- Starring
- Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton
- Writer
- Fran Kranz
- Director
- Fran Kranz
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 110 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Very few films come out in any given year that offers such a level of immersion that it allows viewers truly feel like you are a fly on the wall. Making the most mundane experiences absorbing is a difficult thing to pull off for filmmakers but Mass is a film that does this quite well. It may not the flashiest of films as it is essentially a one location character piece. While it’s easy to look up the film’s synopsis, this film is ultimately best going into it as blind as possible. That being said, it is certainly a grueling film and a tough one to sit through at times. The subject matter may be uncomfortable and not be the easiest to talk about but it is necessary. Offering multiple perspectives, it forces viewers to reconsider their position in a compelling way. In the end, it is a film about redemption and forgiveness that is baked in compassion for people who are hurting no matter who they are or what they come from.
Mass takes place years after a tragedy caused by Richard (Birney) and Linda’s (Dowd) son tore all their lives apart, Jay (Isaacs) and Gail (Plimpton) are finally ready to talk in an attempt to find some sense of closure and move forward. This is a film doesn’t compromise anything it needs to say which is one of the reasons why it is so remarkable. It is a film that everyone should be considered as required viewing. The film does an impeccable job at pulling viewers in as they feel the feeling of immense loss and pressure these characters are inevitably feeling over the course of their heated time together. Mass is surely destined to be an important film that could spawn off a stage play that could be performed at schools.
Mass is an important film for our social fabric and arguably the first best picture contender of 2021.
still courtesy of Sundance
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