As an aspiring filmmaker, I cannot help but feel as if I relate to the debut filmmaker Trey Edward Shults. This film is heavily stylized and intense, and I feel that if I were able to make my own low budget film it would turn out to be something like this. The film focuses on extreme emotions, making the audience feel somewhat warm and humored at first, but completely crushed by the final shot. The film is overall extremely ambitious in its approach, due to Shults' use of long takes, black humor, and an atmosphere that contains both heavy realism and surrealism. "Krisha", one of the finest and funniest films to come out last year, is not only a beautifully made film but also the most earth shatteringly heartbreaking portrait of addiction since "Requiem for a Dream". It takes place during Thanksgiving as a family prepares for the holiday. One somewhat special member of the family has visited this year, Krisha, an old woman who has been absent of their presence for 10 years. This brilliant, harrowing shocker combines elements of humor and horror to craft a modern miracle. Unfortunately, this masterpiece is quite obscure and underrated-but I must urge anyone stumbling across my review to check it out immediately! It is a jaw droppingly fantastic work of art.

I am going to give you a PLOT SPOILER review (not ending) as I think knowing the mystery enhances the story. Krisha (Krisha Fairchild) attends the family get together at Thanksgiving. She has been gone a long time. Very long. Her son Trey (Trey Edward Shults) ended up being raised by her sister (Victoria Fairchild) and she wants to reconnect. We see Krisha sneaking around the house checking draws etc. and I didn't know if she planned on poisoning everyone or was really a man with an operation. As it turns out this is a story about her alcohol addiction- there that was the plot spoiler.

The house is filled with commotion and the soundtrack is just piano and drum noise making the audience feel the commotion too. It grips you. The emotions run high in the film as it envelops the viewer and makes them uneasy and tense.

It is a Lifetime drama on steroids, if you like that type of thing.

Guide: F-word. Porn is playing on the TV of which we get a distant glimpse, but get to hear the groans.

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.