Happiest Season
Hulu | Release Date (Streaming): November 25, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeNov 25, 2020
The movie practically vibrates with its own meta tension. Read full review
88
ObserverLisa WehrstedtNov 27, 2020
Happiest Season has managed to skip the hurdle of being classed as an LGBTQ+ film to win people’s hearts over with its charm and hilarity. Read full review
88
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeNov 19, 2020
While some viewers may find the use of the closet and societal homophobia too heavy for this breezy story, there’s a case to be made that including specifically queer concerns into the language of romantic comedy is another step toward genuine inclusiveness. Read full review
85
Vanity FairRichard LawsonNov 19, 2020
There are enough surprising one-liners and asides to make this romantic comedy actually funny, rather than something to mildly chuckle at on the way to the kissing. Read full review
83
ConsequenceJosh SpiegelNov 19, 2020
Though this film is more complicated than the now-standard holiday fare you could find on Hallmark or Netflix, Happiest Season is also charming, more intelligent than the average romantic comedy, and bolstered by an excellent lead performance. Read full review
82
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpNov 25, 2020
Duvall dovetails the seasonal pap with her characters’ pain, treating it like ointment for their mellowing emotional stings. The message isn’t just about liking Christmas. The message is that everybody deserves a Christmas movie. Read full review
80
Film ThreatKyle BainDec 17, 2020
Every moment of the film is emotionally enthralling, perfectly bittersweet, and calculatedly daring, leading viewers down a beautiful path of hope and love that should award Happiest Season the success that it deserves. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Simran HansNov 29, 2020
Stewart is low key and likable, creating real emotional stakes and strategically using her signature shoulders-down shuffle. A pity, then, that she and Davis don’t quite have the romcom chemistry needed to secure the film’s place in the Christmas movie canon. Read full review
80
ABC NewsPeter TraversNov 25, 2020
Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Phillips turn this same-sex romcom for the holidays into a gift package that feels quietly and mischievously revolutionary. Read full review
80
Screen RantMolly FreemanNov 23, 2020
Happiest Season is a cheesy, fun and heartfelt romantic comedy, with a sweetly genuine queer love story at the center of this holiday tale. Read full review
80
EmpireElla KempNov 19, 2020
An ode to impossible expectations, pride, bravery and loyalty, Happiest Season wraps up everything you could want for Christmas in a neat, thoughtful little bow. Read full review
80
SlateChristina CauterucciNov 19, 2020
For all the familiar joys and comforts this holiday movie provides—maximally decorated homes, Christmas carols, a slapstick scene at a skating rink—its commentary on the agony of living in the closet, or loving someone who is, stakes out some entirely new territory. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyNov 19, 2020
Given DuVall's background as an actor it's unsurprising she draws such engaging work from her cast, with tasty individual characterizations, but more importantly, a group dynamic that's both lively and believable. Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeNov 19, 2020
Happiest Season exists within well-worn framework but still feels fresh, a sprightly and substantial comedy that will be an immediate addition to the Christmas movie rotation for many, including myself. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 24, 2020
Everyone in the movie is excellent, everyone is tonally spot-on, and no one has a single bad moment – which is another way of saying that Clea DuVall, best known as an actress (“Veep,” “Argo”), is a real director. She has made one of the best Christmas movies of the millennium. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartNov 24, 2020
Tonally, Happiest Season is a bit uneven; it can move from broad hijinks to high emotion a little too quickly. But it also delivers wonderfully heartfelt moments. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 23, 2020
Happiest Season” isn’t full-on farce; it’s lower-key, and runs into trouble only when the script contends with confessional monologues right up against hiding-in-a-literal-closet routines or routine slapstick, as it does in the climax. But you know? It works. Read full review
75
The Film StageOrla SmithNov 19, 2020
Great rom-coms can circumvent flaws if they deliver on the joy, the cosiness, and the chemistry, and DuVall’s film offers a generous helping of all three. Read full review
75
Slant MagazinePat BrownNov 19, 2020
The film translates the often difficult realities of a specific kind of marginalized love into a story with broad appeal. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubCaroline SiedeNov 19, 2020
It’s possible to imagine a much more risk-taking movie than the one DuVall has made. But before a film can break the queer holiday rom-com mold, someone has to set it up first. And Happiest Season is a welcome starting point. Read full review
70
VoxEmily VanDerWerffNov 25, 2020
It’s a cute movie with a lot of heart. It’s just that this heart was retrofitted from other movies’ tropes and is, as such, an awkward fit. For the next lesbian Christmas movie (please let there be a next one), it would be great to build a story about queer holiday celebrations from the ground up. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangNov 24, 2020
The conventionality of Happiest Season might be the most radical thing about it. The movie boasts the usual surface delights and yuletide setpieces: It has competitive ice skating and a white-elephant-gift party, shticky running gags and acres of throw-pillow-heavy production design. It also has two lead performances of remarkable grown-up complexity and moment-to-moment coherence. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanNov 21, 2020
The film is cheeky and blithe and situational, suffused with enough upscale Christmas froth to get the audience high on spiced-cocktail fumes. In a key scene near the end, it’s more than willing to go over-the-top. Yet Happiest Season is also a deft and humane dramedy of manners that’s really about something. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 24, 2020
Writer-director DuVall is a talented filmmaker and she keeps the mostly superficial story humming along at an entertaining pace, and the cast is terrific and gets the maximum value out of the material. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsDec 3, 2020
It’s not a knockout, but the actors frequently are. The rest is an exercise in not overdoing it. It’s here, it’s queer, it’s not much else — and that’s OK. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 27, 2020
Watching Happiest Season is like opening the wrong present on Christmas morning: You’re a little bummed out and it’s too late to put it back in the box. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzNov 19, 2020
Finally, a big and shiny studio-backed holiday movie targeted to queer audiences that is just as sappy, cheesy and predictable as the many groan-inducing films that have been chucked toward straight moviegoers all these years. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 19, 2020
Actress turned writer-director Clea Duvall (“The Intervention”) and comic actress turned first-time co-writer Mary Holland made something of a holiday hash of it, a movie with good moments buried under clumsy ones, with plenty of pandering layered on top of sentiment. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonNov 19, 2020
Stewart and Davis have such adorable chemistry as the central couple — playful and flirty one moment, touchingly sincere the next — that it’s a shame DuVall has stranded them in such an unsatisfying story. Granted, Happiest Season is meant to be cheesy in the comforting way that cable-television Christmas films often are, but all too frequently the actresses seem smarter than the material, forced to navigate preposterous twists and increasingly silly plot complications. Read full review
42
IndieWireJude DryNov 19, 2020
Entering boldly into this bunch is Happiest Season, a shiny holiday comedy which is by all accounts indistinguishable from the rest save for one little detail: It’s gay! Unfortunately, this tiny tweak isn’t enough to make a lasting impression on the genre, especially with a lackluster script that offers little in the way of surprise or delight. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyNov 27, 2020
It’s never a good sign when characters in a film promptly declare: we are aware you are watching and we’re here to teach you a thing or two. Read full review
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