Christmas, Again

The title says so much about the content and message in this film! "Christmas, again!", don't we all feel this way? Christmas again and again and again with it's perpetual message of peace & joy that we all know doesn't exist. It's a time of year our culture celebrates and 99% of us feel it is something we must do because it is expected of us.

Director/writer Charles Poekel brings to the screen the story of 'Noel' once again selling Christmas trees, wreaths, lights on a corner in NYC, something he has been doing for years. We see his perfunctory interaction with the customers and his co-worker. He is so bored and frustrated he keeps his pills (pain killers maybe) in an advent calender! Then an incident and act of compassion by Noel brings Lydia into his life. Noel may be bored and frustrated with his life but he is an honest and truly nice person. Lydia is a mysterious character as she is obviously at a period in her life in which focus and direction have been lost. She leaves but returns to thank Noel for his kindness. This turns out to be both good and bad for Noel. He is attracted to her and she is attracted to him but there are reasons for her to keep her distance.

Noel is a withdrawn and quiet character and he wants more in his life but it's not happening. There is a scene in which he sees what he feels is the ideal Christmas family, and he becomes very upset with himself and his life. Even his brief and intermittent encounters with Lydia feeds his frustration. In the end nothing happens, he sells all his Christmas trees except for one, which is left standing alone. Just like Noel.

"Christmas, again" is, in my opinion, a story of the false promise of the holiday season and how it is a constant source of frustration to many. No matter how much we try, the Love, Peace, and Joy that so much saturates the Christmas message, is in reality hollow and false as we all stand alone in this world.

While there is value in creating cinema that captures the everyday human experience, Christmas, Again overshoots that mark by being so real that it's boring. I'm not saying that every film needs to fill their spare moments with car chases, drug use, and automatic weapons, but at the very least, films should tell stories about interesting characters. It's too bad, considering the idea of a disaffected Christmas tree salesman named Noel (Kentucker Audley) who slowly recovers his holiday spirit could make a great story. I suppose what makes this film aggravating to watch is the fact that there were so many opportunities to expand the narrative beyond the many extensive close-ups of Noel looking angsty or wistful. For example, the unconscious mystery woman (Hannah Gross) whom Noel rescues from freezing to death on a park bench would have been a good avenue to explore. Instead, the film shows us a series of fractured scenes that hint at the vague possibility of a love story between them. It's possible that the film is ambiguous in order to encourage the audience to form their own conclusions, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that sort of thing requires effort from an audience—and we don't like spending effort figuring out characters that we don't really care about. –Alex Springer

This film definitely wasn't festive but instead a pointed slice of reality. It was a bit boring and very depressing, and definitely low budget. It isn't a bad film, just be prepared for not a lot to happen.

It was really just a snapshot of a guy who is for the most part by himself selling Christmas trees on the streets of New York City for the last few weeks leading up to Christmas morning.

We learn that he was lamenting a very hard breakup of a past serious relationship. He meets a girl, who also seems to have a ton of problems of her own. His life is boring, mundane, and seeming at the moment, painful.

As I pondered the movie, it became clear that the writer and producer wanted us to realize that Christmas is not wonderful and magical for many. It is a time that seems to highlight and magnify how lonely and miserable some people can be. Christmas can really stink for some...if Christmas comes or not, you are still broke, you are still lonely, the sting of that breakup or a struggling marriage is still real, your cancer is still there, your emotional struggles did not leave...

The point is...people are broken regardless if we have a December 25th this year or not.

I get the documentary-style indie concept. Focus a camera on scenarios that are so real that they border on reality t.v., but with actors playing roles. But if nothing is happening, the sociological slide show gets old quickly.

I love the idea of a day in the life of a Christmas tree salesman facing some kind of personal conflict. But there just wasn't enough happening here, nor much background information on the characters.

Indies seem fond of nicely framed shots of depressed people staring at a view or pondering something. They also seem fond of portraying life as depressing and pointless. It's almost as if that's an official point of view of the indie filmmaker community. Or maybe it's because they are of a certain generation and genuinely feel that way.

Having said that, depression does often go hand in hand with personal conflicts in a film, so I'll allow it.

The two main actors did a nice job of portraying real people with understated sadness and anomie. Unfortunately, like other reviewers have noted, the makers failed to develop potential plot lines to their potential. I kept checking the clock on netflix to see how much more time was left. That's not a good sign.

There is only one song, and that's at the end. So they didn't try to manipulate us with music. I suppose that is partly responsible for the documentary vibe.

Nice try. It has redeeming qualities,and something mildly interesting to say about the frailty of the human condition. But I was bored.

This deserves to get much more attention than it has gotten. Well worth the watch (and I can't say that of many modern movies)