Happiest Season is exciting, although perhaps less as a festive romcom than as a sign of things to come: stories that centre queer experiences.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 27, 2022

Proving a conservative format can change is well and good, but there's also something to be said for just leaving it behind.

| Feb 21, 2021

It's the movie equivalent of one of those specialty caffeinated holiday drinks like a Toasted White Chocolate Mocha or a Chestnut Praline Latte - a guilty pleasure filled with sweetness and warmth, but also an abundance of empty calories.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 21, 2021

Is the movie full of every cliché in the book? Yes. But because it takes place during my beloved Christmas season, and because it's got Davis at its center, I went with it.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 21, 2021

With Happiest Season, the LGBTQ+ community may have reached cinematic quality in one key aspect. Now it too has its own average-to-bad romcom of the sort that the straight community has been churning out for decades.

| Feb 21, 2021

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.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 21, 2021

All too frequently the actresses seem smarter than the material, forced to navigate preposterous twists and increasingly silly plot complications.

| Feb 21, 2021

There's nothing guilty about this pleasure.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 8, 2020

This heartwarming trifle is agreeably paced, and while the movie evaporates into the ether before the end credits have even concluded, a hearty smile still lingered on my face long after it was over.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 4, 2020

Happiest Season is an utter delight.

| Dec 3, 2020

It cleverly turns a few of the enduring clichés of the genre on their heads and adds new jeopardy by spinning queerer touches

| Dec 2, 2020

It's a frequently very funny movie that gives off warm and twinkly holiday vibes while also retaining a hefty amount of bite.

| Dec 1, 2020

It's the performances, each funny and grounded in their own way, that make Happiest Season feel like such a gift.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 1, 2020

If you have the right talent assembled in your movie (and that comes down to casting), it's going to work, and this movie is cast wonderfully.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 30, 2020

Happiest Season sets itself the challenge of acknowledging pain and conflict while somehow finding its way to a unifying happy end. But the sentiment here never feels earned, especially as much of the writing is broad to the point of crudity.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 30, 2020

It's funny, as well as brave. Thanks, Santa!

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 29, 2020

The film was directed and co-written by the actress Clea DuVall, who manages to embrace all the Christmas rom-com clichés and invest them with a new vibrancy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 29, 2020

It takes no small nerve for a contemporary Christmas movie to flat-out namecheck It's a Wonderful Life. No little skill to remind us it can be.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 28, 2020

Stewart is low key and likable, creating real emotional stakes and strategically using her signature shoulders-down shuffle.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 28, 2020

As a film trying to please everyone as a truthful portrayal of queer love for the LGBTQ+ community without being too threatening for the traditional rom-com audience, Happiest Season hits the mark.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 27, 2020