Happiest Season (2020)

Directed by Clea DuVall. Starring Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Mary Holland, Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie, Dan Levy, Aubrey Plaza, Victor Garber, Jake McDorman, Ana Gasteyer, Burl Moseley, Sarayu Blue. [PG-13]

Stewart intends on popping the question to girlfriend Davis over the Christmas holiday, but then Davis reveals during the drive to her parents’ house that she’s never actually come out to her conservative family, forcing Stewart to pretend to just be a roommate who’s tagging along because she has nowhere else to go for Christmas. Spit-shined seriocomedy plays it safe too often, but is at least graced with a capable and (mostly) game cast. A lot of the situations and gags are as forced and contrived as the kind you’d find in a mediocre sitcom; fusspot mother Steenburgen has a few humorous moments, but the only two characters who are funny with any consistency are Holland as Davis’ loopy sister and Levy as Stewart’s gay best friend (a cliché, sure, but his line delivery is nearly spotless). The script, a semi-autobiographical twist on director DuVall’s own life, doesn’t always treat the central relationship with kid gloves—even giving the principals appealing “options” in the form of an old boyfriend (McDorman) and a betrayed best-friend-turned-first-female-lover (Plaza)—but this leads to one of the film’s biggest problems: with about ten minutes to go, the movie should have gone in any number of different directions instead of surrendering to a happy ending that rings false. DuVall received story credit and wrote the script with Holland.

58/100