Review: ‘Happiest Season’
With a strange holiday season this year, Clea DuVall’s Happiest Season is the perfect comfort watch that also breaks a few boundaries. The central relationship in the film is between Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis), a couple on their way home to visit Harper’s family for Christmas. On the way there Harper reveals she is still closeted in fear of losing her parents’ hyperconditional love and approval. Abby must now pretend to be Harper’s straight roommate, which unleashes a game of hiding and sneaking around reminiscent of a Shakespeare comedy. However, it is hard to ignore Abby’s pain as she spends the days leading up to Christmas remembering each lie and trying her best to keep up while she wonders why Harper even asked her to come.
While Stewart and Davis give great performances, the supporting roles are where Happiest Season finds its strength. Dan Levy gives a strong comedic performance as Abby’s best friend John. Abby’s humor mostly comes from the situational clumsiness of hiding herself and her relationship, making John’s humor pure relief. While Levy’s performance is in line with his typical comedic persona, he shines brightest during a sincere monologue towards the end of the film that will have you in tears. And as many commenting online noticed, Aubrey Plaza’s Riley has stronger chemistry with Abby than Harper. Riley, Harper’s high school ex-girlfriend, relates to Abby’s situation and the two grow close during the trip as Harper falls back into her familial routines, often leaving Abby behind. There is a part of me that would love to see the Riley-Abby movie instead. As a huge fan of Mackenzie Davis’ work on Halt and Catch Fire and Black Mirror I can’t help but feel she is a tad underutilized here. While she portrays Harper perfectly, I hoped to see more of her uniquely fun and rebellious energy at play. Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie, and Mary Holland all give great performances as Harper’s mother and two sisters. Drag performers Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme even give a small yet memorable performance in a bar that Abby and Riley visit.
As with many films centered on the lives of LGBTQ+ characters, the online comments unfortunately center around whether or not everyone feels seen in this single film. The desire to see oneself in a piece of work is understandable, yet one film fulfilling everyone’s needs, especially within such a vast and diverse community, is and never was the answer. What we need is an abundance of LGBTQ+ films from creators of all different backgrounds. As mentioned in Netflix’s Disclosure documentary by Jen Richards earlier this year, when we have more total representations the occasional clumsy representation becomes less of an issue because there is not as much pressure on one project to do everything perfectly.
What I admire about DuVall’s film is how it goes beyond the simple question of being closeted or not. By the end, it is clear that Harper and her siblings all suffer under their parents’ expectations in their own way. Harper’s happens to manifest in her hiding her identity even though she is clearly in love with Abby. Most importantly, Abby is able to realize that Harper’s issues are not a reflection of her own worth.
While we all miss our traditional celebrations this year, Happiest Season is a great reminder of how tense many of those traditions were in the first place for those unable to be their true selves during the holidays. – Hannah Benson
Rating: 3.5/5
Happiest Season is now streaming on Hulu.