Kringle Time (2021)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on August 23, 2021 @ tonymacklin.net.

Kringle Time is an indie with a clever concept. But a lot of its execution is lugubrious. It becomes a convoluted tale. It's more a wayward slog than a provocative romp.

It begins in a past time with a young boy watching black-and-white television as his parents argue. He is watching his favorite show - Kringle Time. The children's show has a star named Kringles, and he is a snowman with a lasso.

The film doesn't name the show Kringles' Time, even though the character is named Kringles. [Correct punctuation in our contemporary time is like cave drawing.]

The movie jumps ahead to 25 years later, and the boy is now a middle-aged man - Jerry Perkins (Benny Elledge) - who is station manager for the Public Access Station, which still runs Kringle Time, with its long-time actor Herb Kelley (Vernon Wells) still portraying the snowman.

Jerry's entire life has been committed to Kringles.

When Jerry finally gets his chance to be Kringles, he tries to be true to the symbolic figure. But he falters wildly in his quest.

Benny Elledge is acceptable as the confused Jerry, and Alyssa Keegan adds effectively to the conflict as the Executive Director of the Goshen Public Access Station.

The supporting cast is a motley bunch with superficial definition. Their dialogue smacks of improv, but maybe it's just mediocre writing.

The direction by Matthew Lucas makes a yeoman effort in trying to keep the sprawling content under control. At times, he doesn't.

The film ends with the obvious moral that you have to be yourself, but it's a spasmodic journey getting there.

Sometimes good comes out of bad. In the early 1950s in Philadelphia, Bob Horn's Bandstand was a television success. But Horn was fired after a drunk driving arrest and an accusation of statutory rape, of which he was acquitted.

The show was replaced by American Bandstand with Dick Clark, which became a national phenomenon.

Kringle Time is no American Bandstand.

© 2000-2023 Tony Macklin