Here are some well-known faces from Sundance over the years, as they brought their early movies to the festival.
Related lists from IMDb users
Title: Happy Christmas (2014)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Anna Kendrick | ... | Jenny | |
| Melanie Lynskey | ... | Kelly | |
| Mark Webber | ... | Kevin | |
| Lena Dunham | ... | Carson | |
| Joe Swanberg | ... | Jeff | |
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Jude Swanberg | ... | Jude |
| Chris Swanson | ... | Music Supervisor | |
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Eldar Kim | ... | Cab Driver |
| Megan Mercier | ... | Party Host | |
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Chris Renton | ... | Party Makeout Guy |
| Kris Rey | ... | Landlord (as Kris Swanberg) | |
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Jessica Angelos | ... | Party Guest |
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Mike Brune | ... | Party Guest |
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Harry Burton | ... | Party Guest |
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Tony Castro | ... | Party Guest |
Irresponsible 20-something Jenny arrives in Chicago to live with her older brother Jeff, a young film-maker living a happy existence with his novelist wife Kelly and their two-year-old son. Jenny's arrival shakes up their quiet domesticity as she and her friend Carson instigate an evolution in Kelly's life and career. Meanwhile, Jenny strikes up a rocky relationship with the family's baby sitter-cum-pot dealer. Written by Production
Joe Swanberg who wrote, directed and played one of the leading roles in this his latest film is known for his improvisational independent films. Although I liked, as other reviewers have noted his recent movie "Drinking Buddies", I felt this film's improvisations failed in that the dialogue was too stilted, awkward, and filled with what appeared to be inside jokes that the cast would laugh at, ignoring basically the viewers that were watching. Thus the whole thing just got more and more annoying for me as it progressed.
The plot centers on the loving couple of Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) and Jeff Spelling (Swanberg) and their adorable son Jude welcoming to their home, in Chicago around Christmas time, Jeff's sister Jenny (Anna Kendrick), after she just broke up with her boyfriend. Once Jenny enters the scene, they'll be a lot of scenes involving pot smoking, drinking, sex, and explicit sex talk. They'll be other plot elements involving Jenny's irresponsibility and her attempts along with her friend Carson (Lena Dunham) to convince Kelly to devote more time to her writing and to get help with the raising of her son.
All in all, as mentioned, I just felt the improvisational approach here just didn't work, and the movie ended up having little entertainment value for me.