Take that moment of hesitation when you hear that writer/director Trey Schults’ past three high-profile gigs were under Terrence Malick, and what that might mean aesthetically for his first feature “Krisha”, and toss them out immediately. Yes, a few waist-level Steadicam shots track animals at play and family members in silent thought during a Thanksgiving from hell, but consider the unblinking lead performance from Krisha Fairchild, Schults’ unbelievably personal assembly of family starting with Krisha and ending with himself, and a thread of pressure-cooker humor and tension, and you get “Krisha”, a stunner of a directorial debut.
Always staying one half-step off a comfortable register, Schults places us in the mind of a truly unwell individual from frame one. Krisha pulls up to a row of Texas mini-mansions in a blue truck with suitcase and dog in tow. Shuffling, mumbling to herself, and host to a mess of shock-white hair, she can be seen coming from a mile away – thankfully...
