Sundance Film Festival movie review: 'Mass'
The first question everyone asks when something terrible happens is 'why?' The brilliantly written and brilliantly performed drama 'Mass' (premiering at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival) lives in the agonizing search for answers.
In short: Two couples meet in the aftermath of a violent tragedy.
Writer-director Fran Kranz puts on a masterclass in building tension with the first 15 minutes of 'Mass.' On paper, the opening scene is so mundane that it's confusing how or why the set up of chairs and a table in an empty room fits into the film at all. In any other story, the otherwise non-descript scene hardly seems like a scene worth committing to film. Yet, there's a pall that hangs over the entire scene. No detail is left to chance - because this is no ordinary meeting.
The less the audience knows going into 'Mass,' the better. Even the characters and the script is coy about who these four people are - only indicating that their meeting set at something of a neutral site. Any perspective viewer must know this is an emotionally exhausting film. From the coiled tension that underscores the introduction to the agonizingly raw revelations that follow, 'Mass' is a powerhouse of performances, writing, editing and direction.
'Mass' does not have one wasted frame or moment. Even the quiet, seemingly prosaic moments are in service to ratcheting up the tension or releasing some of the pressure, if only to give the audience and the characters a moment of respite. Essentially set in a single room for virtually the entire film, with just a handful of actors sitting around a table, 'Mass' is pure character-driven drama defined by characters in terrible pain, finally untethered and allowed to speak honestly.
This film is essentially a thought exercise - a "what if" that imagines what two couples on opposite sides of a tragedy would say to each other, given the opportunity to vent, prod, interrogate. Jason Isaacs, Ann Dowd, Martha Plimpton and Reed Birney deliver powerhouse performances in this emotionally charged, desperate search for answers. This is the ensemble cast to beat. Each of the four characters have internalized their grief in four completely different ways. Hell, even the minor supporting characters who only have a few minutes of screentime are pitch perfect - even before a single main character shows up for the meeting, their cautious anxiety calibrates the audiences for the emotionally draining feat of masterful storytelling.
Final verdict: Emotionally brutal and morally complex, 'Mass' is a powerful, empathetic and human attempt to make sense out of the senseless.
Score: 5/5
'Mass' screens at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. This drama is not yet rated and has a running time of 110 minutes.
Directed by Fran Kranz / Screenplay by Fran Kranz / Score by Darren Morze / Cinematography by Ryan Jackson-Healy / Film Editing by Yang-Hua Hu / Production Design by Lindsey Moran & Mia Lyon Cherp / Starring Jason Isaacs, Ann Dowd, Martha Plimpton & Reed Birney.
