Knew nothing about this going in, thought it was pretty great. I wouldn't read this if you haven't seen it because i talk alot about the little plot it has. Do hope some members here check it out, i think if 10 were to watch it 5 would love it, 5 would despise it. Don't think there'd be much middle-ground with this type of filmmaking.
I've not seen many films like this. It completely feels like you are watching a real family going through the holidays. The first 20-30 minutes are really weird. At times the camera sits back and watches them from a distance giving the feeling that we are on the outside looking in, at times it centers on one conversation happening while keeping everything else going normally. At the side of the conversation we are focusing on people are talking, cooking, shouting at the tv, listening to music, etc, and you can hear everything; you have to listen closely to hear the conversation the camera is focused on that is usually about nothing interesting anyway. There's also this weird robotic sounding music playing sometimes that is really annoying and jarring at first but somehow you get used to it. During this time we don't have a clue what is going on, Krish is clearly a older relative most likely the mother/grandmother to most of the other characters who is most likely here for the holidays or some other reason to get all the family together that hasn't been specified, she breaks down crying when she is greeted by a male who looks like he's in his 20s but it isn't clear if her crying was directly related to him or he was just the one who pushed her over the edge since he was the last one she met. The only other thing we know is that Krisha has a finger missing because we see her going up stairs to put on a new bandage. That's it. The only other talking during this time is mundane "you are looking great" type talk and even this is usually obscured by other people talking in the kitchen or the tv playing or whatever.
It's not until about a half hour that we find anything out. Krisha was specifically upset by the 20 something male: Trey (who i found out after this is played by the writer and director of this Trey Edward Shultz) her son. Clearly he is distant from her, she has unspecified as of yet problems and while she obviously loves Trey he hasn't forgiven her. Very typical story but this takes a unique turn with us quickly getting thrown into a conversation she has having outside with the owner of the house: her brother in-law who has been bringing up Trey. We had seen the start of this conversation earlier, it was really mundane and pleasant but it has now turned sour and pretty intense. He starts getting extremely harsh with her, telling her that she is a destructive, childish f-up, that she should get her act together and not think she is just waltzing into Treys life; the robotic music from earlier returns and this conversation is spliced with scenes of her pacing about the house acting erratic while the others just go about their days. It's a fantastic couple of scenes; it gives the impression that she is about to explode.
After this comes the 'calm before the storm' that's exactly what it feels like. It returns to the people going about their day talking about mundane things, the family meets Krisha's very old mother who has alzeimers which is a nice, touching moment, during all of this Krisha is walking around eavesdropping on conversations that aren't interesting but it gives us the clear feeling that she is seriously troubled by the events earlier. She of course relapses and draws major attention to it by dropping the turkey; for such a horrible moment it is actually briefly beautiful, she's drifting about inebriated enjoying herself watching the family have fun with beautiful music playing. The approach to the aftermath the next day was excellent, it shows us two different scenarios without making clear which one happened all we know is it ended up with Krisha up stairs drinking vodka and snorting pills. Both scenarios start with Krisha interrupting the family meal but they differ from here on. In the first she makes a small scene but is escorted out by her sister who is stern but also sympathetic, they then have an emotional conversation where the sister makes it clear that she loves and supports her. In the second Krisha makes a large scene resulting in an argument and fight with her sister before her son asks for her to be thrown out. The best thing about this ending is that i'm not sure which i want to be real. In a perfect world i'd prefer the first one where Krisha gets sober again with the support of her family and eventually builds bridges with her son who she without a doubt deeply cares for. But at the same time you think does this close-knit, normal family really need to potentially go through this again, from all the conversations it's clear that this used to be a regular occurence and this is the first time she has seen them in ages now that she is sober. Great ending.
Sorry i wrote this like a plot summary, i try not to do that i just felt it was the best way to talk about this particular film. I only watched this because while looking for 2016 films to watch it was on some critics best of the year so far list and seemed to be getting alot of praise. During the first 20 minutes i was thinking what the hell is this? why is it acclaimed? but it turned out to be a very powerful film, with an extremely interesting approach to filming and storytelling: it really feels like you are experiencing everything alongside Krisha. I was reading about the guy who made this after it and it was clearly a very personal film for him; the chracter Trey is him, he was at university studying business managment and he dropped out to become a filmmaker and this was based on an incident of a family member of his relapsing at a party. He's worked on three of Terence Malicks films including The Tree of Life and he has another film coming out that just recently started filming. I'm definitely interested in what he comes up with in the future as this made quite an impact on me: i'd say it's second for 2016 after Everybody Wants Some.
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