Happiest Season (2020)

We loved this brand new holiday classic, a dramedy about a woman going to meet her girlfriend's family, only to discover the girlfriend hasn't come out to them. That doesn't sound funny but there are lots of laughs, with Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis as the main couple Abby and Harper. Mary Steenburgen is hilarious as Harper's tightly wound mother Tipper (!), as is Daniel Levy as Abby's best friend John. Alison Brie is Harper's uptight sister Sloane and Aubrey Plaza plays it straight (see what I did there?) for a change as Harper's high school friend Riley. The cast is big and star-studded even beyond those names.

This is the second feature that actress Clea DuVall has directed and written, sharing screenplay credit this time with Mary Holland, who plays Harper's other sister Jane, also very funny. DuVall appears only in the end credits in a photo next to Plaza.

The soundtrack by Amie Doherty is available to stream on Apple Music with a subscription and for free on Spotify.

Stewart was last blogged for Certain Women, Davis for Tully, Steenburgen just now for Elf, Plaza for Ingrid Goes West, and Doherty for The High Note. Levy is best known for creating and starring in all eighty episodes of Schitt's Creek and Brie for 38 of Mad Men as Trudy Campbell, 110 of Community as Annie, and 30 of G.L.O.W. as Ruth.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 83%, are a bit more joyful than its audiences at 76. It's a Hulu original, so we streamed it that way.

This is the fifteenth year that Jack and I have watched a movie together on Christmas day after opening presents and before dinner, but the first of those fifteen years without Amy. Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow. Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow.