Happiest Season was a 2020 release, added to Hulu a year ago during that time when cable channels are running round-the-clock, paint-by-numbers Christmas movies. Happiest Season centers on lesbian couple Abby and Harper. Abby doesn't really like Christmas, but is willing to open herself up to it when Harper suggests Abby come to her parents' house this year. But Harper hasn't yet come out to her family, and her intentions to do so this year are derailed by a series of complications.
The setup here sounds admittedly trite, but it turns out that this movie is actually really good! That starts by being a movie about queer people actually made by queer people. The story comes from actor-turned-director Clea DuVall, who co-wrote this script with Mary Holland and then directed it herself. And she mustered a hell of a cast (including many out LGBT actors) to be in it.
Happiest Season stars Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis as Abby and Harper. Those who only think of Stewart from Twilight will fail to grasp that she's actually a very good performer. (She's going to be Oscar-nominated this year for Spencer, and at the moment I'm writing this is the slight odds-on favorite to actually win Best Actress.) The relationship between these two characters and performers at the heart of this movie is perfect; their dynamic feels lived in and natural, and so all the ups and downs of the plot work.
Harper's family is full of great actors with a wonderful balance of comedic and dramatic chops. Mary Steenburgen and Victor Garber play her parents, while Alison Brie and Mary Holland (the movie's co-writer) play her two sisters. Each character has an arc of their own, even as the script is mainly engineered to put maximum pressure on the two leads.
Aubrey Plaza brings her signature withering aloofness to ex-girlfriend Riley, while Dan Levy plays broad as "gay bestie" John. While both actors get to display their well-known comic chops, each actually gets a notable dramatic scene that shows off another side of their considerable talents. I don't just mean dramatic "within the context of a comedy," but legitimately emotional scenes.
I went into Happiest Season expecting little more than LGBT representation within arguably the most trope-tastic genre in movies: the holiday rom-com. (Indeed -- I also got exactly that when I watched Netflix's Single All the Way. There's a movie I'll probably just skip in favor of other stuff in my blog backlog. Simply: it's an as-advertised "gay people can be in mediocre Hallmark-style Christmas movies too!" movie.) But Happiest Season was actually moving, actually good. In fact, it somehow landed as my second favorite movie released in 2020.
If it's too late now for you to be interested in a Christmas film, perhaps make a note for December 2022. Happiest Season really was a pleasant surprise. I give it a B+.
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