Cert: 12A ★★★★✩

Actor turned writer-director Fran Kranz (Dollhouse, The Cabin In the Woods) impresses greatly in this muted and unfussy debut feature about the aftermath of a deadly school-shooting. Seen from the perspective of two sets of parents, Mass stars Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd and Reed Birney as four people attempting to make sense of the enormity of what happened.
Jay (Isaacs) and Gail Perry (Plimpton) are parents grieving the death of their son, a victim of a school shooting, while Richard (Birney) and Linda (Dowd) are the parents of the also dead shooter. Six years after the tragedy, the couples agree to take part in an initiative to link the parents of the perpetrator with that of his victims.
The goal is closure, but old wounds are reopened and years of pent-up anger rise to the surface as conversations get heated.
I first came across Mass last winter as part of Sundance’s very first virtual festival programme and was floored by its simplicity and the effectiveness of its message. Kranz had seemingly succeeded, where many filmmakers had struggled over the years, by opting for a minimalistic and sparse approach.
While stories such as We Need To Talk about Kevin — Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s best selling novel — capitalised on the shock value of its horrifying events by playing with a non-linear narrative, Kranz’s film doesn’t feel the need for any extra artifice. Instead it relies mostly on four phenomenal performances and a gorgeously executed screenplay.
This is a heartbreaking tale of grief and despair which manages to tackle one of he thorniest subjects in American society right now with impressive maturity and precision. Kranz has taken the injunction to “show, don’t tell” to a brand new level, and for that he must be commended.