Krisha Review: Thanksgiving gone Surreal

This directorial debut is the most stunning, confident, and abrasive family drama I’ve ever seen.

A missing finger. A bandage wrapped around it. The lockbox hiding pills and scribbled notes. A dress stuck in a car door. A technologically challenged uncle. There's fourteen dogs, or was it twelve? Either way, they're all a nuisance. The thanksgiving turkey cooking, all the while a timer ticks ticks ticks down. 

All of these details are both subtle and incredibly telling. Interestingly, it is difficult to say Krisha, the directorial debut of Trey Edward Shults, is a film solely about details simply due to the fact that one cannot help but be lost in the chaotic fray of one torturous thanksgiving. Expansive rooms, detached hallways; the film works to make the setting a labyrinth through segmenting spaces with excellently disorienting camera work that crafts an atmosphere of extreme tension around what should be an average annual event. Beyond the camerawork, the film refuses to tell audiences anything the family doesn't already know. Nowhere in dialogue is Krisha's addiction revealed, the relations explained, or even the amount of time Krisha has been estranged from her family. The audience is lost because the movie respects them, forced to piece together pieces of this emotionally devastating story. And yet, the filmmaking prowess on display somehow simultaneously clues viewers in on these details that constitute the narrative. At once, the viewer knows everything and nothing about Krisha and her family, providing just enough information to allow for intrigue only matched by cinema's best detective thrillers. In this way, Krisha is a careful balancing act, one that is only effective due to the immense filmmaking talent and confidence on display both behind and in front of the camera. 

This confidence comes in the form of sensory assault. The opening image alone establishes this: before entering the world of the story, we get a singular tight close up on the main character. We read her wrinkles, notice the guilt in her eyes, the fear in her lips. Again, this is a film that relishes in its details. A powerful, direct gaze to the camera reflects the tone of the film, one of breakneck intensity, drama and emotion. Cut to Krisha entering the familial household, only after she gets the wrong address. Again, another telling detail that speaks so much about Krisha's character and situation. The fact that she trails a suitcase through the lawn rather than the sidewalk, followed by a few crude curse words, is even more so. 

Krisha's reintroduction to the family is captured with an awkward formality that feels uncomfortably real, much like the rest of the film. Despite the intense atmosphere and eventual emotional outbursts, the film feels almost documentarian in its dynamics, painting a clear picture of a family torn to shreds and sewn back together with weak apologies and awkward hugs. As Krisha sees her estranged son, she cannot help but turn to the camera, which has yet to cut, and remove herself from the situation. She runs because she loves, but the camera is unforgiving and captures all. 

The rest of the film is a whirlwind, quite literally. Another example of filmmaking confidence comes in the surreal camera techniques and editing style. From the camera whipping in 360 degree motions to drifting through open rooms to flying at the same pace of the wild dogs, "Krisha's" cinematography perfectly captures the tone of the film in genuinely creative ways. Similarly, the editing will morph scenes into alcohol induced hazes from the Krisha's perspective, leaving the audience bewildered, engaged and most importantly, at the edge of their seat for the entire runtime. Through abrasive techniques, the film frames the family as a pot waiting to boil over, or more accurately, a nuclear bomb seconds from detonating at any moment. Here, any rules the conventional family drama follows are broken, including the runtime, which is a short 81 minutes. Meaning, not a moment is wasted, the momentum is constantly breakneck and the details hold all the more significance. Truly, Krisha demonstrates an impressive control over the craft of filmmaking and storytelling to make a product that is engaging emotionally, thematically and narratively. 

As the film continues, as relationships are contextualized, as characters backgrounds are revealed, "Krisha's" centering of the audience into the protagonists shoes turns this drama into a tragedy. Krisha herself is amazingly defined despite the minuscule runtime and intentional mystery to her past. In Krisha, we see a woman that at first seems genuine in her goals, only to reveal she holds a self righteous belief that she should be welcomed with open arms. This chaos incarnate disguises herself as an empathetic mother until the final moments of the film, where we finally see the reason that Krisha has been removed from the family. This tense knowledge underscores the entire movie, but is revealed at the satisfying climax, one that moments after reflects back onto Krisha with the same close up from the beginning. Now, we read her face differently. No matter how hard she tries, Krisha cannot change, and although she believes she can, it is that belief that also holds her back. She feels as though she's done the work, when in reality, the damage has been done. There is no accepting Krisha, and Krisha cannot accept that. This makes for a car crash of a character, one that the audience cannot help but feel for, despise and desperately want to see more of. Again, the minor characters stand out because of key details, such as the aforementioned tech-averse uncle, or the hyper masculine brothers arm wrestling for validation. Although I wish the film was perhaps a bit longer for some more emotional moments to hold increased resonance, such as the confrontation scene at the end feeling hollow due to a lack of understanding as to who the confronter even is, this is a minor complaint in a story that efficiently sets up and pays off narrative beats in an impressively short amount of time. 

Beyond the camera work, surreal editing, near constant tension, expertly executed narrative techniques and stellar performances, Krisha is simply a confounding joy to experience. With ambitions to emotionally devastate the audience through a nuanced character in seemingly as little time as possible, the film holds its own amongst other family dramas as the most dramatic, the most engaging, and the most creative due to its confidence in approaching the subject matter. This is not your average film, just as this is not your average thanksgiving dinner. The devil is in the details, and Krisha will continue to live in my head as I try to recount every single one.