The phrase "a formalistic" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing something that is characterized by a strict adherence to formal rules or conventions, often in a critical context.
Example: "The critique of the artwork focused on its a formalistic approach, emphasizing technique over emotional expression."
Alternatives: "a rigid" or "a conventional".
"It's a formalistic show," she said, "one that is both serene and contemplative".
By contrast, British universities may plunk big donors on to a "formalistic and horrible" board, she says.
The images in the beginning of the chronology share a formalistic elegance, as the new art form of photography basks in its own novel wonders.
It lingered as a quaint reminder of a formalistic approach to the constitutional separation of powers, even as the modern administrative state, with powerful regulatory agencies engaging in what often looks very much like lawmaking, grew up around it.
Scientific information is presented by the manufacturer in the form of a benefit dossier according to a formalistic template and guidelines from the Federal Joint Committee (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G-BA).
It curbs the threat of the dead letter and counteracts the tendency of modern society to steward the tradition in such a formalistic way that it overlooks the meaning of the hieroglyph, as Novalis at one point puts it.
Lenin insisted on the reconquered republics being deprived of all freedom, except of a purely formalistic kind.
Maximum parsimony methods are related to cladistics, a very formalistic theory of taxonomic classification, extensively used with morphological and paleontological data.
Taking a more formalistic approach, Ursula Clark's "Tic-Tac-Toe" uses woven strips of newsprint to create a grid embellished with buttons, coins and other punctuations.
As Judge Christopher Droney observed in his concurrence, under this approach, judicial inquiry into whether the government is pursuing a "legitimate" end (as is required under the rational basis test) is no more than a "disingenuous," formalistic ritual.
Still, the transformation that the jacket represents — turning the Chinese Communist Party from a corrupt and formalistic bureaucracy into a more popular and flexible institution — has only just begun.
