Happiest Season

"Happiest Season" on Hulu had all the ingredients to be a good, groundbreaking Christmas movie: actual gay people behind (director and co-writer Clea DuVall) and in front (Kristen Stewart, Dan Levy, Victor Garber) of the camera; a trailer that promised a story of acceptance; and a prime-time holiday season streaming release.

"Happiest Season" tells the story of Abby (Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis), a lesbian couple in love. Abby is ready to propose to Harper and plans to do so at Harper's parents' house over Christmas. The wrinkle: Harper's family doesn't know she's gay. The movie turns into less of a romantic comedy and more of a claustrophobic, "unhappy" season of the horror that is being trapped in the closet.

Happiest Season

Download Zip

Oh, man. I really hope that people continue to watch it. Some of the messages that I've gotten have been about people either watching it with their families or telling their families to watch it and then engaging in conversations and connecting over the story and having these moments where they're able to process things that have happened within their own family. That means so much and that is my hope as people continue to watch it over the holiday season, that we're able to create conversations between friends and family and loved ones, create an understanding with people who maybe didn't have an understanding before and people who relate to this story feel seen and feel represented.

For sure, the idea of the standard Christmas movie that sees a dysfunctional family trapped together over the festive season has been a standard of the industry, leading to everything from A Christmas Story (excellent) to Love the Coopers (fairly abysmal, though interesting in hindsight for featuring a very young Timothee Chalamet playing a sex-crazed teen).

38c6e68cf9