White Reindeer

"An unflinching, at times alternately funny and full of despair. Lead actress Anna Margaret Hollman is fantastic. "

"White Reindeer follows a newly widowed woman as she struggles to cope with her new reality while also meeting new people and doing a bit of cocaine. This all takes place leading up to Christmas, with its usual overabundance of cheer. I guess there's nothing wrong with this film, it just kind of felt a bit flat to me. The characters really weren't all that interesting or enjoyable to watch in my opinion, so I never really felt fully invested in their struggles. It felt almost as if this film was in this sort of gray area in which it was trying to be really really dark, but was afraid to really go for it. For me, this resulted in a somewhat vanilla experience in which I kept waiting for things to ramp up or get really interesting, but they never did. I don't doubt some folks will enjoy this, it's well made in many respects...I just didn't dig it personally."