A cute but simple love story set at Christmas. Writer Director Alexandra Swarens', this is her senior film. It has many of the things a family Christmas story would have, snow angels, a Christmas tree (even if it does lean a little to the left), but things here are deeper than they appear.
Reflective by nature, Swarens perceives life like someone who's lived it. She has a strong preoccupation with time and the holidays are a way of slowing it down. She's a hopeless romantic in every sense of the term. Obstacles to love include time, distance, or the other woman. Her supporting LGBQ casts are always real and likeable (you could expect to run into them anywhere, at the store or your own apartment building). She's highly sentimental. Her work is phlegmatic but blissful.
Olive (Swarens) is a down-on-her-luck working girl with a heart of gold doing what she can to make a living while pursuing an acting career. Taylor (Olivia Buckle) is a successful businesswoman looking for an actor to play her ex-girlfriend over the holidays. This she does to fool her parents who've never met her girlfriend and don't know they've broken up. Taylor's idea is half-baked at best but she's desperate. Olive is as well, so she accepts Taylor's offer. It might even be fun. Several glasses of wine will help, until everyone starts forgetting who's who. It's a straightforward premise. But there's something hiding beneath all those rosy cheeks. There are no pets or children at this tribal gathering. Uncle Harold is at least two lanes away from dirty-old-man syndrome and the story of the robbery is a little unsettling. No one is seen arriving and no one is seen leaving. Like the mysterious girl at the coffee shop, they come and go as if they were never there. First, Olive is introduced to Taylor's parents who warm up to her immediately, though she does have a close call when they probe for more details about what she does for work. Olive then helps the family prepare for the Christmas party but it prove challenging. (It's just my opinion, but if you have ten people at three and a half cookies per person, it's clear that some of those cookies will have to leave until the guests can bring more icing. No one will be spreading any holiday cheer if the turkey's dry and everyone's huffing fumes.) Taylor eventually realizes she's in too deep and wants to call the whole thing off. Olive, however, tells Taylor she should tell her parents the truth and even offers to do it with her. But things aren't as black and white as that because Taylor is afraid of hurting everyone's feelings. To cut a long story short, Taylor decides to tell her mom the truth only to find that she already knew, knew all along, knew about everything. But how? Her daughter's social media page (Yeah, Taylor, Duh!).
Swarens is proving herself a competent filmmaker. There are two major centerpieces. The first was the auditioning for Jess. A colorful array of characters is displayed. The heavier girl should have her own character in a TV series, and the bashful auditionee was sufficiently annoying. I'm guessing we didn't cut to Taylor because Olivia was trying too hard not to laugh (unless this clip an outtake). The second and main centerpiece is the family Christmas party. With so little room and even fewer people, this scene would be very difficult to shoot. But with skillful blocking, editing and sound Swarens pulls it off. This will come in handy for her on future projects. These same blocking and timing techniques can be used for any scene, whether it's a house, a store, a bank (of any kind), gas station or supermarket.
Swarens has also proven to be quite funny. The scene where Olive's car won't start, and then it begins to rain shows comedic timing. She was right to leave that in the script. The exchange between her and Kai rehearsing her lines near the end of the film was clever and very well acted.
A Christmas story is inevitably a family but it's a queer little family. Swarens has no social media to speak of, so all we can hope to learn of her is from her art in which she goes all in only, according to her, to disappoint herself (I hope that's not the case here). Looking through the fog we can see a few siblings. Older people seem to have been her primary caregivers, and she could possibly be a foster child. As a writer Swarens will draw from others' experiences as well as her own. It's not much to go by. There's definitely some sisterly rivalry, perhaps against someone who has a flair for the theatrical (the best villains always do), who's also artistic and knows the business like the back of her hand. I'm also seeing a third talented sister, one of extreme intelligence, perhaps more than the others, someone with the power and presence of mind to unite the other two (when she isn't egging them on) and keep the balance between art and commercialism. If these three silly sisters could team up somehow it would be a powerful trio indeed.
Here is what I think. Swarens was either raised by her grandfather or elderly foster parents. One of them passed away, then the other, and even more, dyeing off one by one, until that generation was gone, and when it died, much of Swarens' world went with it, and she drifted into wayward paths, finding heartache and desperation, but love as well, studying life, herself and people, capturing her thoughts in her writing and her art. Olive lays Taylor's head down on her pillow as if putting her to sleep, the same way her father did when putting Swarens to sleep, the same way little Alexandra did when putting her doll to sleep, and then kissed her forehead the same way she did when she laid her father to rest. An act of love, caring, and responsibility. But there's evidence she returned home after 7-8 years(?) so we may be chasing a Chimera.
Some might see the insinuation of a bed scene in a family movie a bit risky, but compare this with the bed scene in City of Trees (using the same co-star) and you'll see that Swarens here is showing incredible restraint. She's showing restraint throughout the entire film truth be told.
The real testament to Swarens' skill is in the final scene. It takes place on a semi-busy street near a bus stop which also would have been stressful to shoot (and even a little expensive). The lighting and the music were just right. The acting was just right. Any little girl would understand the body language and the emotion and will wish to live in that scene forever.
The overall impression is that Swarens is a master of her craft and a filmmaker who knows what she's doing. Wherever she decides to go she will do well.
Has Alexandra gone commercial? Or was she simply going back for more light, back to where it all started, gathering together her girlhood friends, handing each of them their parts, getting them to reenact her favorite scenes from her favorite movies. Maybe she finally reunited with her brother, or father, or both. It wasn't such a bad little tree. It's a good tree, really. It just needed a little love.
Reflective by nature, Swarens perceives life like someone who's lived it. She has a strong preoccupation with time and the holidays are a way of slowing it down. She's a hopeless romantic in every sense of the term. Obstacles to love include time, distance, or the other woman. Her supporting LGBQ casts are always real and likeable (you could expect to run into them anywhere, at the store or your own apartment building). She's highly sentimental. Her work is phlegmatic but blissful.
Olive (Swarens) is a down-on-her-luck working girl with a heart of gold doing what she can to make a living while pursuing an acting career. Taylor (Olivia Buckle) is a successful businesswoman looking for an actor to play her ex-girlfriend over the holidays. This she does to fool her parents who've never met her girlfriend and don't know they've broken up. Taylor's idea is half-baked at best but she's desperate. Olive is as well, so she accepts Taylor's offer. It might even be fun. Several glasses of wine will help, until everyone starts forgetting who's who. It's a straightforward premise. But there's something hiding beneath all those rosy cheeks. There are no pets or children at this tribal gathering. Uncle Harold is at least two lanes away from dirty-old-man syndrome and the story of the robbery is a little unsettling. No one is seen arriving and no one is seen leaving. Like the mysterious girl at the coffee shop, they come and go as if they were never there. First, Olive is introduced to Taylor's parents who warm up to her immediately, though she does have a close call when they probe for more details about what she does for work. Olive then helps the family prepare for the Christmas party but it prove challenging. (It's just my opinion, but if you have ten people at three and a half cookies per person, it's clear that some of those cookies will have to leave until the guests can bring more icing. No one will be spreading any holiday cheer if the turkey's dry and everyone's huffing fumes.) Taylor eventually realizes she's in too deep and wants to call the whole thing off. Olive, however, tells Taylor she should tell her parents the truth and even offers to do it with her. But things aren't as black and white as that because Taylor is afraid of hurting everyone's feelings. To cut a long story short, Taylor decides to tell her mom the truth only to find that she already knew, knew all along, knew about everything. But how? Her daughter's social media page (Yeah, Taylor, Duh!).
Swarens is proving herself a competent filmmaker. There are two major centerpieces. The first was the auditioning for Jess. A colorful array of characters is displayed. The heavier girl should have her own character in a TV series, and the bashful auditionee was sufficiently annoying. I'm guessing we didn't cut to Taylor because Olivia was trying too hard not to laugh (unless this clip an outtake). The second and main centerpiece is the family Christmas party. With so little room and even fewer people, this scene would be very difficult to shoot. But with skillful blocking, editing and sound Swarens pulls it off. This will come in handy for her on future projects. These same blocking and timing techniques can be used for any scene, whether it's a house, a store, a bank (of any kind), gas station or supermarket.
Swarens has also proven to be quite funny. The scene where Olive's car won't start, and then it begins to rain shows comedic timing. She was right to leave that in the script. The exchange between her and Kai rehearsing her lines near the end of the film was clever and very well acted.
A Christmas story is inevitably a family but it's a queer little family. Swarens has no social media to speak of, so all we can hope to learn of her is from her art in which she goes all in only, according to her, to disappoint herself (I hope that's not the case here). Looking through the fog we can see a few siblings. Older people seem to have been her primary caregivers, and she could possibly be a foster child. As a writer Swarens will draw from others' experiences as well as her own. It's not much to go by. There's definitely some sisterly rivalry, perhaps against someone who has a flair for the theatrical (the best villains always do), who's also artistic and knows the business like the back of her hand. I'm also seeing a third talented sister, one of extreme intelligence, perhaps more than the others, someone with the power and presence of mind to unite the other two (when she isn't egging them on) and keep the balance between art and commercialism. If these three silly sisters could team up somehow it would be a powerful trio indeed.
Here is what I think. Swarens was either raised by her grandfather or elderly foster parents. One of them passed away, then the other, and even more, dyeing off one by one, until that generation was gone, and when it died, much of Swarens' world went with it, and she drifted into wayward paths, finding heartache and desperation, but love as well, studying life, herself and people, capturing her thoughts in her writing and her art. Olive lays Taylor's head down on her pillow as if putting her to sleep, the same way her father did when putting Swarens to sleep, the same way little Alexandra did when putting her doll to sleep, and then kissed her forehead the same way she did when she laid her father to rest. An act of love, caring, and responsibility. But there's evidence she returned home after 7-8 years(?) so we may be chasing a Chimera.
Some might see the insinuation of a bed scene in a family movie a bit risky, but compare this with the bed scene in City of Trees (using the same co-star) and you'll see that Swarens here is showing incredible restraint. She's showing restraint throughout the entire film truth be told.
The real testament to Swarens' skill is in the final scene. It takes place on a semi-busy street near a bus stop which also would have been stressful to shoot (and even a little expensive). The lighting and the music were just right. The acting was just right. Any little girl would understand the body language and the emotion and will wish to live in that scene forever.
The overall impression is that Swarens is a master of her craft and a filmmaker who knows what she's doing. Wherever she decides to go she will do well.
Has Alexandra gone commercial? Or was she simply going back for more light, back to where it all started, gathering together her girlhood friends, handing each of them their parts, getting them to reenact her favorite scenes from her favorite movies. Maybe she finally reunited with her brother, or father, or both. It wasn't such a bad little tree. It's a good tree, really. It just needed a little love.
