Mass
Bleecker Street | Release Date: October 8, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The TelegraphTim RobeyJan 21, 2022
Not one of the quartet misses the opportunity to do some of their very best work here. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 13, 2021
At its core, Mass exerts the power of ritual at its most reflective and galvanizing, reveling in human connection at its most arduous, persistent and sublime. Read full review
95
The AtlanticShirley LiOct 26, 2021
In brewing such precise discomfort, Kranz forces the audience to concentrate deeply on what's being said and, more important, unsaid. Read full review
91
The Film StageDan MeccaFeb 1, 2021
Kranz succeeds in finding understanding in the unthinkable. Read full review
90
Vanity FairRichard LawsonOct 9, 2021
It sounds strange to say of a film about such impossible sorrow, but Mass is thoroughly entertaining. Or maybe engrossing is a better word. Its incisive dialogue and nuanced performances demand our attention, inviting us into a roiling weather system of guilt and sadness. The experience proves oddly nourishing, clarifying. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 7, 2021
What fascinates the director, and clearly also fascinates his four outstanding lead actors, is the possibility of grace in a seemingly impossible, inconsolable situation. With considerable intelligence and disarming moral seriousness, they confront the question of whether forgiveness and understanding can be honestly extended or received, and whether healing can ever be more than an abstract concept. Read full review
90
Film ThreatSabina Dana PlasseFeb 9, 2021
Fran Kranz’s debut feature-length dramatic film Mass will linger in your head as you process its ability to provide solace in the face of atrocity. Perhaps the most defining quality it exudes is Kranz’s ability to evoke impressive thought-provoking drama within a bare environment of a table, chairs, and four people in an auxiliary church space, the primary location for the entire film. Read full review
90
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganFeb 1, 2021
With rigour and clarity of purpose, actor/director Fran Kranz holds the audience in his hands, probing at the unthinkable and daring to keep the faith. Read full review
90
SlashfilmEthan AndertonFeb 1, 2021
Mass is a masterful directorial debut for Fran Kranz. Read full review
90
VarietyOwen GleibermanFeb 1, 2021
The writing is so deft, and the actors so committed, that by the end you feel you’ve touched the burning core of something real. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerOct 20, 2021
Mass takes the high school shooting drama out of the exploitation rut into which it has fallen, and instead turned it back into a story of people. It's a simple achievement to name, but an extraordinary one in its impact. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 14, 2021
Mass feels like a staged play brought to the cinema, with unobtrusive camerawork that gives us the feeling of eavesdropping on this intense and emotional and hopefully cathartic gathering. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzOct 8, 2021
This is a difficult movie to sit through, not just because of the subject matter, but because it's so honest in dramatizing how people process tragedy and carry it through life. Read full review
88
ABC NewsPeter TraversOct 8, 2021
Harrowing to watch, but impossible to shake, this emotional powerhouse catches two sets of parents, brilliantly played by Martha Plimpton, Jason Isaacs, Reed Birney and an Oscar-worthy Ann Dowd, in the traumatic aftermath of a school shooting. Read full review
88
ObserverSiddhant AdlakhaOct 6, 2021
Driven by four challenging, nuanced and completely distinct performances, Mass is an emotional razor-wire. Read full review
88
The Associated PressJake CoyleOct 6, 2021
Kranz’s film isn’t perfect. As the conversation ebbs and the four parents stagger out of the room and awkwardly part, the movie, too, struggles with how to walk away. But in this plainly photographed, mournful, restrained movie, the back-and-forth is bracingly sincere. Read full review
83
Original-CinKim HughesOct 14, 2021
A sad, poignant, dialogue-driven film destined for successful post-film life as a theatre production, writer/director Fran Kranz’s debut about two sets of parents on opposing sides of a tragedy locates the humanity in the seemingly endless, peculiarly American saga of school shootings. It also celebrates forgiveness. Read full review
80
CineVueMatthew AndersonJan 21, 2022
Gripping and sincerely moving from first to last, Mass is exceptional filmmaking all-round from Kranz and a stellar showcase for the talents of Plimpton, Isaacs, Dowd and Birney. Read full review
80
EmpireJordan KingJan 21, 2022
It may be a tough watch, but, boasting a quartet of excellent performances, Fran Kranz’s directorial debut is a technically adept, emotionally exhausting yet deeply cathartic film that couldn’t be more timely. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyJan 21, 2022
The performances, carefully calibrated characters, and the unexpected detours in the conversation ensure that the film remains an absorbing piece of cinema, one that locks the viewer in with these angry, bereaved people and their increasingly difficult confrontation. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 20, 2022
Mass is performed with impeccable intelligence and sensitivity, although sometimes it feels like an exercise in award-winning acting. But I admit it: the final, unexpected dialogue scene, though arguably as stagey and showy as everything else, does deliver a punch. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 12, 2021
The acting is uniformly great, as strong an ensemble performance as you’ll see. Franz’s direction is assured. Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeFeb 1, 2021
It’s an airless chamber piece, a self-assured gamble that pays off almost instantaneously thanks to the four impeccable performances at its centre, each parent processing, intellectualising and vocalising their anguish in different ways. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyFeb 1, 2021
It's a harrowing watch, but a cathartic one, with each of the four superb principal actors delivering scenes of wrenching release. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 6, 2021
The cast carries the film; Dowd, as Linda, is especially terrific. Yet the feeling that one is watching a latter-day teleplay is hard to shake: The unvisual, periodically clumsy direction never finds a way around the confined space or the ugly lighting. One can applaud Kranz’s restraint. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 1, 2021
For a good hour of the film’s running time, Kranz’s restraint is admirable, his script allowing his four superb actors to find and flesh out their characters, so it feels like we’re watching people, not merely a situation. Each of the four manages the changing colors of their monologues. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattFeb 1, 2021
Mass, as maddening as it can be, still feels like an urgent and necessary movie, if not at all an easy one — and an exceptional opportunity too to watch four great character actors, finally called up from the sidelines to center stage, do what they do. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichFeb 1, 2021
Kranz’s direction may not be flashy enough to earn him a spot on Marvel’s shortlist, but the careful balance that he strikes between the movie’s four lead performances reflects a natural confidence behind the camera. Read full review
70
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeOct 7, 2021
The movie lacks the gut punch of live theater, the thrill or discomfort of watching people show their feelings in real time. But as cinema, it demonstrates the effectiveness of simplicity. A well-written script and an exemplary cast can still produce a movie worth watching. Read full review
66
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 15, 2021
Kranz can’t quite figure out a way to make his characters’ collective misery cinematically interesting. This is a serious movie, but not a searing one. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineWes GreeneOct 4, 2021
In the hands of its cast, Mass gives such precise and profound expression to the totality of grief that it comes to feel downright palpable. Read full review
60
Screen RantSarah Bea MilnerOct 11, 2021
Mass may not be an enjoyable experience, nor will it likely be remembered as a culturally significant film; yet, one leaves the movie with the overwhelming feeling that it is important viewing. Read full review
50
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeFeb 1, 2021
Actor-turned-filmmaker Fran Kranz’s choice of subject matter for his feature debut is certainly timely and provocative, but the emotions are too big and too messily human to fit into the tight box he has constructed to contain them. Read full review
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