Palm Springs 2025 Review: AUDREY, Darkly Comic Identity Issues

Odd as it may sound, the daughter with cerebral palsy is the most normal one in her family. At least she knows who and what she is.

Audrey
The film screens at the Palm Springs Film Festival on Saturday, January 4; Sunday, January 5; and Monday, January 6.

Written by Lou Sanz with a biting smirk and a laser wit, Audrey is directed by Natalie Bailey with a keen eye for staging her and pacing, only occasionally pausing the outrageous hijinks for a dramatic reflection, before hurtling onward to the narrative's logical conclusion.

Revolving around a nuclear family unit that has long ago left the dysfunctional label in tatters, Audrey is the rare, single-named title that has two titular characters. First, there is Audrey, portrayed with great, nervous energy by Josephine Blazier (True History of the Kelly Gang); she is a boisterous 17-year-old girl who is bound for glory under the tutelage of her mother, Ronnie (Jackie Van Beek, What We Do in the Shadows), an actress who retired from acting to raise her children, yet yearns to return to the dramatic arts, a desire that she cultivates by running a school in her basement.

Then, there is the other Audrey, an identify assumed by her mother Ronnie after her daughter suffers an injury that leaves her in a coma; not wanting the girl to miss out on a rare opportunity to take an acting course by the renowned Lucinda (Gael Ballantyne), Ronnie seizes the day by impersonating Audrey -- badly, before it's the best she can do -- in the acting class. Really, though, she wants to recapture her glory days, especially after the spiteful Audrey insulted her talents, and renounced her mother's ambitious plans for her -- just before her coma-inducing accident.

Establishing its tone early with a scene where hapless husband and father Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay-Taylor, The Dry 2) is caught pleasuring himself with a handheld device by young Audrey, to her shock and horror, the film consistently eschews political correctness with a delightfully devious spirit that manages to mock mother Ronnie's continued ambitions, father Cormack's wavering sexual identify -- he's attracted to a handsome bloke, Burke (Aaron Fa'aoso), who runs a 'porn for Jesus' site -- and young Audrey and her friends, who are even more shallow than she is.

Amidst the madness, Norah Lipsick (Hannah Diviney, Latecomers) stands out for her comic delivery of ribald dialogue and sensible attitude toward her family, who are all out-of-touch with anything resembling reality. That applies to the universe in which Audrey, the film, exists: entirely askew, totally tipsy, and consistently funny.