Everything about Mass suggests that it’s a filmed adaptation of a stage play, so it’s a bit of a shock to discover that the tense drama is an original work created for the screen. With its single setting, minimal cast, and material that would seemingly crackle in a live setting, the writing/directing debut of actor Fran Kranz (Cabin in the Woods) is nevertheless somewhat limited on a cinematic level, yet its plentiful theatrical elements keep it compelling.

The inspired "what if" scenario finds two sets of parents (Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton; Ann Dowd and Reed Birney) meeting in a rural church basement for mysterious reasons that Kranz reveals in tantalizing slow-drip fashion, leaving viewers rapt to each line expertly delivered by this talented foursome. Though the switch to handheld camerawork when the conversation turns especially intense and accusatory is a bit heavy-handed and draws undue attention to itself, and an overly apologetic church employee (Breeda Wool) proves an odd, irritating choice, the rich subject matter and Nature vs. Nurture themes more than win out.

Grade: B-plus. Rated PG-13. Available Jan. 11 on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD

Written and directed by Amy Koppelman, and based on her novel, A Mouthful of Air explores postpartum depression with raw honesty, but its downer PSA tone makes it a difficult film to recommend. Easy to plug, however, is Amanda Seyfried, who gives her all as children’s book author/illustrator Julie Davis, whose life as a new mom quickly proves too much to handle, resulting in a thankfully non-exploitative handling of self-harm, though in a sequence likely to alter how one views the already melancholic Sesame Street song, “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon.”

In Julie’s journey of recovery and readjustment, Koppelman pulls capable supporting turns from Finn Wittrock, Amy Irving, Jennifer Carpenter, and Paul Giamatti, all of whom form Julie’s support system, while Seyfried handles the highs and lows of this journey with equal aplomb. Far less successful is the distracting synthesis of present-day events, which finds a goofily aged Wittrock revisiting key locations from the past. Though this other timeline ultimately leads to a bittersweet place where the film’s message rings loud and clear, it raises additional unanswered questions that might have been addressed in the primary sequence of events. 

Grade: B-minus. Rated R. Now playing at Regal Biltmore Grande

For close to an hour, the makers of Last Survivors paint a convincing portrait that Troy (Stephen Moyer, True Blood) and his 20something son Jake (Drew Van Acker, Titans) made it through WWIII by escaping to the snowy wilderness and have been enjoying a self-sufficient life ever since. Under the direction of Drew Mylrea, the gorgeous, rugged scenery lensed by cinematographer Julián Estrada sets a compelling scene in which Josh Janowicz’s tense script can take hold, and things remain taut once Troy is wounded by an intruder, forcing Jake to leave their compound and find medicine.

After invading the home of closest neighbor Henrietta (Alicia Silverstone) for the needed supplies, the limitations of Jake’s hermetic upbringing are revealed in compelling fashion, but while Van Acker and Silverstone exhibit strong chemistry as Jake lets his guard down, Van Acker’s acting range proves severely limited as he’s forced to handle heavier emotional lifting. Perhaps overly reliant on its big reveal, the film stumbles to an inevitable conclusion, hampered by the clumsy inclusion of a person from Henrietta’s past and a bizarrely tidy coda that shares little with this thriller’s promising start.

Grade: C. Rated R. In theaters and on VOD in February 2022

(Photo: Bleecker Street)