We are thrilled to be able to show “After All” a movie directed by Killington’s own Kerstin Karlhuber on May 20th at 6:00 pm. Kerstin will be joining us for questions after the movie.
Directed by Kerstin Karlhuber and written by Jack Bryant, “After All” takes place in 2025, in the Texas cities of Austin and Shelbyville. The movie was filmed in Texas. “After All” is Karlhuber’s second feature film and is loosely based on real experiences in her family’s life. According to the movie’s production notes: “‘After All’ is partnering with the KINDR Foundation, whose mission is to provide positive mental health habits for people of all ages who seek more joy in their lives.” The notes also mention that it is also allied with the non-profit group Caring Across Generations, which is focused on caregiving for aging adults.
In “After All,” rebellious and short-tempered Ellen Sharpe (played by Erika Christensen), who is in her early 40s, is living in Austin. She has just gotten fired from her job as a sales clerk in a record store because of chronic tardiness and for being extremely rude to a demanding customer. Ellen’s life is in disarray. She’s unemployed with no job prospects lined up, she abuses alcohol, she’s been having car problems that she can’t afford to fix, and her widowed mother Verna Sharpe (who lives in the small city of Shelbyville) has recently had a stroke and is no longer able to fully take care of herself. Before having the stroke, Verna was showing signs of having dementia, which gets worse after the stroke.
Meanwhile, Ellen’s estranged 16-year-old daughter Haley Sharpe (played by Kiara Muhammad) has lived most of her life with Verna. The movie doesn’t go into all the details about why Ellen hasn’t been in Haley’s life for many years, but it’s implied that Ellen willingly gave up custody of Haley to Verna because of Ellen’s unstable lifestyle. Ellen later reveals to Haley that Verna told Ellen to stay away from Haley. Verna is a loving and mostly even-tempered person, but she also has a feisty side that comes out when she feels that she or her loved ones are being mistreated or disrespected.
Haley’s father, who was not married to Ellen, is not in Haley’s life and is mentioned only briefly in the movie as someone who had an ill-fated romance with Ellen. Haley is an introverted loner, who is bullied at her school by two “mean girl” classmates named Monica (played by Sierra McCormick) and Alison (played by Allie McCarthy), who cruelly insult Haley because of Haley’s family situation. These bullies also try to intimidate Haley by doing things like throwing a wad of paper at her. Haley self-harms by scratching herself hard enough to draw blood to cope with her inner turmoil. She mostly doesn’t defend herself against being harassed until an incident that pushes her too far.
When Ellen comes back to Shelbyville to help take care of Verna, it triggers memories, resentments, and unresolved issues in the family. The memories include Verna, Ellen and Verna’s son/Ellen’s older brother Leonard “Lenny” Sharpe (played by Austin P. McKenzie) suffering in a household where Verna’s husband Walter Sharpe (played by David James Elliott) was an angry, racist and very abusive tyrant. Ellen and Verna are also dealing with their grief over the death of Lenny, a U.S. Army private first class who died in combat in 2003, when he was 20 years old. Verna had begged Lenny not to enlist in the Army, but he wanted to enlist to escape from Walter.
“After All” has a lot of emotionally painful issues, such as infant death, mental illness, self-harming, caregiving for a physically disabled person, substance abuse and attempted suicide. During the course of the story, Ellen must decide if she will stay in Shelbyville to take care of Verna and Haley, or if Ellen will go back to Austin and put Verna in a nursing facility, which would mean that Haley could end up in the foster care system.
