My brother Francisco Salazar found "Krisha's" editing to be the film's transcendent feature. Read his analysis here.

Trey Edward Shults' "Krisha" is a film replete with bold camera choices and even more audacious editing, but the heart of the film lies in its economic script, which takes an intimate story and explores it with the emotional depth of a Greek tragedy.

Getting in Krisha's Head

Have you ever been to a family event and noticed that everyone seems to point to one person as the black sheep? Ever wonder what is going in that person's mind, as he or she stands around awkwardly, feeling the judgement of everyone with every passing glance?

Shults not only enlightens viewers on this experience, but puts audiences right into the mind of that very character. The director is able to get the audience to recognize the outsider status of the title character, build up her battle to reestablish herself in the family, and illustrate her tragic inability to do so.

The opening sequence finds Krisha (Krisha Fairchild) lost and searching for the correct house where she is to meet her family. In a powerfully symbolic foreshadowing gesture, she arrives at the wrong house first, making her late to a Thanksgiving celebration at the correct home.

Shults Carefully Reveals Story

Shults' script frames her as a long lost relative of the group. Initially everyone is kind to her, but they simultaneously throw in subtle reminders of her status as a foreigner of sorts.

As the plot unravels, the script slowly brings to light Krisha's past and how it continues to haunt her relationships. Shults brilliantly withholds this information from the viewer early on, thus giving himself the space and time to reveal the state of affairs as Krisha's relationships with different characters are compartmentalized in separate scenes.

One great example of this economic storytelling is a tete-a-tete between Krisha and her son, whom she has almost no relationship with. Through hints and gestures, this delicately shot scene gives the viewer the grand scope of the relationship in one take, hinting and expanding on preexisting tensions.

In another scene, Krisha is questioned by another relative about what she is doing with her life. The relative shows her graciousness and respect in the scene. But when tempers flare and the situation moves from brittle to broken, that same character becomes unkind to the increasingly alienated Krisha.

By choosing to develop events in this manner, Shults undercuts the fact that his film takes place in one location. The plot feels expansive, emphasizing the brilliant planning in the script and execution.

Krisha's addiction is handled poignantly as well. Trey establishes the subject slowly as well. He then shows Krisha doing battle with the issue, both externally through interactions with others and then internally.

The film's big climax is as gripping as they come, moving between an intimate two-person confrontation and a chaotic public display that really devliers the sense of exile. By the end, the viewer is embarrassed for Krisha, yet also endures her pain with her.