invisibleunicornninja This movie is a depressing, well-shot trip full of heart-pounding music. The shots are long and flowing, depicting the downward mental spiral of a crazy old woman. I'd call this a thriller. Its worth watching just to experience the mild insanity of this thanksgiving gathering. Mundane scenes in this short slice-of-life story are intensified by an incredible soundtrack. This movie doesn't have much in the way of a plot or script, and is heavily reliant on stunning visuals. This story is a sad one and not for everyone, but if you're interested, then this is worth a watch.

Red-Barracuda After an absence of a decade a 60 year old woman who is a recovering addict returns for a family gathering for the Thanksgiving holiday. The stress of the situation leads her to return to her addictions, resulting in an even worsening scenario.Krisha is an unrelentingly depressing viewing experience. Its central character is well played but she is a person I found basically somewhat difficult to care about very much at all. What we know is she has allowed her personal habits to take precedence in her life and she has chosen them over her family, who she has abandoned. I found it quite easy to understand why the extended family members were reluctant to embrace her fully. So from the get-go I guess I had a problem with this one, as in a serious drama such as this it helps massively if you care for the predicament of the central character, at least in some way, but I found myself ambivalent at best. During the course of the film Krisha remains an outsider within the family unit. We never know exactly what she has done in the past exactly but it would be fair to assume she has messed up pretty bad. The film is quite successful, however, in presenting the anxieties that large family gatherings can bring about even at the best of times, and it does play upon this quite universal feeling quite well. The director and cast all seem to be actual family members themselves and all sport their real first names, so it's a pretty personal affair that is for sure and it does achieve a certain claustrophobia and intensity at times. The director also experiments with differing aspect ratios and a dissonant score, both of which I can't say I cared for too much. While this film does achieve a certain realism with its raw approach, I can't say I liked it very much. It wasn't what I would classify as either entertaining or informative really. Just a downer but not in a good way.

clarisaquintero I'm a struggling filmmaker myself in a third world country, that's why I didn't want to keep looking for inspiration in films with budgets I'd probably never get myself. I chose to watch Krisha because I wanted to see how can a low budget movie get so many praise and oh lord, now I understand. It turns out all you need is a crap load of talent. Trey builds such a fresh and unique storytelling for what we can say is a story told too many times. I loved it so much I just had to re watch it again right away... 3 times in a row! I love the details of the characters, the tricky staging and movement. If you've worked with amateur actors, you should be very impressed with the scene where Krisha comes downstairs to find a really loud, crowded and messy living room. Trey gives a reason to the movements and actions every character makes, these details are telling the backstory. It's pretty smart to compare the scene where Chase and Logan are arm wrestling with the building tension and subtle "wrestling" in the conversation between Krisha and Doyle. It's not constructed in an obvious parallel meaning, so that was nice.This movie has a lot of layers you'd probably won't see at first. The first person who welcomes Krisha is Alex, the only one who doesn't know her in the family. He's the one who opens the door for her, not the other members of the family. They are far and unaware she's there. Then we see Robyn, who is behind the dog gates, they hug through this gates but then Robyn breaks them so she can be with her sister. She's letting her guard down and breaking the walls between them. Only after she does this, we see the other family members come to her and receive her as if nothing ever happened.When Trey comes, his first line is "What happened to the gates?". A truly smart question to make in a situation like this one. What happened to the emotional walls? He means.Another clever meaning for the dog gates separating and protecting the dining room, supposedly from the dogs. But then we find out the wine is hiding in this room. Might these dog gates also be there to avoid Krisha from entering that room?I could go on and on about the wonderful details I've been finding, but I can't keep writing because I feel the need to watch this movie for the 5th time.

jordankynes Where to begin? . . . . Cinema, at its best, is an experience. It is a medium through which the viewer is engaged; titillated, repulsed, shocked, confounded, angered, humored or otherwise incited to feel any number of emotions among the spectrum of the human experience. As an avid movie- watcher, it is sometimes easy to forget the potential and power of the medium.Going into the film, I knew close to nothing: something about a thanksgiving dinner complicated by an estranged and drug-addled family member. I had no expectations other than to be entertained, which has unfortunately become the basic function of most mainstream filmmaking. One and a half hours later, I was absolutely floored. Mouth agape and scrambling to find out who the cast and director were, as well of the title of an immaculately applied Nina Simone track in one of the most poignant scenes I remember having seen in a long time.The film's 27-year-old director (writer and editor to boot) Trey Edward Schults exhibits such a masterful technical literacy in the editing and execution of this film, it is hard to believe that it is his first feature. I am so pleased to see a filmmaker who is so consciously aware that the camera, not the actors, is the primary storyteller. It reminds me that the director is still the auteur, and not just a shot-manager who is paid to dress up performances.Even so, Krisha Fairchild's performance will forever be burned into my brain. It is not always easy to watch, as it surely was not easy to perform, but even if the film's execution had been otherwise mediocre, it would still be worth the rental price to watch this gem in action.I hope I've piqued any prospective viewers' interest. I will keep it short from here on out. I give the film 9 out of 10 stars for several reasons.1. Aforementioned Shults' direction and Fairchild's performance. 2. The film's testament to the fact that vision and execution will always trump budget and star- power. Let that be a lesson to the industry! 3. The soundtrack is unique and extremely emotionally manipulative.I hope Mr. Schults will grow and continue to do very promising things in the future. I also hope that other young independent film-makers like Shults will emerge, paying homage to the greats (as Shults seemed to have done with the Shining here) while offering their own novel and idiosyncratic language. Bravo.