Happiest Season

Happiest Season-480P

Happiest Season-480P

I was impressed with this film considering all of the big name actors/actresses in it. The production is strong and beautifully shot. The styling is also great. Kristen Stewart shines in this role. The storyline is heartfelt and entertaining. But also, representation matters & Happiest Season is a movie everyone can relate to, LGBTQ or not.

Happiest Season_360P

source: Happiest Season

That was quite frankly terrible. Full of horrible characters depicting awful behaviors, and a wholely farssical plot. I'm so disappointed.

I found that movie to be a painful, tragic drama exploring how overly perfectionist parents can completely ruin their children's entire lives well past childhood, and the toxic environment they create destroys all around them while maintaining a saccharin stepford wives midwestern idealism. The movie was much more of an emotional horror that had a completely idiotic and unrealistic "happy ending" shoehorned in, in which everyone realized the power of love and being a good person and everyone was happy and and accepting there were no more tears ever the end. Really bad. Just... Really bad.

I was impressed with this film considering all of the big name actors/actresses in it. The production is strong and beautifully shot. The styling is also great. Kristen Stewart shines in this role. The storyline is heartfelt and entertaining. But also, representation matters & Happiest Season is a movie everyone can relate to, LGBTQ or not.

Fresh. Relevant. Heartfelt. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It was so nice to see LGBTQ characters at the center of this story, rather than side characters or fillers. For those who have already come out, and for those who struggle to find a way, we see you. This will be on my holiday must watch list for years to come.

The movie starts off all joyful and festive, sticking to what was marketed and promised in the trailer, however that all comes to an abrupt end way too soon. This movie left me feeling more annoyed than it did make me feel happy about a journey meant to be about self acceptance and family. Firstly, I'm shocked to see so many people overlooking and justifying Harper's manipulative and ignorant actions towards Abby. There is a fine line between being afraid to be out and mistreating your partner because of it. She doesn't need to be painted as a villain but she should've had better character development rather than shoving it all in the last 10 minutes of the film and call it a happy resolution. Second, what is up with movies/tv shows casually placing "outings" as the major turning point plus for shock value? Then proceeding to brush it off with a half assed apology from who was responsible, downplaying the seriousness of how wrong it is in the first place. Cliches like that are literally meant for straight audiences. The fact that so many saw Abby and Riley being a potential couple further accentuated the lack of chemistry between Abby and Harper in the long run of the film. The jealousy antics and the overly fake forced heteronormativity that was done to an extent that tormented Abby, only made Harpers character even more dislikable. Yes, this fight/situation alone didn't have to mean they should've parted ways, but given the poor writing choice for putting Abby in the limelight, mostly seeing her perspective makes viewers much more sympathetic for her, making it harder to be so quickly forgiving for everything she had to go through like 3.5/4 of the film. "Everyone's coming out story is different" perhaps the most important line in the whole movie. This movie had its wholesome moments and I see why people enjoyed it but overall for me it just left a sour aftertaste, made me uncomfortable at times for how stressful and triggering it was, but like it or hate it, the film was poorly executed for the themes they wanted to explore and surely shouldn't be regarded as a "romcom".