HAPPIEST SEASON

FILM OUT NOW DIGITAL HD

One reason why this Christmas is already better than Last Christmas.

Anyone who found Kristen Stewart’s latent sass and killer haircut the sole redeeming features of Charlie’s Angels will feel Christmas has come early with this sweet, funny and heartwarming kick up the arse of the heteronormative Yuletide romcom genre.

She plays orphaned Abby, a cool chick who loves her girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis) but not the festive season. She’ll make an exception though when Harper invites her home for the holidays. As we might expect from a film pitched between Meet The Parents and Christmas Vacation, things don’t go well when Harper reveals she hasn’t come out to her folks and the duo must hide their relationship during the stay with judge-y mom (Mary Steenburgen), running-for-mayor dad (Victor Garber) and bitchy/bonkers sisters…

Tapping all the tropes (small-town pedantry, awkward parties, troublesome exes) but flipping them to an inclusive and smart romance, Happiest Season has its Christmas cake and eats it. Clea DuVall’s film is progressive and punchy but also disarmingly romantic and unapologetically seasonal. Stewart and Davis are adorable together and while supporting characters are broad, there’s truth both in the depiction of the suffocation of enforced family fun, and in pressures on authentic identity. Dan Levy steals every scene, playing the gay bestie whose support isn’t just shouldercrying but criticising the patriarchy, sexism and toxic relationships. Very merry indeed.