Mass (2021)

Directed by Fran Kranz. Starring Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Reed Birney, Breeda Wool, Michelle N. Carter, Kagen Albright. [R]

With its restricted setting and lengthy passages of dialogue in a single-act structure, this emotionally-grueling drama feels like an adaptation of a stage play in the Tennesse Williams/Arthur Miller tradition, but it’s actually an original piece from debuting writer/director Kranz. Two sets of grieving parents agree to meet in the aftermath of a violent incident, struggling to process and articulate their anguish, compartmentalize their blame and regret, and release the tightly-coiled tension. Imperfect, to be sure—e.g., Kranz’s script withholds critical information at such length that it feels like audience manipulation—but also intimate, absorbing, and powerful, commanded by wrenching performances from all four principals (conventionally character actors, but proving capable of carrying a serious film if afforded the opportunity). Each of them float in and out of the point-and-shoot spotlight, getting their turns to deliver soliloquies of pain that rarely bear the fingerprints of a calculating writer. It may not always be credible or feel authentic, but the acting overcomes the flaws, and at the very least, Kranz understands the messy, awkward social graces and emotional chokeholds that get in the way of clean catharsis. He was also one of the producers.

78/100