Happiest Season

Abby goes home with her girlfriend Harper for Christmas and learns on the drive that Harper has told her family nothing. She spends five days pretending to be the roommate. Clea DuVall was open about what the film is: in a lot of ways, autobiographical. She wrote it to see her own life on a screen. It went to Hulu in November 2020 rather than cinemas after the pandemic broke the release plan. Samba TV reported 416,680 US households over the opening weekend, Hulu's strongest debut at the time. It won the 2021 GLAAD Media Award. The most argued-about part is the ending, and specifically who Abby, played by Kristen Stewart, ends up with. A sizeable portion of the audience thought the film chose wrong. Meanwhile Mary Holland's Jane, the overlooked sister, quietly became everyone's favourite character. Who it is for: viewers who like the Christmas movie shape but want the inside of it changed. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a light romantic comedy. The middle stretch is genuinely painful.