Thoughts on “Happiest Season”?

submitted by Lesbianvodkaaunt from self.Lesbians

I watched Happiest Season on Hulu recently and I’ve heard a lot of conflicting opinions. On one hand, I want to see more lesbian stories that aren’t based around coming out or having to hide being a lesbian, on the other hand, I’ve heard people expressing that they want lgbt artists to be able to share their authentic stories without watering it down to be “cute”. I don’t see why we can’t have both? The movie was ok in my opinion and it made me want to see cheesy christmas movies with lesbians.

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[–]Dravidian 12 insightful - 4 fun12 insightful - 3 fun13 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

I've watched it with a lesbian GC discord server. We all agreed it sucked and we wouldn't have taken Harper back and it made no sense. And that it was so annoying that there had to be an ex boyfriend or a dude in the mix every time, can't have two lesbians, can't have something that strays too much from the heteronormative "hey, do you like your ex dude better actually?"

So... yeah. Go watch saving face! They're both lesbian.

[–]uroborosjohnson 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Any way to join that server?

[–][deleted] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I hated it.. It normalised gaslighting and some really toxic relationship patterns.

Also are we ever going to get a lesbian character who isn't femme? Oh wait right if theyre not femme they must be trans my bad.

[–]shut-up-pizza-face 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Have you ever seen The Haunting of Bly Manor? Jamie is perfection.

[–][deleted] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Jamie still isnt like butch though haha...

[–][deleted] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I really wanted to like it but I ended up disliking almost all of the characters. The humor was a little lacking. The whole movie I was rooting for Abby to dump Harper and get with Aubrey Plaza's character.

[–]emilyprentiss 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I’m 22, I really enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have taken Harper back either, especially when Aubrey Plaza is out there looking like that!

I personally felt Harper was very relatable because I too grew up in an upper middle class household that is concerned about appearances and reputation. Not as intensely as her family is in the movie, I feel like that’s exaggerated anyway, but definitely, the reason why I haven’t come out is because being gay wasn’t ‘part of the plan’ (quote Harper) and I’m afraid it’ll ‘disappoint’ my family more than anything. I started bawling when Harper started crying during the Christmas party scene. That to me felt incredibly cathartic, and I felt seen and understood.

I get the frustration from the fact that lesbian and gay movies always revolve around the closet, the anxiety of coming out, and/or past opposite-sex partners creeping up. But that to me is a big part of many of our lives, and I don’t think it’s ‘tiring’ to watch.

I think our problem is that we have so few lesbian movies, that we put a lot of pressure on each of them to be as good as possible so it is a hit and we get the money and resources to make more. But no movie is ever going to be perfect. No straight movie is really that great, if you think about it. They just don’t have that ‘make or break’ pressure. If you as a straight person didn’t like Love, Actually, you still had The Holiday, Last Christmas, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and 8272628 other straight Christmas romantic movies to choose from. Hopefully this will get better with time as we make more lesbian movies of different varieties, so we can all have more options. I think this movie is definitely a good start. :)

[–]Shroomba 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Like others mentioned, I desperately wanted Kstew to dump Harper and get with Plaza. Even apart from the closeted bs from Harper, I thought it was a crappy relationship and family dynamic for Abby who deserved better.

[–]Lesbianvodkaaunt[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah I don’t think I would’ve gotten back with Harper. Closeted to your parents I can understand, but why not turn down the ex boyfriend? You don’t even have to come out for that, just say no thanks and move along. Definitely would’ve just left the party with the other girl.

[–]shut-up-pizza-face 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I wanted to like it but it left me in a bad mood. No exaggeration! Perhaps because I related to some parts and it brought back bad memories. In my opinion: (SPOILERS AND WAY-TOO-STRONG FEELINGS AHEAD)

  • There wasn't enough humour for a xmas romcom, and the 'humour' that was there was cringey and predictable (falling off roof/getting caught 'stealing' etc). In fact I think all the humour was in the trailer!

  • Most of the characters were just... horrible. The parents suddenly coming round and the sisters suddenly all becoming warm and lovely to each other just wasn't believable after how cold and abrasive they were all the way through the film. I don't know.. it just felt flat, rushed and cheap. Even the kids were sullen!

  • How fucking rich Harper's parents were. As soon as they pulled up to that fuuuuck off HUGE mansion, it immediately felt like it lost more of how I could relate to it. Most people never know anyone that rich! (Why do these xmas movie families always have multi million dollar properties?!)

  • As others have said, yet again it shows toxic lesbian relationships. This is why I loved Bly Manor so much; seeing a HEALTHY, beautiful lesbian relationship that was actually believable (the physical closeness of their bodies when they kissed and other body language) just blew me away. THAT'S what we should be getting. No more of this fucking 'come out the closet/get back in' shit and the actresses look almost repulsed by each other. Ok ok it wasn't that bad in this movie but.. yeah. No lesbian screen romance will ever, EVER compare to Bly.. but I hope I'm proved wrong in the future.

  • Oddly, the thing that really hurt? Jane. I felt AWFUL for her. I literally burst into tears when they trashed her painting and she said she'd spent 100 hours on it... and when they told her to get in the middle for the family photo? No. Fucking depressing. They clearly KNEW they were discarding her all her life and all of a sudden just felt like including her again?! (Can you tell I have parent issues?)

  • Abby and Riley should've been together.

I've been kept a secret and I've been hated by my other half's parents as they thought I'd 'corrupted' their daughter etc, and it fucking hurts. I felt for Abby, I've been in a similar place where my gf flirted with men in front of me, I've been scowled at by her parents and made to feel uncomfortable and tolerated, while my manipulative gf gaslighted me into not going home. I was young and stupid to stay with her so long and there's no way in hell I'd do that now, and I think that's why I felt for Abby so much. Which leads me onto my next point...

  • If I was John in that parking lot near the end, I wouldn't have been able to bring myself to tell Abby to take Harper back. No fucking way, especially after he saw all of Harper's bullshit!! He even said to Abby on the phone she was being a doormat. Did Harper change his mind to think she was worth Abby's love by behaving like she did? Ridiculous.

Instead of feeling Christmassy and cheery, I pretty much feel (and I hate this word) triggered as fuck. So yeah, fuck this movie. I was so excited for a LESBIAN Christmas film! I mean, wow!! But no. It went down like a lead balloon with me.

[–]FlanJam 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I havent seen it, but it seems like a lot of people expected it to be a fun xmas movie and were disappointed when it wasnt. Which I totally understand, it feels like the majority of lesbian movies are more serious. I'd love to have fun goofy movie that I can just relax and enjoy.

[–]PassionateIntensity 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I liked it. I thought it was pretty cute and the closet stuff was complicated yet sympathetic. But I wanted Abby to end up with Riley. They spent too much time on Harper/John and not Abby/Harper for me to be happy at that ending.

[–]funk_transcender 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Honestly I don't feel like I was the target age range for the film and I also don't do cheesy Xmas films very well... but it was pretty bad.

I do think it was more aimed at teenagers and if I saw this when I was a teenager I think I would've enjoyed it and probably related to it. Which is perfectly fine and it's great there's more LGBT representation in that respect. I do feel in many ways a lot of compromises were probably made to make this marketable towards a straight audience, hence all the male involvement. I think this is just inevitable really if you have a major studio investing heavily in a film like that. Baby steps I guess. At least it was tasteful and they were actually lesbians and there wasn't ongoing confusion about their sexuality or leaving their husband for a woman, etc.

But yeah it was full of plot holes, way too fast-paced and I definitely felt like Harper was terrible 😂.

[–]lmaonope333 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

nah...I'm a teenager (19) and I did not like it. It was a cheesy movie with a predictable plotline. maybe if kstew's character would've broken up and gotten with the ex gf it might've possibly saved the movie. the whole scene where kstews gay guy friend tried to explain to her how hard it is to come out to family was bs in my opinion, it's a bad excuse for treating your gf terribly. I did not have an easy time coming out and I had to move out of my parents house at 18 and I lost a lot of friends. Yet I would never let my parents disapproval force a girl I'm dating to go back in the closet. if you're an adult and you don't rely on your parents you shouldn't let their opinion affect your partner to that degree, it's just unfair. either come out to your family or dont bring your gf to them for the holidays