Happiest Season

 

                    I said it before the first two months of 2024, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone in terms of watching movies I've never seen or haven't got around to seeing them but most importantly watch movies that are  different. This most certainly was a movie I never thought I would be intrigued by as well as appreciate. It is a human interest story that anyone can relate to. This movie deals with coming out to your parents, and really it’s an important topic that everyone should take the time and keep in mind, the Happiest Season is a romantic Christmas comedy I have discovered and grown to love. A  year ago, I was just browsing through some of the reels of Facebook and Kristen Stewart was in one of them along with this other actress and for some reason I was just impressed with her  acting  and I kind of wanted to see more and now that it's Christmas I figured why not talk about a film that really makes you feel, and maybe in my top five of romantic comedies.

                    A young woman (Kristen Stewart) with a plan to propose to her girlfriend (Mackenzie Davis) while at her family's annual holiday party discovers her partner hasn't yet come out to her conservative parents. 

                   To better describe the concept of the movie I must start off with the co-writer and director of the film, Clea DuVall, who has sadly suffered at being "that woman". Clea DuVall was in numerous films throughout the year's career including her infamous role in “The Faculty,”  a movie that combines the concepts of Invasions of the Body Snatchers with high school drama. She was also one of the seven hostages in Ben Affleck's greatest film Argo, for which,  I was surprised that she was in that movie. I hardly recognized her and basically, she was in a lot of movies where we as an audience member can point at and say, "hey I know that person in something". Though she came out when she was sixteen but hadn't announced it publicly that she was gay until 2016, for which leads us to Happiest Season where she explains in her own words about loving Christmas films but has never really seen it in the point of view of a lesbian couple's perspective, and so along with co-writer Mary Holland she began drafting a screenplay based on her experience coming out to her parents or as she explains "in a lot of ways, this movie is autobiographical". There is a ton of actresses when I looked them up I was like "holy crap" they were also in that movie, Mary Steenburgen who plays the mother in the movie is a great example because once I looked her up I found out she was the love interest to Doc Brown in Back to the Future III, for which blew my brain as well as Victor Garber whose been in a ton of films including co-starring alongside Clea DuVall in Argo but is best known for Alias as Jennifer Garner's daughter. Mackenzie Davis who at first I remembered her in Blade Runner 2049 but was completely surprised she was in The Martian where she's the one who discovers Matt Damon is still alive on Mars which blew my mind and she was simply outstanding in this film who at first is being a toxic/overreacting girlfriend to Kristen Stewart but during the last act of the film she really does a great job playing a woman who's scared in coming out to her parents and expresses her love for Kristen Stewart's character either way their argument was one of the first reals I saw on Facebook and her acting was the reason why I was intrigued in wanting to watch the film because she really delivers her all, in showing her love for Stewart's character as well as her fear and pain of losing the woman she loves. Now four years ago I began to notice acting potential with Robert Patterson in both Tenet and The Batman and now I'm seeing a strong potential with Kristen Stewart, which explains a lot because she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Princess Diana now I'm telling you all this to tell you this fun fact almost sixteen years ago my sister forced me to go see the very first Twilight film, and I was the typical guy who was saying that these two careers are going nowhere but those two sure proved me wrong. But getting back to Kristen Stewart she also does a great job portraying a woman who you can relate to but more importantly she gives the audience a chance to feel for her in hopes that these two will make it till the end, for which really both Stewart and Davis give the best on-screen chemistry I've ever seen in since D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly in The Cutting Edge and really I don't know what the best way to describe it is, just simply beautiful. Now both Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis are excellent but the true scene stealer in the entire film is Daniel Levy the co-creator behind Schitt's Creek but more importantly is the son of Eugene Levy (the infamous Dad in the American Pie films), Dan Levy does a fantastic job in playing the comic relief but what he really shines in the movie as giving a reminder to Kristen Stewart's character how scary it is to finally come out, and the way he tells it is very moving as well as Levy should of gotten an Oscar for his role. People can look at this movie as a LGBTQ film, but I was moved by the acting and the love story, but more importantly this is a human story for everyone who's either afraid of coming out to their parents or have that dysfunctional family that expects to be perfect and sometimes look at one of their kids as the lost cause of the family and I'm personally at that point in my life where all of this scolding or tolerance should not be an issue and you should always treat people equal no matter how different you or anyone else. I would highly recommend watching this for the Christmas or Holiday season for all young couples or singles out there because this I would most certainly rank this in the best of Christmas films out there, though don't let the kids watch this mainly because they don't know and it's best that they figure it out on their own. Probably should add a small spoiler: maybe two Josh Hartnett makes a cameo appearance which is hilarious with a kiss of cringe and Aubrey Plaza is in the movie and this is the first time I ever look at that woman as a beautiful creature, true story.