Krisha

Krisha arrives at her family's house for Thanksgiving after years away. Everyone is expecting her and nobody is comfortable. She wants to cook the turkey herself, and doing it properly will be proof that she is back. As the day goes on the tension in the house grows, and her history of addiction sits in the middle of the room without being put on the table. The subject is not addiction but how long forgiveness takes. The family lets her in without trusting her; nobody says it and everyone knows it at once. The film's unbearability comes from that silent supervision. The form is thoroughly uneasy. The camera circles her, the frame tightens, the sound rises with kitchen noise and the music is used as though for a thriller. An ordinary family dinner is shot in the language of horror. The story behind it is as striking as the film. Trey Edward Shults shot it in his own mother's house in nine days; the cast is largely his family and the lead is played by his actual aunt, Krisha Fairchild. It was made as a short first and then expanded to a feature. It won the grand jury prize at SXSW. Who it is for: viewers who like uncomfortable family drama and formal nerve. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a calm narrative; the film squeezes the viewer from beginning to end.