Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis are a couple caught in farcical family circumstances in an entertaining attempt to add queerness to a traditionally straight subgenre
The displacement of theatrical releases during the pandemic, forced into an often confusing digital netherworld, has meant that we have little to no idea just how well certain films have performed this year. Studios are reticent to reveal how many of us are willing to fork out $20 for a night on the couch. While, yes, we’ll all survive as a people without ever knowing the numbers attached to Scoob!, there is something a little disheartening about never knowing what an impact the lesbian-led Christmas comedy Happiest Season would have had at the box office. Originally intended for a wide cinema release from Sony, its very existence as a shamelessly mainstream and unashamedly gay studio crowd-pleaser was in itself a small victory, with queer stories still kept within the restrictive outskirts of Hollywood. Instead, it’s now headed to Hulu in the US, which brings with it by no means a small audience, but one accustomed to a more diverse set of stories, a low-stakes click less of a bold statement than a ticket.
Related: Home Alone at 30: how the unlikely Christmas comedy has endured