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'Krisha' a complex look at a black sheep returning to the fold

"Krisha" takes place during Thanksgiving and centers on the reappearance of a long-absent family member whose unresolved addictions have left festering resentment.

This somewhat overused plot of "Krisha" is given fresh life by Krisha Fairchild's riveting performance in the title role and by an arresting style of filmmaking that puts us inside the head of this troubled black sheep, rather than looking on with judgment.

Writer-director Trey Edward Shults' feature debut, based on a 2014 short film of the same title, is by no means perfect. The director makes the mistake of casting himself as Krisha's estranged son, Trey. He delivers a performance in which he comes across as petulant rather than profoundly pained.

It helps greatly that Krisha is played by Shults's real-life aunt. Fairchild's sisters, Victoria Fairchild and Robyn Fairchild (the director's mother), play Krisha's on-screen sisters. The family matriarch is played by the women's actual 92-year-old mother, Billie Fairchild, a non-actress who suffers from dementia and has a history of alcohol abuse.

The few scenes with the old woman are awkward, sweet and poignant in equal measure. She's the reason most of the cast members use their own names, according to Krisha Fairchild, who told Uproxx, "Trey wanted her to be completely comfortable with us just calling each other by our own names so that it would not show in her eyes that we were lying to her."

Friends of the filmmaker round out the rest of the cast, with only a handful of professional actors in certain roles (including the film's star).

The majority of these relationships feel comfortably worn rather than ill-fitting, thanks to this trick of casting that elevates "Krisha" above its overly familiar landscape.

Shults is also adept at rendering what altered consciousness looks and, at times, sounds like.

Through a subtly distorted sound design that heightens ambient noise while suppressing conversation, the director allows us to inhabit not just Krisha's pill-induced zone-out, but also her acute distress and guilt over her past behavior.

It's slightly fussy, in-your-face filmmaking, but it's viscerally effective.

If "Krisha" fails, it's in the somewhat histrionic and hackneyed climax, in which Krisha crashes into herself, or rather the realization that she can't escape what she is by drowning herself in booze and drugs.

That's not really revelatory.

But the actress who delivers the message - at the same time that she's seemingly getting it herself - is.

“Krisha”

★ ★ ½

Starring: Krisha Fairchild, Trey Edward Shults, Olivia Grace Applegate

Directed by: Trey Edward Shults

Other: An A24 Films release. Opens at Chicago's River East 21. Rated R for language, substance abuse, sexual situations. 83 minutes

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