The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureCinemaShows, on demand & home video

Happiest Season

Happiest Season | Movie review
27 November 2020
Rosamund Kelby
Avatar
Rosamund Kelby
27 November 2020

Movie and show review

Rosamund Kelby

Happiest Season

★★★★★

Release date

23rd November 2020

Links

TwitterWebsite

Happiest Season might sound like another twee holiday hit that strangles you with tinsel before tying you up under the tree, and in some ways it is; but it also quite literally upends said tree and rewrites the Christmas movie entirely. Clea Duvall‘s latest offering is a bold and brilliant LGBTQI+ romcom that subverts an overwhelmingly heteronormative genre by challenging worldviews one family at a time.

When Harper (Mackenzie Davis), intoxicated by the festive spirit, invites her girlfriend Abby (Kristen Stewart) to stay for Christmas, the future looks merry and bright. However, when the latter finds out en route that the former is still in the closet, grand plans dissolve into a fraught family affair. As Harper’s father (Victor Garber) runs for mayor, Abby is forced to tiptoe around this conservative household, skirting her partner’s passive-aggressive mother (Mary Steenburgen) and insufferable sisters Sloane (Alison Brie) and Jane (Mary Holland). Old flings come to light, and as the couple’s secret festers, the “happiest season” snowballs from strained smiles into a full-on brawl.

Stewart is our shining guide through this flick, her wry humour and convincing heart keeping us invested even as we witness the cringeworthy horrors that unfold – including pancakes shaped as snowmen with bacon scarves, no less. The whole cast cover a wonderfully repellent spectrum, from Steenburgen’s performance of patronising pity towards Stewart’s orphaned protagonist to Brie’s cold disregard and Holland’s suffocating enthusiasm. Batting for the other side is Dan Levy, whose perfect portrayal as Abby’s best friend and the world’s worst pet-sitter provides the relief we crave whilst going some way to alleviate the shattering loss felt after the final series of Schitt’s Creek. The whole ensemble is supported by a tight script that isn’t too proud for visual gags – a scene spent in an actual closet is a particular highlight.

But aside from the comedy, the screenplay touches on some delicate issues. Most impressively, despite allowing Harper to frustrate us to the point of exasperation, her character’s inability to come out (until dragged out) is given the context it requires, her sexuality smothered by patriarchal country clubs and political campaigns while an untethered Abby drinks to a live soundtrack of joyous drag queens. The film addresses the consequences of homophobia without letting it truly take hold, and a melodramatic climax gives way to a refreshingly stripped-back moment of emotion in the unaesthetic setting of a petrol station. If you’re willing to embrace the inevitable segment that ends every Christmas movie, in which all of the characters have dramatically altered their personalities to become altogether better humans, you may just be transported to a better world.

★★★★★

Rosamund Kelby

Happiest Season is released digitally on demand on 26th November 2020.

Watch the trailer for Happiest Season here:

Related Itemsfeaturedreview

More in Cinema

The White Tiger

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Female filmmakers lead nominees for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards

The editorial unit
Read More

Persian Lessons: Exclusive new clip

The editorial unit
Read More

The Exception

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Baby Done

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Quo Vadis, Aida?

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Persian Lessons

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Coming together in courage: 76 Days

★★★★★
Georgia Howlett
Read More

The New Music

★★★★★
Dan Meier
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Rosamund Kelby

Happiest Season

★★★★★

Release date

23rd November 2020

Links

TwitterWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • You Me at Six – Suckapunch
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • An interview with Ifrah Ismael: Tales from the Front Line and other stories
    Theatre
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Persian Lessons
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The White Tiger
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Female filmmakers lead nominees for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards
    Cinema
  • Persian Lessons: Exclusive new clip
    Cinema
  • Jeremiah Fraites: Piano Piano
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Quo Vadis, Aida?
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ten short literary collections to get you back into reading
    Literature
  • Mayor
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

100% Wolf | Movie review
Ten cookery books that should be under every foodie’s tree this Christmas