"The movie The Happiest Season was one of the best holiday movies I have ever seen."-winter johnson, 6th grade
The movie The Happiest Season was one of the best holiday movies I have ever seen. Of course that doesn't say much regarding the sort of cheesy tradition that most holiday movies take on, but despite that, this movie proved they aren't all cheesy and bad. It was a really sweet movie, with characters ranging from typically gay to non-stereotypical.
Someone told me if you're gonna watch a queer holiday movie, watch this one. I haven't seen many queer holiday movies, but this one was good. Happiest Season is about a couple, Harper and Abbie, who spend Christmas with Harper’s over-achieving and (very) straight family. Harper has to decide between potentially disappointing her dad, who happens to be running for mayor, or being true to herself and her girlfriend. Basically, Harper is deciding if she’s going to come out of the closet. What else would be the point of Christmas if not coming out to your straight WASPy family?
Outside of Harper and Abbie, the movie had robust characters. I loved that Harper had two sisters, Sloane and Jane, who had their own story and were their own people and weren’t perfect. For example, Jane used to bite people when she was in kindergarten and now she is almost literally their servant and they act like she doesn't exist. However later in the story we find out that she is a really good writer, artist, and the most empathetic member of their family.
Then Sloane is super smart and her boyfriend is super smart, but instead of being perfect and making her family proud, she chose to make her own family and gave up on being exactly how her family wanted. Then when Harper comes out as gay, their parents are like, “oh, you know we've been trying so hard to be perfect, maybe forcing you all to be perfect isn't perfect.” Sounds great, right? Almost.
Something I noticed when the family was processing their whole “let's let go of being perfect ” was that part of letting go of being perfect for them was coming out as gay. That could be seen two ways: one could be saying, why do we need to be perfect when we can be ourselves. It could also be because it insinuates that if you're gay, you can’t ever be perfect. I don’t necessarily think that that’s the message they intended to give, but it’s something to think about. After reviewing The Happiest Season I would give it a fair 8 out of 10.
Someone told me if you're gonna watch a queer holiday movie, watch this one. I haven't seen many queer holiday movies, but this one was good. Happiest Season is about a couple, Harper and Abbie, who spend Christmas with Harper’s over-achieving and (very) straight family. Harper has to decide between potentially disappointing her dad, who happens to be running for mayor, or being true to herself and her girlfriend. Basically, Harper is deciding if she’s going to come out of the closet. What else would be the point of Christmas if not coming out to your straight WASPy family?
Outside of Harper and Abbie, the movie had robust characters. I loved that Harper had two sisters, Sloane and Jane, who had their own story and were their own people and weren’t perfect. For example, Jane used to bite people when she was in kindergarten and now she is almost literally their servant and they act like she doesn't exist. However later in the story we find out that she is a really good writer, artist, and the most empathetic member of their family.
Then Sloane is super smart and her boyfriend is super smart, but instead of being perfect and making her family proud, she chose to make her own family and gave up on being exactly how her family wanted. Then when Harper comes out as gay, their parents are like, “oh, you know we've been trying so hard to be perfect, maybe forcing you all to be perfect isn't perfect.” Sounds great, right? Almost.
Something I noticed when the family was processing their whole “let's let go of being perfect ” was that part of letting go of being perfect for them was coming out as gay. That could be seen two ways: one could be saying, why do we need to be perfect when we can be ourselves. It could also be because it insinuates that if you're gay, you can’t ever be perfect. I don’t necessarily think that that’s the message they intended to give, but it’s something to think about. After reviewing The Happiest Season I would give it a fair 8 out of 10.
