Mass

Never boring or dull and tugging on just the right heart strings to make the message stick, "Mass" is far and away one of the best films I have seen in a while and stands as a great testament to director Fran Kranz's style.

I have seen some very good movies from 2021, but this is far and away the best. It is also one of the most emotionally harrowing motion picture experiences in recent memory. The vast majority of the movie is simply four people in a room talking, but the exchanges between them are often brutal and unflinching and never less than riveting. It becomes painfully hypnotic, and the filmmakers do an extraordinary job of fleshing out the characters and allowing the viewer to feel multiple emotions toward each of them. This is timely and important material. It is also a textbook definition of ensemble acting. Each of these actors is flawless, but Plimpton gives a performance for the ages. There's hardly an emotion she doesn't touch here, and she has a climactic scene that is almost life changing. Her lack of an Oscar nomination is unforgivable. Actually the whole movie deserved a slew of them. This joins NOMADLAND as one of the truly great movies of the decade thus far. - Jeff Marshall, Movie Blogger (Facebook)

The screenplay never goes to the places you would expect (i.e. how they introduce a stereotypical gun rights debate only to then promptly dismiss it) and instead focuses on trickier emotional issues. All four of the central performances here are truly sublime.

Its quartet of leads doing tremendous, emotive work with heavy material, Mass is a timely and powerful directorial debut for Fran Kranz.

I have STUDIED this film now because the acting and direction is so brilliant. Why is wasn't up for every award on the planet at the time is beyond me.

I'd heard of this, but there's absolutely no chance I'd have watched it - it just screams "GRIM!" at me. I'm sure it'll all be well acted and very worthy though - but I suspect it's unlikely to change my view on high-school shootings. Oh yes, it's very well acted. And yes, it's very, very grim - particularly so if you have kids. Basically, the meeting goes exactly as you'd expect it to go - there's just a load of hurt and anger on both sides. It maybe tries to engineer a little more closure than is probably necessary, but I can forgive it because it doesn't go overboard. It also manages to have quite a "nice" ending which I really wasn't expecting. And that's probably all I really need to tell you. All the parents are very well acted - Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton as the victim's and Reed Birney and Ann Dowd as the perpetrator's. I obviously knew Jason Isaacs by name and roles but I knew all of the rest of them by sight from various things and they all do some proper acting in this as broken people, but all broken in their own way. Breeda Wool is also good as a church member who is responsible for setting up the environment for the meeting - she has no idea what is needed and is nervously edgy and overly keen to help. Whilst the acting is good, you can't help but feel the script makes it pretty easy for them - it's a really well written film and I was surprised to see that Fran Katz who wrote it (and directed it as his feature-film debut) is only 42 years old because it feels like the work of someone older. I was even more surprised when I saw his photo because I recognised him from his role in Dollhouse which I really enjoyed, but it was absolute nonsense - and there was absolutely nothing in Fran's performance in it to suggest he'd go on to do something like this. In terms of the direction, for the most part, the camera just lingers on a face in close-up and let's the actor in question do their thang - it's well done, but you'd be very disappointed if it wasn't. There's not really a lot more to it, but there are some slow, lingering shots of some scenery - no-one expected that eh?!? All in all, it's competent without being flashy, which is exactly what the film needs. So, I've described it as very, very grim but, to my surprise, I really quite "enjoyed" it - it's a proper grown-up bit of filmwork with a good script (it would also make a fine play) which raises some very interesting questions within an unfortunately too believable framework and doesn't overly try to answer them. You'd have to be in the mood to watch something heavy going (and definitely not feeling fragile about your kids) but it's a well written, acted and shot film which holds your attention - and you can't ask for more than that really. At time of writing, it only appears to be available on Sky but I'm sure that will be changing soon.

I didn't think four people talking about some heavy stuff for the better part of two hours would get to me. But did it! Such a cathartic screenplay from Fran Kranz and brilliantly acted by Martha Plimpton, Jason Isaacs, Ann Dowd and Reed Birney.

Acting class at its very finest. A very intimate portrayal of guilt, blame and regret. A film that is objective to show both sides of a coin. And a film that contains some of the best performances of the whole year. Where to start? Ann Dowd is the most praised and recognized of them all and she deserves all that and more for her brilliant turn. But on the same hand we should not forget Jason Isaacs who really goes through many different phases with his performance and all of them are absolutely touching and relatable. He is terrific. And we should not forget Martha Plimpton who gave her role such an natural and realistic approach that it was impossible to see the "acting" behind it. It was simply real. Last but not least Reed Birney. He was the "weakest" but still fantastic. He perfectly created his character and gave it a nice thin line between sympathetic and unsympathetic. The screenplay is great. The direction fantastic. A film that lives by its characters, dialogue and actually the story between it. Set on one location very simplistic but therefore you see the 4 characters incredibly closely. A fantastic experience.

Devastating stuff, flawlessly written and acted. This is a masterpiece.

Mass is a powerful touching yet haunting story of tragedy, loss, anger, and painful sorrow which affects the lives between a pair of grieving parents.