Less is so much more in feel-bad ‘Krisha’
Convening familyand friends in a Texas home for a nine-day shoot on a shoestring budget, writer, director and co-star Trey Edward Shults creates a feel-bad Thanksgiving classic with the darkly compelling “Krisha.” The film picked up the John Cassavetes award at the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards, whichis bestowed upon the best films made forunder $500,000. “Krisha” truly exemplifies the notion of the independent spirit, made with a close groupof loved ones to tell the harrowing story of a holiday from hell.
Shults cast a mix of working actors, nonprofessional performers and family members, including his mother and grandmother, to fill out the large family at the center of the story. His own aunt Krisha Fairchild, an actress, takes on the title role, andis absolutely stunning in her performance of a woman ontheedge, only recently welcomed back into her family after years spent battling substance abuse. She has returned to the fold on this Thanksgiving holiday, hoping to repair the rifts in her relationships, particularly with her est ranged son T rey( Sh ul ts ).
Shults captures a lively sense of chaos familiar to a family holiday that feels authentic ally lived in. He resource fully puts his camera and soundtrack to workin evoking Krisha’s inner tumult— the camera whirls and Brian McOmber’s film score skitters atonally as she tries tomaintain her composure — overwhelmed with the pressures of the reunion. The percussive score blends with aconstant hum of background conversation, and the layered pattern of disjointed sound gives the filma sense of real anxiety. It’s when the soundtrack changes, significantly, to a Nina Simone song, that we know some thing’ s drastically amiss.
The camera push es in or pulls out from Krisha as she takes amoment to have a smoke, often from a window perch, aloft and away from the family tumble, behind doors and layers of glass, isolated with her own feelings, behind the walls of 10years that have yet to come down. We are granted voyeuristic access to some of the stolen secret moments among the family; whispered disagreements and conversations away fromthe fracas, before it dramatically explodes.
The closest reference to “Kris ha” is Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998Dogme95 classic “The Celebration.” The naturalistic shooting techniques employed by Sch ul ts seem inspired by the rules of the Dogme 95 manifesto, and both films feature large family gatherings that descend into nuclear level meltdowns. While these stories of searing emotional trauma derived from years of inter-family resentment are tough to watch, they are undoubtedly compelling, and stark ly re lat able.
“Krisha” is an incredible achievement, both for its performances— Krisha Fairchild is incredible and worth the price of admission alone, but Shults also elicits fine work from his family, including his mother, Robyn Fairchild— and its DI Y aesthetic that pushes the boundaries and possibilities of cinema. It’s a film that proves less can often provide opportunities for somuchmore.