Mass

This year, our media covered the Sundance festival for the first time. This virtual edition was discovered in a very special setting as I was bedridden after being contaminated by covid. Very tired, practically unable to get up due to lack of strength, this festival allowed me to hold out and wait for time for me to regain my strength and be able to work again and also to work again. The importance of cinema as a reflection of today's society can never be stressed enough, and it is doubtful that this difficult period will give rise in the years to come to films as emotionally strong as Mass, written and directed by Fran Kranz.

We cannot stress enough how much we are against the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which gives every American the right to own and carry a firearm. In this context, too much access to firearms in the United States in some cases results in abominations that we can only punish, such as the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School (2012), Marysville-Pilchuck High School (2014), Umpqua Community College in Roseburg (2015), Parkland (2018) and Santa Fe High School (2018). These acts demonstrate that firearms need to be regulated so that they do not end up in the hands of unbalanced people. The film Mass is a perfect illustration of this theme and is not only striking, but also gives food for thought about our society today.

In Mass, two groups of parents : Richard (Reed Birney), Linda (Ann Dowd), Jay (Jason Isaacs) and Gail (Martha Plimpton) meet in a center years after a tragedy caused by Richard and Linda's son that tore their entire lives apart, Jay and Gail are finally ready to talk to each other to try to move forward. Virtually all of Mass is set in a room with his forever scarred parents sitting across from each other. Writer and director Fran Kranz gives us a true cinematic experience close to the theater filmed and perfectly interpreted. Far from any visual research, the director knows perfectly how to give the necessary depth to his four characters and above all he proves to be an excellent storyteller because he is able to hold our attention without any fake our all along the story.

One can constantly feel the willingness of director and screenwriter Fran Kranz to seek to challenge the audience and ask them how each of them would react in such a situation. He thus addresses mourning, the fact of knowing how such a killing could have happened, the fault and responsibility of parents to give life to such unbalanced people. Mass proves to be fascinating because he is a realist from start to finish and, above all, takes a critical and sharp look at present-day America. A country capable of creating real monsters incapable of discerning right from wrong, of integrating into society and of projecting itself into the future. We can only note the important emotional impact of this film which comes from its rigor, remarkable interpretations but also from a perfect direction. Mass is certainly one of the best films discovered this year during the Sundance festival. A landmark film that we hope will soon be offered in the United States and in France because it really deserves to be discovered, analyzed and shown to as many people as possible.

Mass
Written and Directed by Fran Kranz
Produced by Fran Kranz, Casey Wilder Mott, JP Ouellette, Dylan Matlock
Co-Producers: William Davies, Marissa Ghavami, Tony Becera
Executive Producers: Marshall Rawlings, Douglas Matejka, Michael Lee Jackson
Production companies : Lindsey Moran, Mia Lyon Cherp
Costume Designer: Michele Minailo
Starring Jason Isaacs, Ann Dowd, Martha Plimpton, Reed Birney
Music by Darren Morze
Sound Designer: Kevin Seaton
Cinematography: Ryan Jackson-Healy
Edited by Yang-Hua Hu
Distributed by Gersh
Release date: January 30, 2021
Running time: 110 minutes

Seen on January 31, 2021 (Sundance Festival)

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