White Reindeer Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

White Reindeer Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf November 13, 2022

The holiday season receives a dose of troubling behavior in “White Reindeer,” a darkly comic tale of mourning from writer/director Zach Clark. Working with a limited budget, the helmer brings to the screen an unusual tale of mourning, employing persistent Christmas cheer as a mocking reminder of false sincerity while we watch a woman’s life fall to pieces. Sounds like a treat, right? Well, in many ways “White Reindeer” is a delight, with a sharp script of surprises and an impressively bewildered lead performance from Anna Margaret Hollyman contributing to an amusing, vaguely horrifying journey into psychological paralysis, soaked in eggnog and scored to the repetitive sounds of seasonal hits.

A chipper real estate agent who loves the Christmas season, Suzanne (Anna Margaret Hollyman) is ready to celebrate the holidays with her loving husband, Jeff (Nathan Williams), who’s just received a promotion, securing a future in Hawaii. Unfortunately, after a shopping trip to prepare for Christmas, Suzanne returns home to find Jeff’s lifeless body in the living room, a victim of a violent break-in, with the suspects long gone. Shocked by the loss, Suzanne enters an abyssal state of depression, seizing any type of distraction she can find to keep the pain away. Her difficulties increase when it’s revealed that Jeff once had a mistress in local stripper Fantasia (Laura Lemar-Goldsborough), an African-American woman who fell in love with the secretive meteorologist. Screwing up the courage to meet the exotic dancer, Suzanne ends up befriending the single mother, sucked into a party contingent that takes her on a wild ride of drugs, sex, and shoplifting to help distract from the demands of the real world and the grieving she’s trying to avoid.

Clark doesn’t have much of a budget to work with for “White Reindeer,” forcing the director to get creative with this knotted tale of mounting Christmas depression. What the feature lacks in scope it makes up for in creativity, offering a barbed screenplay that has fun with Christmas overkill and the collision of plastic sentiment with authentic emotion, while keenly observing the steps of grief. Instead of plowing through an immediate reaction to the senseless loss of her husband, Suzanne freezes time out of desperation, unable to shed sleepwear while taking to excessive online shopping to reassure herself, buying gobs of clothes and eventually enough Christmas decorations to put Santa’s workshop to shame (feeding the orgasmic lift of doorstop delivery). Clark doesn’t prefer a usual widow freak-out, investing the art of the slow burn, studying the lead character as she gradually breaks down.

A sense of discovery soon enters the story, finding internet history listings exposing Jeff’s rather graphic sexual appetite, leading to the awkward yet fruitful meeting between Suzanne and Fantasia, who’s looking for a stable friend away from the coke-snorting, dance-crazy fiends she normally associates with. The downward spiral of chemical escape is handled tastefully by the screenplay, which doesn’t emphasize frantic activity, instead noting Suzanne’s need to relinquish routine, joining in impulsive activities to bond with strangers, including a shoplifting raid at a department store. Additional submission is explored with Suzanne’s neighbors, a cheery couple (terrifically embodied by Joe Swanberg and Lydia Hyslop) who host an orgy in their suburban home, where the wandering widow indulges in casual, masked sex just to enjoy human contact again.

“White Reindeer” has an askew sense of humor, but Clark sells absurdity and discomfort with confidence, collecting a steady stream of laughs even as the story visits more than a few dark spaces. It’s a well-balanced screenplay that’s knowing and exploratory, while Hollyman makes a defined impression as Suzanne, maintaining an uneasy appearance of seasonal delight and soul-flattening grief as the character flounders during her favorite time of year, sucking on a candy cane not for treat purposes, but as a pacifier. It’s strong work from an actress who deserves greater exposure.

White Reindeer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation for "White Reindeer" offers a reasonably textured look at frame particulars. The film was captured with the Red Epic camera in 2011, with the production favoring a slight softness to the image, but skin surfaces are defined, exploring varied faces and stages of distress, and full body shots also retain clarity. Costuming is fibrous, exploring cozy sweaters and more ornate exotic dancer gear. Interiors retain decorative additions, including the sights of the holidays, and town and mall tours are dimensional. Colors are muted but recieve a boost with Christmas hues, while club visits bring out defined primaries. Skin tones are natural. Delineation is satisfactory. Encoding isn't stable, resulting in mild blockiness at times, and banding is periodically detected during the viewing experience.

White Reindeer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 Dolby Digital mix favors dialogue exchanges, keeping performances supported with clarity and necessary emphasis. Scoring supports with decent volume, offering satisfactory instrumentation, and soundtrack selections offer reasonable support, though they remain mostly frontal, leaving surrounds to atmospherics, which aren't overly active. Low-end isn't challenged.

White Reindeer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Booklet (26 pages) includes essays by Caroline Golum and Brandon Harris, and an interview with writer/director Zach Clark.

• Commentary features writer/director Zach Clark and various members of the cast and crew.

• Deleted Scenes (8:03, HD) are offered.

• "Endless Fireplace" (2:00, HD) is a short loop for all your yule log needs.

• "Practical Uses for Major Works of Modern Cinema" (:54, HD) is a short film starring "White Reindeer" producer Melodie Sisk.

• And an "Uncensored" Trailer (1:53, HD) is included.

White Reindeer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Inching away from the normal Christmas movie experience, "White Reindeer" retains an unconventional sense of awakening as it indulges in inappropriate behavior. It's small in scale, but fulfilling as it surveys a mental breakdown, toying with seasonal imagery and a friendly sense of self- destruction, bringing Clark into view as a director worth paying attention to.