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This first official trailer has been released for Mass, an emotionally charged thriller from actor turned director Fran Kranz. The film stars Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, and Reed Birney in the leads. Mass premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this January to rave reviews and will have its worldwide theatrical release in October. Kranz directs Mass from his own original screenplay, with Bleecker Street producing the film.
In Mass, tragedy befalls a couple, Jay and Gail Perry (Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton) when their son falls victim to a mass shooting at his school. Hoping to achieve some sort of catharsis, the couple meets face-to-face with the parents of the shooter, Richard and Linda, played by Reed Birney and Ann Dowd respectively. What then follows is a movie set mostly in a single room telling a story from two different perspectives. A study of grief and acceptance, Mass is a timely and important film that gets its message across brilliantly.
“Years after an unspeakable tragedy tore their lives apart, two sets of parents agree to talk privately in an attempt to move forward. In Fran Kranz‘ writing and directing debut, he thoughtfully examines their journey of grief, anger and acceptance by coming face-to-face with the ones who have been left behind.”
Fran Kranz, who is perhaps best known for playing Marty in The Cabin in the Woods, makes his writing and directorial debut with Mass. And judging by the early reviews of the film, he is sure to have a long and successful career in Hollywood as a filmmaker. Kranz talked to Deadline earlier this year about how a real-life tragedy inspired him to come up with this thoughtful film.
“That [Parkland Shooting 2018] set a course for the next two, three years now where I just kind of became a bit obsessive about the subject, to be honest. The catalyst was really just simply feeling incredible compassion and empathy for people directly involved in a way that I hadn’t felt before.”
He added, “Pandemic aside, we’re already in this world where it’s becoming increasingly more convenient to remain isolated and more comfortable to remain isolated, but the power of human connection, physical human connection, and being in the presence of another human being can be so, healing and important and powerful. I wanted to remind people of that. I wanted to sort of restore some faith in this idea that no, we can do this. We can sit together and we can work through things and we can even without agreeing with the other person and be still essentially at odds, in terms of perspective, we can still reconcile.”
Described as one of the best films of the year, Mass is currently sitting at a fresh 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with all the critics showering praise upon the powerhouse performances of all four lead actors under Kranz’s nuanced direction. Bleecker Street Productions, which is behind several original and unique films like Al Pacino starrer Danny Collins, Tobey Maguire starrer Pawn Sacrifice, and Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky, acquired the distribution rights to Mass soon after its premiere at Sundance. Mass will release in the U.S. on October 08, 2021. Sky Cinema will distribute the film in the U.K. and Ireland.
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