows John Jorissen (Jack Huston), a professor of philosophy at a prestigious liberal arts college. Jorissen’s idyllic life is thrown into disarray when an old friend turns up unexpectedly to his father’s funeral, inciting memories of an incident from his childhood that he’d tried desperately to repress. As he reckons with the guilt and shame of his past, Jorissen attempts to uphold the facade of his domestic and professional bliss—to little avail.

The fundamental problem with The Basics of Philosophy is that Schrader’s screenplay assumes the audience will be invested in the lives of these characters without giving them any reason to be. The moments we do spend with Jorissen before his traumatic childhood secret is revealed (more to come…) are simply dull and uninteresting. This is admittedly by design, as Schrader is clearly attempting to show the monotony of his life as a result of his repressed identity, but a dull story is a dull story nonetheless.  

When the film gets into the details of Jorissen’s backstory, more specifically the childhood incident that changed the trajectory of his life, The Basics of Philosophy’s wheels finally come off altogether. Schrader not only feeds into dangerous and unfair stereotypes about homosexuality and sexual violence, but does so in a way that feels incredibly outdated and shamelessly exploitative. The film is clearly trying to present an important message about forgiveness, guilt, and shame, but the details of the story are irresponsible in a way that a lesser-known director simply would not get away with.

There are multiple subplots interspersed throughout The Basics of Philosophy, which all exist in some form to highlight Jorissen’s social ineptitude as a result of his sexual repression. There’s his faltering marriage to another female professor, his awkward encounters at gay bars, and ultimately, his fascination with the works of Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza and deducing whether his attitudes towards change and cosmic motion suggest he will be forgiven for his sins. This is the only part of The Basics of Philosophy’s story that really shines, and we finally get glimpses of the layered, thought-provoking storytelling that Schrader is capable of.

Unfortunately, this entire subplot is wrapped up in an obtuse way, with Jorissen spelling out his thoughts word-for-word with a hallucination of Spinoza that he encounters on the college campus. Schrader spends so much time crafting an intelligent, nuanced subplot about sexual trauma and how its subsequent repression can cause crises of conscience in the victims, then decides to ditch all subtlety with a laughable scene that completely disrupts the momentum of the film.

Despite some attempts at nuanced commentary and social criticism, The Basics of Philosophy is ultimately a dull, confounding, and often problematic film that represents all the worst traits of Paul Schrader’s unconventional style. There’s a really disappointing lack of ambition to this film that feels genuinely disappointing given how much responsibility Schrader holds as a filmmaker, especially when dealing with such important topics.

The Basics of Philosophy had its World Premiere at the 2026 Venice Film Festival on September 4, 2026.