Happiest Season
I decided to get a jump on the holiday-themed fare, and
Happiest Season seemed like the ideal place to start - a cynic might say this movie is just a lot like the typical Christmas-set movie, but, my goodness - what a cast!
A lot of my favorite actors are in the movie - Mackenzie Davis, Kristen Stewart, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie, Daniel Levy... and they even got Victor Garber to play the cranky old dad!
With a cast like that, and a rainbow-themed story, it's hard to find anything to dislike about Clea DuVall's second directing outing. Sure, it has the same weak spots as most holiday movies, and the characters here don't sound anything like real people. And it is a bit uneven when it comes to balancing the moments of broad comedy with the "serious" and dramatic ones.
Having said that, you could do a lot worse with the holiday fare that's out there. I'm very surprised this hasn't already become a season classic!
P.S. I am seriously thinking about importing the Australian blu-ray of this movie, which is supposed to have some deleted scenes and a gag reel!