Dan Levey

(Amazon Streaming, December 2021) There’s a good chance that Clea DuVall will leave a stronger legacy as a writer-director than an actress — at least if her work keeps improving the way it went in-between The Intervention and Happiest Season. Her latest spin on the dysfunctional family Christmas comedy features sad-faced Kristen Stewart as a young woman heading to attend the holiday celebrations with her girlfriend’s very traditional family a few states away… but with her girlfriend having neglected to tell her parents about her relationship, or even coming out of the closet in the first place. Not that it’s the only secret just waiting to explode as tensions run higher and higher on the way to Christmas. Thus is the stage set for a mild comedy of manners, lies, misunderstandings, humiliation and a cathartic finale. Best seen as a small-scale film featuring dramatic showpieces, it plays with Christmas tropes while still, ultimately, bowing to familiar values. The acting talent here is not bad — Stewart is clearly in her very specific niche, alongside such notables as Aubrey Plaza (in a somewhat looser role than usual), Alison Brie, the ever-captivating Mary Steenburgen as a matriarch, and Victor Garber is a charming take on the befuddled father trying to make sense of his family suddenly expressing themselves. Still, it’s Dan Levey who steals the show as a stereotypically catty best friend showing up for the pyrotechnics. Despite a few mystifying contrived plot turns, Happiest Season delivers on its promise of decent Christmas film — it’s several steps above the usual Hallmark comfort material even if, in the end, it’s not that different.