Krisha Fairchild (A24)
It’s a holiday movie.
Director Trey Edward Shults’ impressive feature debut, Krisha, travels a fraught, anxious path to what seems a most ordinary goal: Thanksgiving dinner. But this isn’t just any family dinner; it’s a domestic horror show.
It opens with the image you see above: the starkly lit face of 65-year old Krisha (Krisha Fairchild), staring defiantly into the camera with a bit of a deranged expression. The actress bravely reveals her lived-in features, her strength and vulnerability to cinematographer Drew Daniels, who follows her formidable presence as if stalking a coiled serpent ready to jump out at any moment.
After this mission statement of an opening shot, we see Krisha arriving at her little sister’s suburban Texas home. Or trying to arrive: it’s the wrong house. The agitated Krisha pulls her rolling backpack around to the next house, grumbling and ready to snap. Daniels’ camera tracks her cautiously in one of a series of long takes that builds tension throughout the movie.
The visitor is soon met with hugs from her extended family, some of the embraces more tentative than others: Trey (Shults) barely looks at the visitor, wrapping his arms around her with some reluctance.
The nature of Krisha’s relationship with this reticent young man isn’t hard to guess, but the film doesn’t reveal it right away. Desperate for a tete-a-tete with Trey, Krisha sits down with him to try to catch up on old times, wondering if he’s continued his film studies.
Krisha was filmed in just nine days, but Daniels camerawork is technically polished, fluid, and sinister without succumbing to the handheld morass of Terence Malick (for whom Shults has worked). Shults maneuvers the tense family dynamics so distinctly the film comes off something like David Lynch directing a Cassavetes script. Brian McOmber’s dissonant score can be heavy-handed, as can the film’s visuals, but they both serve the director’s powerful vision of a disturbed family.
What’s more: this is his own family. Fairchild is Shults’ real-life aunt, and one of the few members of the cast with acting experience (among her credits is “sturdy woman” on two episodes of the ‘90s dramedy Northern Exposure). The actress took on the role as a favor to her nephew, and what a favor—she turns in the performance of the year. Shults cast other family members, including his mother and grandmother, for most of the remaining roles. While the rest of the cast is not consistently compelling, Fairchild owns this movie.
Shults’ feature debut is an expansion of a short film he made in 2014, and both were inspired by his cousin Nica, a recovering addict who fell off the wagon at a family reunion and overdosed a short time later. Krisha comes from real pain, a wound that is thoroughly opened up on screen. I can’t wait to see what Shults and his aunt do next.
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Krisha
Written and directed by Trey Edward Shults
With Krisha Fairchild, Olivia Grace Applegate, Bryan Casserly
Rated R for language, substance abuse and some sexual content
83 minutes
Opens today at E Street Landmark Cinema
