A tale of unbearable weight of grief | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Food
    • Habitat
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • TBS Graduates
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Tech
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
December 02, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Food
    • Habitat
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • TBS Graduates
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Tech
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 02, 2023
A tale of unbearable weight of grief

Glitz

Asif Nawaz
08 January, 2022, 12:15 pm
Last modified: 08 January, 2022, 12:25 pm

Related News

  • 100 bodies to be buried in mass grave inside Al-Shifa Hospital: Palestinian Health Ministry
  • Closely Watched Trains: A Czech classic worth revisiting
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - A dog's dinner of fantastical themes
  • Pathaan: Shah Rukh Khan's comeback film is high on action, low on logic
  • Hatyapuri: A good Feluda instalment, if not one of the best ever

A tale of unbearable weight of grief

The raw emotions of different characters and the compelling script makes ‘Mass’ one of the most extraordinary films of 2021

Asif Nawaz
08 January, 2022, 12:15 pm
Last modified: 08 January, 2022, 12:25 pm
Mass. Photo: Collected
Mass. Photo: Collected

Mass, a 2021 film, is an original work written for the screen by its director, actor Fran Kranz. In his directorial debut Kranz has given the audience the feel of a stage play or live tv drama.

This particular genre of films are not new, rather in the 90s or in the early 2000s there were serious crowds for such films like 'Days of Wine and Roses' and 'Glengarry Glen Ross.'

If we look at the current trend in contemporary film making, then this short American drama would feel like an out-of-place one. Producers and directors these days seem to make movies that are more into the glaring spectacles rather than the story and scale of the plot.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

The setting and the theme of the film is not new. Gun violence in the USA has always been a sensitive and one of the most controversial issues. Derived from the same vein, the plot of the film lies on years of the aftermath of a school shooting where the parents of the victim and the parents of the murderer meet and talk. With a powerhouse cast, intense acting and brilliant scripting of the film feels like watching a serious stage play.

Mass starrs Martha Plimpton and Jason Isaacs who played the parents of a teenage boy who was one of the students murdered in the school shooting.

Ann Dowd and Reed Birney are the parents of the mass-shooter characterised as an overtly depressed and disturbed young man. The couples agreed to sit at a table in the basement of a Church and talk about their kids and then try to analyze the depth of the violence that shattered these families.

Their conversation sometimes lean on to hopes of moving past depression, grief and anger, and sometimes through catharsis they express anguish while leaning to the state of acceptance. The dialogues are the strength of the film as they reveal how vulnerable parenthood can become when there is a troubled child in the house.

There are also subtle and clear messages towards the wrongs of the society, as systems are mostly part of the wider narrative like nationalism, community, race and gender rather than individual apathy and mental development.

One room-set drama films are fun to watch as some of the most successful films are, 12 Angry Men, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, Dog Day Afternoon and The Man from Earth. Mass, though, has the same approach to tell the tale but it has a more flatline singular plot from its predecessors. Themes like parenting, bullying, grief and compassion and the lack of it are dominant in the film.

This movie delivers a wider range of serious emotions. It is hard to define them in words. The political problem of gun control in the USA though, the main theme of the movie but it has been kept in the background as the wider part of the film shows us the types of people who actually met in real life after a tragedy.

Watching this movie feels real amidst the VFX gold rush of Hollywood. Cinematically we get to see powerful dialogues delivered to real settings, in front of a real character, not to a green screen.

The director has made some memorable directorial choices with the shots. In somes scenes, the steady shots at the faces gives us powerful emotional feelings. The rough handheld shots are sometimes the embodiments of temperament of the context. 

Mass is a difficult film to sit through not just because of the subject matter of the film rather than the way it represents reality. It is an honest dramatisation of how people cope with tragedy, pain and learn to go with life.

Film Review

Mass / Film Review / Martha Plimpton

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Will Bangladeshi garment exporters be able to meet EU's upcoming standards?
    Will Bangladeshi garment exporters be able to meet EU's upcoming standards?
  • A file photo of Election Commission building. Photo: Collected
    EC asks govt to transfer OCs, UNOs ahead of election
  • Illustration: TBS
    4 parties deny fielding candidates after EC data shows their contestants

MOST VIEWED

  • Illustration: TBS
    I am afraid even to post a thank you note on Facebook: Khadija
  • File photo of Bangladesh Bank. Photo: Salahuddin Ahmed/TBS
    Remitters can now deposit in forex – with up to 9% interest
  • Mominul Islam. File Photo: Courtesy
    IPDC CEO Mominul to step down after 4 terms
  • Despite some positives like, changes in wordings the major things workers demand have not been reflected in the amendments. Photo: TBS
    Bangladesh could be target of US labour policy, warns Washington mission
  • Photo: Mohammad Minhaj Uddin
    Bangabandhu Tunnel: Tk4.11 crore in toll collected in first month
  • US dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken on 10 March 2023. Photo: Reuters
    Remittance dollar surges to Tk123, defying efforts to control it

Related News

  • 100 bodies to be buried in mass grave inside Al-Shifa Hospital: Palestinian Health Ministry
  • Closely Watched Trains: A Czech classic worth revisiting
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - A dog's dinner of fantastical themes
  • Pathaan: Shah Rukh Khan's comeback film is high on action, low on logic
  • Hatyapuri: A good Feluda instalment, if not one of the best ever

Features

(From Left) Sahid Hossain Mustakim, Sadia Ahmmed and Jishanul Islam are from United International University while Aadiba Tasneem Anam, who was not present at the event, studies at North South University. PHOTO: COURTESY

IPBlockchainPro: An invention by Bangladeshi students that could revolutionise the IP landscape

7h | Pursuit
Infograph: TBS

Elevate your leadership skills with free online courses

8h | Pursuit
Girls outperform boys in SSC and HSC. What prevents them from climbing higher? 

Girls outperform boys in SSC and HSC. What prevents them from climbing higher? 

14h | Panorama
Kissinger’s foreign policy and courses of action during his active years in office altered the lives of millions across the world. PHOTO: COLLECTED

Kissinger: A quiet end to a bloody legacy

18h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Small parties make big buzz

Small parties make big buzz

8h | TBS Stories
Saudi PIF to buy 10% stake in Heathrow Airport

Saudi PIF to buy 10% stake in Heathrow Airport

4h | TBS Economy
Are these the most thrilling hotels?

Are these the most thrilling hotels?

9h | TBS World
Is USA the obstacle to WB's climate finance?

Is USA the obstacle to WB's climate finance?

1d | TBS Economy
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net