10 Best Indie Movies Of 2016 (So Far)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Krisha is on the short side at only 83 minutes but, as family occasions tend to do, it seems to last a lot longer than it actually is. The movie begins when the title character (played by namesake Krisha Fairchild) turns up at her sister's Texas home on Thanksgiving morning and is greeted with a mixture of welcome and wariness by her family.

Writer/director Trey Edward Shults hints at past tensions as soon as Krisha arrives, and over the course of the movie the air of unease reaches palpable, and then dangerous levels. As Krisha's attempts at reconciliation with various relatives prove fruitless, long-harboured resentments come to the surface and send the family into meltdown.

While gripping throughout, Krisha swings back and forth between moments of pure hilarity and sheer disbelief, leaving you wanting to know more about this family in one scene and watching through the gaps between your fingers during the next. Shults throws viewers off-balance with this approach from the word go, and while he dares you to look away, he is clearly confident that you won't.

Key to it all is Fairchild's varied performance, full of charisma and wit yet always mindful of the character's flaws - from her drug abuse to her guilt over her past behaviour. While it sounds uneventful on paper, this family portrait is anything but, and the hard truths it exposes about family life in general are what makes Krisha so hard to take your eyes off.