Happiest Season

It's all highly cinematic (and exaggerated to an extent) and it's clichés galore in the characterization department, yet Happiest Season is a film that leaves you emotionally fulfilled. It follows the formula but adds ample doses of heart, making everything magically work. In this film, you'll witness brilliant performances from Kristen Stewart and Dan Levy. Their friendship (more than the film's core lesbian love story) is what stands out as a truly memorable story arc. The thing about the Caldwell household is that nearly everyone's got something to hide, and that makes it a little easier for writer-director Clea DuVall to collectively provide closure to their issues.

Mackenzie Davis and Kristen Stewart share decent chemistry as a queer couple. But I've gotta say those few scenes that featured Aubrey Plaza and Stewart make you feel like they had some totally untapped chemistry. That's for another film to tackle, I guess. Happiest Season is tonally all over the place, oscillating between wacky comedy and genuinely emotional moments. And as a Christmas flick, Happiest Season isn't technically the 'happiest' though it manages to get there eventually (after a lot of misery!). It's an enjoyable 100-minutes alright!