White Reindeer

Not sure where I read about this wonderful indie, but I’m glad I did. Zach Clark’s dark and sullen suburban dramedy White Reindeer takes place the month before Christmas. Suzanne Barrington’s meteorologist husband has just been murdered. In the aftermath, Suzanne’s grief takes on extremely odd forms of introspection, excess, connection, and role-play. This isn’t your grandmother’s grief movie. Anna Margaret Hollyman plays Suzanne flawlessly. This is an anti-Christmas Christmas film not meant for you to realize how much you hate Christmas. Instead the chaos of Suzanne’s grief takes her places she’d never imagined in her wildest dreams just days before her first Christmas without her husband. White Reindeer is an indie lover’s film. I ate it up. It’s not perfect, but it’s got that rare raw beauty that rarely shows up in films, something I basically live for. If you like dark films and don’t mind the holiday getting skewered and eventually redeemed, check out the beautiful White Reindeer. 4 out of 5.