2014 Directed by Charles Poekel
Noel is a young man who travels from upstate New York every year to sell Christmas trees in New York City. Returning without the help of his long-time girlfriend, this year Noel finds it impossible to do the one thing he knows so well---sell Christmas trees. As Noel begins to spiral downwards, alienating co-workers and customers in the process, it turns out this same community of people may be the only ones capable of saving Noel from self-destruction.
Switzerland
Locarno International Film Festival
USA
Sundance Film Festival
USANR
USANR
Russian Federation16+
Russian Federation
Switzerland
USA
so much sweetness hidden in this, in the way that something seems much more sincere when you watch it as an outsider. like a man trying to pick out a tree with someone that isn’t there, and explaining what it looks like over the phone or sending photos of each one standing up next to a stranger. just that determination to make a mutual decision, and becoming part of it unwillingly. these moments we get tied into that linger, and end up being the memorable things we want to tell someone at the end of the day — shaped by what we cannot control.
I just adore this imperfect mumblecore shot on 16mm by the one and only Sean Price Williams. Christmas, Again is a type of movie that makes you get under a blanket and drink hot chocolate while listening to Christmas songs by Sufjan Stevens and Phoebe Bridgers whose songs are filled with melancholy and loneliness of this time of year, so it’s pretty much perfect for me
L: Listen… It’s Noel, right?
N: Yeah
L: N-o-e-l?
N: Yeah
L: Who sells Christmas trees?
N: Mhm
This film deserves a Criterion Release.
70/100
A.V. Club review. Still haven't seen any of Kentucker Audley's films as writer-director, but if his performance here is typical, he's a hell of an actor. (Just realized you can't use "helluva" in front of a noun beginning with a vowel.)
Wonderful throwback of a film that perfectly captures the melancholy and depression many of us feel around the holidays. I stumbled onto it a few years ago and it has really stuck with me.
The story is pretty simple but poignant as a Christmas tree salesman (played by Charlie Day lookalike Kentucker Audley) returns to his usual spot in NYC except this time without his longtime girlfriend.
Eventually he has a run-in with a troubled woman (Hannah Gross from Netflix's Mindhunter) and there is a spark of a relationship.
I love the interactions with all of the strange customers which seem all too true to real life.
The ending is heartbreaking but there is a small glimmer of hope as well if that makes any sense.
High recommend for those looking for a lowkey Christmas movie that is schmaltzy but in a subtle way.
A lovely wisp of a film that seems destined to be overlooked because its logline is so generic. The film's TMDb summary ("...As Noel begins to spiral downwards, alienating co-workers and customers in the process, it turns out this same community of people may be the only ones capable of saving Noel from self-destruction.") certainly doesn't help matters. It proves illustrative, though, given that it's in direct opposition to Poekel's minimalist approach, which privileges small, glancing detail over underlined emotional beats. The emotional weight remains resolutely in the margins, which only makes the rare moments of unguarded emotion (e.g. Noel walking home after the first delivery) more potent. What elevates the film is how resolutely it clings to Noel's (Audley)…
Christmas, Again. Even the title makes me feel sad. But there's more emotional truth in this film than a hundred other feel-good Christmas movies. The ultra-specificity of the setting and characters here (writer-director Charles Poekel worked as a Christmas-tree seller himself for several years and based this screenplay on his own experiences) bring the story to life in a way that’s completely captivating. Kentucker Audley's understated performance feels heartbreakingly real, and everything's lit by blinking jewel-coloured fairy lights. I cried (and now I'm crying again). Could be my new favourite melancholy Christmas movie.
(Worth noting that the film's description on Letterboxd makes the plot sound much more dramatic than it actually is. This is really a classic mumblecore non-story story, but the best kind.)
More than any other movie I can think of, this really captures the feeling of working a dead end job. Long nights that kill any pretext of a social life, repetitive work, and encounters with these various faces that become the closest thing you have to real human relationships. There's not much of a plot here, it's just choosing to drift between a mood piece and a character study. I know I'm pretty in the bag for these post-mumblecore AmerIndie pictures but holy shit is this magnificent.
Director/writer Charles Poekel has delivered for this viewer at least one of the best holiday themed films ever brought to my attention. First released in August of 2014 and later appearing at Sundance in 2015, “Christmas, Again” has flown under the radar for most audiences but given the overly positive reaction from those who have seen it the film seems to strike a nerve. A tender nerve at that.
Buoyed by the central character Noel played with an uncanny remarkable honesty by Kentucker Audley, he literally owns this. I kept looking for a false step or insincere sentiment and it was never found.
Instead, “Christmas, Again” takes us inside a life that few rarely consider or think about this time…
Рождественский меланхоличный slice of life, снятый на пленку. Маленькое инди-кино, каким оно и должно быть: простое, без претензий на что-то великое — оттого искреннее и вайбовое.
