X
- 2021
- PG-13
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 51 m
- 2021
- PG-13
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 51 m
Summary Years after an unspeakable tragedy tore their lives apart, two sets of parents (Reed Birney and Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton), agree to talk privately in an attempt to move forward.
Directed By: Fran Kranz
Written By: Fran Kranz
- 2021
- PG-13
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 51 m
- 2021
- PG-13
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 51 m
Mass
7.7
Where to Watch
Summary Years after an unspeakable tragedy tore their lives apart, two sets of parents (Reed Birney and Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton), agree to talk privately in an attempt to move forward.
Directed By: Fran Kranz
Written By: Fran Kranz
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
81
94% Positive
31 Reviews
31 Reviews
6% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
81
94% Positive
31 Reviews
31 Reviews
6% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Not one of the quartet misses the opportunity to do some of their very best work here.
What fascinates the director, and clearly also fascinates his four outstanding lead actors, is the possibility of grace in a seemingly impossible, inconsolable situation. With considerable intelligence and disarming moral seriousness, they confront the question of whether forgiveness and understanding can be honestly extended or received, and whether healing can ever be more than an abstract concept.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 52 User Ratings
7.7
85% Positive
44 Ratings
44 Ratings
13% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
2% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 52 User Ratings
7.7
85% Positive
44 Ratings
44 Ratings
13% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
2% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Intense minimalist drama. Supremely well acted and written. A movie like this relies on the strength of its cast and the four main performers all put in an equally sensational performance. The writing is also beautifully nuanced, offering a fresh perspective on well worn themes. Would be a 10 if not for the Judy character, who was unnecessary.
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Mass - it's raw pain like this that I've seen/felt before. It's an "actors movie" and I honestly forgot they were acting. Every tear, outburst, and voice crack felt and sounded real. And yes, I cried, a lot.
Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, and Reed Birney were all out of this world.
It's cold and haunting in its approach of filling in the gaps of events not shown on film for us the viewers. In a strange way, I found an element of the movie to be weirdly peaceful and safe. Four people in a room, sharing honestly about their thoughts and feelings, sharing stories, anger, tears, laughter, and filling in the blanks, but still walk away with closure, with no sense of emotional humiliation.
It's not an easy movie, nor should it be. It's a movie that's painfully tragic on the cover, but beautifully alive in its spirit.
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Mass feels like a staged play brought to the cinema, with unobtrusive camerawork that gives us the feeling of eavesdropping on this intense and emotional and hopefully cathartic gathering.
A sad, poignant, dialogue-driven film destined for successful post-film life as a theatre production, writer/director Fran Kranz’s debut about two sets of parents on opposing sides of a tragedy locates the humanity in the seemingly endless, peculiarly American saga of school shootings. It also celebrates forgiveness.
The acting is uniformly great, as strong an ensemble performance as you’ll see. Franz’s direction is assured.
Mass, as maddening as it can be, still feels like an urgent and necessary movie, if not at all an easy one — and an exceptional opportunity too to watch four great character actors, finally called up from the sidelines to center stage, do what they do.
Actor-turned-filmmaker Fran Kranz’s choice of subject matter for his feature debut is certainly timely and provocative, but the emotions are too big and too messily human to fit into the tight box he has constructed to contain them.
Mass is a special film that I've never seen anything like. Fran Kranz outdid himself in his directorial debut writing one of the best scripts of the year. He also got marvelous performances out of his actors with Jason Isaacs being the standout to me. The combination of the powerful writing and emotional performances makes this story heartbreaking to watch and impossible to forget. I was also very impressed with the cinematography and editing. For a one-room film with four people sitting around a table, there are numerous incredible shots where they show one character's reaction to something someone else is saying or they show two characters reacting to a comment in completely different ways. This is a marvelous movie about forgiveness and acceptance that is, in my opinion, essential viewing for anyone.
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Mass is a 110-minutes long conversation, written well of course. And by the end we actually feel for the characters, it's like if we experienced what they experienced.
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It's hard to imagine that a film consisting almost exclusively of dialogues and monologues can make for a compelling watch, but such is the case with writer-director Fran Kranz's debut feature. When two couples impacted by a terrible tragedy seek to work through their feelings during a meeting held in the conference room of a community Episcopal church, their conversation opens many doors that have long been closed, releasing a deluge of raw emotions while simultaneously paving a path to healing. Although the film starts off slowly and somewhat clumsily (probably by intention but not especially effectively), it soon finds its voice and manages to captivate from that point forward. Credit the film's carefully crafted screenplay, solid camera work and skillful editing for making engaging viewing out of material that might otherwise be considered dull and talky. But the picture's greatest asset is the stellar acting of its four principals -- Ann Dowd, Martha Plimpton, Jason Isaacs and Reed Birney -- who turn in riveting performances that stand out both individually and collectively. It's unfortunate that this offering has not garnered the kind of recognition it deserves (most likely due to its anemic distribution and a lack of publicity), but it has been receiving ample critical acclaim and well-earned awards season accolades. Thankfully, this moving and powerful release shows that a movie doesn't need to rely on endless explosions and high-powered special effects to capture and maintain viewer interest while delivering profound insights into the human mind and heart.
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Two sets of parents (Reed Birney & Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs & Martha Plimpton) meet to address the horrible tragedy that brought them together. The majority of this film features that quartet sitting around a table talking, albeit about a heavy subject. They certainly delve into the drama, delivering intense performances. First time director Fran Kranz has kept the camerawork simple, with the focus on the actors. There's an undeniable intelligence and sensitivity to the exchanges, which voice several sides of the issue. The intense atmosphere starts with their meeting and never subsides. Even though the words do, the production never builds to a dramatic release. Certainly, this deals with serious issues, but the lack of dynamics in the pace and the objective direction make this more a discussion of the affects on the parents and an opportunity for actors to go deep.
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While I admire this attempt to portray the damage done by mass gun violence, particularly in schools, I don't see how this adds to the conversation. The parents' grief is of course heartbreaking, and the actors deliver. But there's nothing unexpected in the writing, no real insight regarding accountability for parenting gone horribly wrong OR the proliferation of guns. We don't need to "move on" from what's wrong with a culture where this happens, or even from the way it wrecks people's lives; we need to ask deeper questions than this writing asks, and figure out WHY it keeps happening. In that sense, words like "forgiveness" lose their meaning. I came away wondering what the word means here, beyond the usual religious usage, and it troubled me. It came off like a glossing over, far too neat, far too discouraging of a much-needed, insightful and deeper probe.
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Production Company
7 Eccles Street,
Circa 1888,
5B Productions
Release Date Oct 8, 2021
Duration 1 h 51 m
Rating PG-13
Genres
Awards
Indiana Film Journalists Association, US
• 4 Wins & 9 Nominations
DiscussingFilm Critic Awards
• 4 Wins & 7 Nominations
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards
• 2 Wins & 7 Nominations
