SXSW Review: "Audrey"

By Abe Friedtanzer

Siblings have surely wished for a brief frustrated moment when they were young that they were only children, and parents might have also momentarily considered whether their lives would be easier if they hadn’t had a child. But those thoughts shouldn’t linger much, and if they do, it’s probably not a good thing to say out loud. Audrey tells an entertaining story of three people who find that things are a lot breezier when one member of their family is in a coma and no longer actively complicating their lives…

Audrey (Josephine Blazier) is the daughter of Ronnie (Jackie van Beek) and Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor) and the older sister of Norah (Hannah Diviney). She sucks up all the oxygen in any room, and she only ever really thinks of herself. When she suffers an accident and ends up in a coma, it provides a new opportunity for the other three family members to shine. Norah has a chance to connect with Audrey’s boyfriend, who seems all too willing to forget his comatose partner to get with her sister instead. Cormack explores a romantic relationship with another man that starts as merely suggestive and quickly turns sexual. And Ronnie gets the best deal of all: she enrolls in an acting program posing as Audrey so that she can finally achieve her dreams of becoming a famous actress.

This isn’t a film that’s meant to be taken entirely seriously, and all its events are presented as exaggerated comedy. The tone is set from the very start when Audrey is still going around causing chaos, and the breath of fresh air that everyone feels once she’s no longer bothering them all the time allows them to fully indulge in something new and unexpected that, for once, doesn’t put them second. The heightening of the antics makes this a far more enjoyable ride than a straightforward narrative might, allowing audiences to see for themselves why it is that Audrey is better off as a forgotten idea rather than a living, breathing nuisance dragging her entire family down.

Audrey comes from director Natalie Bailey, whose extensive TV credits include Avenue 5, Run, and the very underrated Loaded. She clearly gets comedy and pacing, and works well off Lou Sanz’s first solo feature script. The entire cast is fun to watch, particularly van Beek as she fails to truly blend in to younger surroundings and Diviney as she watches in amazement as she’s finally noticed by the people around her after living in her sister’s shadow for so long. Ultimately, it’s Blazier who really makes this film work, around and memorable for just long enough to make everyone miserable and show audiences what it is that they’re missing. B

Audrey is screening in the Narrative Feature Competition at the 2024 SXSW Film and TV Festival.

Comments

[thevoid99]

I'd like to see this.

[Duane Chadwick]

The film is said to be an entertaining comedy that uses the technique of exaggeration (geometry dash meltdown) to highlight the absurdity of the situation.