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Mass
Still trying to collect my thoughts after watching the breathtaking feature film debut as a director and screenwriter of an actor named Fran Kranz called Mass, a shattering and gut-wrenching piece of contemporary theater put on film that left this reviewer limp. Will try to review this without spoilers.
What is presented onscreen here is a meeting between two married couples/parents after a horrible, violent tragedy and trying to find some closure about it.
This 2021 motion picture was a rare film experience written directly for the screen that felt like live theater transferred to the screen due to the intimacy of the situation and Kranz' approach to letting the story unfold, which seemed to have a very personal connection to him and it's felt in every frame.
Kranz is very careful in providing an absolutely spine-tingling suspense in letting us know exactly what's going on. We're intrigued as a small church is preparing a room for some sort of meeting and a woman arrives on the scene to inspect the room and ensure that it is a proper setting for this meeting. She even asks for assurance that this meeting won't be disturbed by the choir rehearsal going on in the sanctuary. We know something very important is about to happen here and the venue is crucial. Even after the couples arrive, we are almost thirty-five minutes into the running time before the pieces of what is going on start to come together...very slowly.
As I watched the pain these couples are in, backstory issues clouded my head without ever losing sight of what was going on. I wanted to know how long ago this incident occurred for one, a question which never gets answered. I wondered why this particular little church was chosen for this emotionally-charged meeting of healing, which is only answered in the abstract. I also wondered whose idea this meeting was, another question that is never really answered.
Once we get down to what this meeting is about, there is enough raw emotion and angry resentment for a Eugene O'Neill play and that whatever happened has put these two couples through an emotional wringer which makes it hard to believe they are still together.
Kranz creates theater without a lot of theatricality...the story doesn't move from this room once the couples are left alone, the camera is appropriately obtrusive and there is no music score
Kranz also pulls a quartet of extraordinary performances from Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, and especially Martha Plimpton, who is totally Oscar worthy here. Kranz' work is Oscar-worthy as well, but being a newcomer behind the scenes, will probably be overlooked, but this film shouldn't be.
Still trying to collect my thoughts after watching the breathtaking feature film debut as a director and screenwriter of an actor named Fran Kranz called Mass, a shattering and gut-wrenching piece of contemporary theater put on film that left this reviewer limp. Will try to review this without spoilers.
What is presented onscreen here is a meeting between two married couples/parents after a horrible, violent tragedy and trying to find some closure about it.
This 2021 motion picture was a rare film experience written directly for the screen that felt like live theater transferred to the screen due to the intimacy of the situation and Kranz' approach to letting the story unfold, which seemed to have a very personal connection to him and it's felt in every frame.
Kranz is very careful in providing an absolutely spine-tingling suspense in letting us know exactly what's going on. We're intrigued as a small church is preparing a room for some sort of meeting and a woman arrives on the scene to inspect the room and ensure that it is a proper setting for this meeting. She even asks for assurance that this meeting won't be disturbed by the choir rehearsal going on in the sanctuary. We know something very important is about to happen here and the venue is crucial. Even after the couples arrive, we are almost thirty-five minutes into the running time before the pieces of what is going on start to come together...very slowly.
As I watched the pain these couples are in, backstory issues clouded my head without ever losing sight of what was going on. I wanted to know how long ago this incident occurred for one, a question which never gets answered. I wondered why this particular little church was chosen for this emotionally-charged meeting of healing, which is only answered in the abstract. I also wondered whose idea this meeting was, another question that is never really answered.
Once we get down to what this meeting is about, there is enough raw emotion and angry resentment for a Eugene O'Neill play and that whatever happened has put these two couples through an emotional wringer which makes it hard to believe they are still together.
Kranz creates theater without a lot of theatricality...the story doesn't move from this room once the couples are left alone, the camera is appropriately obtrusive and there is no music score
Kranz also pulls a quartet of extraordinary performances from Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, and especially Martha Plimpton, who is totally Oscar worthy here. Kranz' work is Oscar-worthy as well, but being a newcomer behind the scenes, will probably be overlooked, but this film shouldn't be.