*WARNING! This article may contain spoilers of the film!*
Watching this movie will make any queer heart flutter. This has been a long awaited epiphany for the christmas movies that plague our screen every year. Hallmark movies full of love and romance have been gracing our screens as long as I can remember. But they all have one fatal flaw-there homogeneous portrayal of christmas as straight and white.
The Happiest Season is a classic portrayal of family drama, three sisters fighting for their parents’ affection all struggling to be the perfect daughter. Harper (Mackenzie Davis) takes her girlfriend Abby (Kristen Stewart) home for the holidays. Cute right? Wrong! Harper is still tucked away in the closet and doesn’t tell Abby until they are in the car on the way there. This movie intertwines drama with the classic story of forbidden love.
Christmas movies have needed a revamp especially in the past few years. Producers are reimagining the same scenarios with the same characters and the same endings. Boring! Where is the colour that truly represents Christmas? Christmas truly is the happiest season which is why it is accompanied by so much glitter. This movie is a must watch because it really does spark an immense amount of joy.
Is it a little awkward to watch with mom and dad when you just came out last summer? Yes, yes it is. But the best part of The Happiest Season is the level of inclusion that it brings to the big screen. In my eyes Christmas movies are always perfect and portray perfection, and this film takes it to new levels. To really top off this amazing movie it has Dan Levy– or as everyone knows him, David from the lovable TV show, Schitts Creek. He plays Kristen Stewart’s hillarious gay-best-friend whio is by her side in a pinch.
I definitely wish this amazing movie had more of the amazing Dan Levy. He does deliver memorable one liners and comradery that makes him a major character in my eyes. His performance as always is well done and relatable in every way.
Being part of the LGBTQA+ community, this movie is really just relatable. The viewer can honestly understand both sides of the story. You feel for Abby but you understand why Harper has yet to come out to her perfectionist of a family. No one wants to be the odd-man-out when it feels like you’re fighting for perfection and love from parents. Harper has two sisters, one who has the ideal family but quit her job to be the perfect mom, and the other who is misunderstood and never included.
The Happiest Season is past its delivery date: as a Christmas movie with a diverse family dynamic should have been released ten years ago. We needed Christmas inclusion a long time but better late than never. We are past the Hallmark Christmases that have been plaguing our screens for so long. Christmas isn’t meant to be perfect– the reality is, it can be messy! This movie is important to a queer audience because it moves past what we typically see on our christmas screens. Christmas has turned into a homogenouse, predictable time in the film industry. This movie shows the difficulties in coming out from Abby and Harper. And this movie shows a very real portrayal of what ‘messy’ can mean. Everyone should put this on their must watch (although it might be a little awkward to watch with dear old mom and dad if you’re still in a closet of sorts).
Kristen Stewart does more than play a relatable character she makes you feel all the christmas feels. Aubrey Plaza graces the screen with her gorgeous presence and plays the scorned(ish) ex girlfriend of the lying Harper. They both pull off some badass suits and make you #swoon. Girl crush Wednesday am I right ladies? Riley is such an authentic character, she is the one that has snide comments thrown at her by Harpers parents continuing the problematic homophobic rhetoric.
I think that everyone should watch this movie regardless of their sexual identity. It is a great movie but, spoiler alert, I had issues with the ending and so did the lovely lesbians of Tik Tok. Harper puts Abby through some shit, essentially puts her back in the closet and like, no thank you. Her whole family only talks about Abbys dead parents and continously refers to her as an orphan while Harper flirts with her ex-boyfriend alot. Not to mention, the wonderful Riley ends up with no one. Harper’s final coming out is so unrealistic. Her parents are mildly homophobic through the whole film and then suddenly its like “its okay”. Abby stays with Harper while the whole movie is showing Harper to be kind of toxic and a bit of a sub to her whole family who doesnt stick up for her girlfriend. Everyone should watch this movie to embrace queer media in its glory especially during the straightest holiday ever… besides Easter.