Mass 2021

Mass was not the kind of thing I was expecting. I was pleasantly surprised. It is a film that takes place over one long and very serious conversation between two family’s who both suffered from terrible losses. They talk through the tragic incident that happened, they blame and they forgive. It’s a very sad story and the acting was really good. I really like Jason Isaacs, I had a masterclass with him once in college and I’m a very big Harry Potter fan but this was THE best acting performance I’ve ever seen from him.  I think what makes this film so good is the suspense at the start, it draws you in with you desperately wanting to know what the film is about and what happened to these family’s. It starts off with the people who run the venue and the family’s arrive after, the whole time I was tryna guess what the tragic incident was and we learn more and more about it and feel so much for both family’s.  Without revealing what that was as I think it may ruin the film. I do wanna say I really don’t think in this situation it is the parents fault, they weren’t bad parents, there are definitely parents out there who are bad parents and deserve all that guilt way more than they do and I don’t think it’s really fair on them, but I guess in this situation you just look for someone to blame. One of the things I thought was done well was the way they show that these parents are grieving too, they loved their son just as much as the other parents did, but does that fact it was his fault take away their right to grieve him? It’s very interesting and is one of the reasons I enjoyed the film.  I love films that are just one conversation, like 12 angry men, one of my favourite films. For my screenwriting class in uni this year I submitted a script that was very similar to this which is kinda annoying coz it would have been the perfect reference. I really do like films like this that keep you so hooked for that long when nothing really happens. It’s also really interesting to see how films like this do their cinematography when there is so minimal movement.  I think the conversation is kinda unrealistic and was too resolved, I think it’s hard to have a film that serious that has any kind of real resolution, can you be so angry at the start and forgive someone on such a short amount of time. I think that’s why I found the character of Richard at the end to be my favourite, he doesn’t really get the same kind of closure they all do, just kinda leaves without being able to say what he truly wanted to say. But it does work and doesn’t feel too unrealistic, the ending is very emotional and I think they wrapped it up in the best way they could, which was quite a good ending.  I also liked the start how the family wasn’t in it, and how they incorporated these small little details that happened at the start when they weren’t there into the rest of the film. Like the tissues and the water and the choir singing at the end. The start also really did well to build up how serious this conversation was going to be, which added a lot to the suspense and really kept you glued to the screen wondering what they would end up talking about.  Really good film, very moving, very sad, good acting. I enjoyed way more than I thought I would based on me only having seen the poster and title. Just thought it was gonna be a film about church.  Watch this instead of we need to talk about Kevin.  8.4/10 Didn’t even notice till reading some stuff about it but just went back through and noticed the aspect ratio completely changed. Was very subtle and well done and does a good job on enhancing the tonal shift. My 1100th film logged. Nearly 100 films this year so far. And hello to Jason Isaacs