Well, the Indie Spirit Award nominees have just recently been announced, and some fine films were recognized: everything from awards frontrunners like “Carol” and “Spotlight” to slightly lesser-known but equally rich works like the trans drama “Tangerine” and the shattering coming-of-age tale “James White.” 2015 has been a wonderful year for independent cinema, a fact that is reflected in the many nominations garnered by fantastic films (other films to receive positive attention were Cary Fukunaga’s “Beasts of No Nation” and Lenny Abrahamson’s “Room”).
One film that quietly made a splash at the Indie Spirit awards that you might not have heard much about is Charles Poekel’s “Christmas, Again.” Shot by Sean Price Williams (who also lensed Alex Ross Perry‘s “Queen of Earth”) and starring indie stalwarts Kentucker Audley, Hannah Gross and Jason Shelton, “Christmas, Again” tells the story of Noel, a Christmas tree salesman for whom the holidays are a time of heartache and pain, and who is possibly rescued from his downward spiral by a kind-seeming woman (Gross) with a similarly checkered past.
A trailer for the film has just arrived, and it has a wintry, invitingly low-key tone that should make it an ideal fix for indie cineastes craving an unorthodox holiday filmgoing experience. Critical reaction for the film has been (mostly) positive: our own Jenni Miller dubbed the film “whispercore,” saying that “… [‘Christmas, Again’] is a quiet film, but one that could perhaps use a bit more buzz of the holiday season.” Fans of the burgeoning New York independent scene will want to check it out, as will viewers who are less pre-disposed to more ephemeral holiday-based entertainment (“The Night Before,” anyone?)
Watch the brief, haunting trailer below. “Christmas, Again” will see a limited release on December 4th.