Kentucker Audley
Director, writer, actor, editor Kentucker Audley has been working in independent film in various capacities for a while now. A self-starter, he began as a director and a writer, but he’s mostly becoming known now for his acting. He’s appeared in a bunch of things (he’s always good, always fascinating to watch: one of those actors whose handsome face is mysterious and completely transparent at the same time). His most recent film as an actor is Christmas, Again (out in theatres now in limited release, and also available on VOD), and it’s not exactly an ANTI-Christmas movie, but a Christmas movie that understands the melancholy of the season to people who are hurting, alone, on the periphery (or who work “retail”, and selling Christmas trees definitely qualifies).
Kentucker Audley, “Christmas, Again”
I reviewed Christmas, Again for Rogerebert.com. I loved it.
It’s my kind of movie. It lets you into an extremely specific seasonal sub-culture (the lives/routines of those who sell Christmas trees on the corner in New York City every December). It features a lead character who doesn’t say much, but whose experience fills up the entire movie. It’s not a literal film. The dialogue does not drive the plot. There is no plot. When characters talk in the film, you can feel the currents of chaos that drive so many conversations in real-life, the zig-zags, the silences, the sudden shifts, the unresolved feelings, and these energies/rhythms are so rarely portrayed in film, because so many films are so concerned with “story”. Christmas, Again is a film that feels no pressure to be anything other than what it is. It is not manipulative. It doesn’t strain for the brass ring of “meaning”. God spare us from meaning handed to us in Power Point!
Hannah Gross, “Christmas, Again”
Written and directed by Charles Poekel (who spent a couple of years as one of those Christmas-tree guys, and who set out to write a script based on that experience), Christmas, Again feels like a very pure movie. By that I mean: if compromises were made, they are not at the expense of the characters, of the mood, of the overall lack of story. Because there IS an arc here. The arc can be seen in the face of its star, Kentucker Audley. Look no further.
I get very excited when I “meet” a new actor. I get excited when suddenly I become aware of someone intriguing, so clearly talented in his own unique way. I get the sense, from his transparency in Christmas, Again (his emotions so clear, although he has zero language to explain them) that he could fit into any number of diverse roles. He does not appear to be limited. He’s in a new movie coming out called Funny Bunny (I am looking forward to it), and he is also busy fundraising for a couple of upcoming projects he wants to direct.
Dan Mecca at Film Stage interviewed Kentucker Audley about Christmas, Again as well as all of the other stuff Audley’s got going on.
I was especially interested in Audley’s understanding/conception of the nearly-wordless character he plays in Christmas, Again and the challenges that provided him as an actor. Audley says:
So basically the process for me was withholding. For the first hour withholding any kind of expression or life in the face of the eyes. And just lean into that difficult time I feel like we can all relate to and let whatever’s washing around me, just let it be there and don’t find satisfaction in anything. And then when I do shift to find some joy in the moment ,and you really notice that because you haven’t seen it and you haven’t realized you haven’t seen it. So it’s a pretty simple shift but it somehow – I think it works in the film because we show so much restraint that any small, little shift is noticeable and recognizable.
Really good. Audley did what he set out to do.
Yesterday, I was walking through the East Village, and passed many a Christmas-tree corner, and I looked at the guys sawing down the trunks, and the guys wrapping up the trees in wire, and I thought of Christmas, Again. I have walked by Christmas-tree-sellers every December in New York for two decades now, and while I have always enjoyed the sharp swift smell of fir, the festive sight of those lined-up trees, the excited people buying wreaths/trees and then lugging them off down the sidewalk to their nearby apartments, I never really thought about how the whole operation works. The Christmas-tree sellers appear from out of nowhere (seemingly) and then vanish just as quickly. Who are they? What do they do from January to December? They can’t JUST sell Christmas trees. So what else is going on? Christmas, Again shows you. This is the beauty of remaining very specific. It can be enlightening, it can open your eyes so you actually SEE differently, but the very specificity of the story helps express something that is, ultimately, universal.
Seek it out.
Here’s the trailer:
