Review of Happy Christmas (2014) by Kevin P — 27 Dec 2017

Strengths: A staple of Joe Swanberg films is mostly improvised dialogue. I didn't care much for it in Drinking Buddies (another film of his) but it worked better this time around. Everything sounded organic. Anna Kendrick (Jenny) was a great choice for the lead. After working on Drinking Buddies, she seemed more comfortable with his style. Lena Dunham (Carson) has something about her that is just unlikable, but despite it, she also handled things well. The best parts were the scenes of Jenny and Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) working on the novel together. It was heartwarming, witty and enjoyable. It's a smart film with relatable themes throughout.

Weaknesses: The marketing for this is just weird. The Happy Christmas title doesn't work because the film is neither happy, nor really about Christmas. Most of the characters were dull and a lot of them didn't get full arcs. Jenny makes a potentially big mistake near the end by drunkenly burning food and nearly setting the house ablaze. Unfortunately, it doesn't amount to much. She just goes into hiding and then Kelly apologizes to her. That makes no sense. Jeff (played by Swanberg himself) is kind of just there, only getting one or two scenes of interest. Also, the film looks strange. I know it had a small budget ($70,000), but it came off looking very amateurish.

Overall: It was my second Swanberg film and again, I came away underwhelmed. I applaud the improvised dialogue and some of the strong performances. The biggest issue was that a lot of the characters didn't do much of anything and Jenny, a character with a lot to overcome, didn't grow much at all.