Happy Christmas

R

Released Jul 25, 2014

1 hr. 18 min.

Holiday

Comedy

Drama

List

77%

78 Reviews

Tomatometer

37%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

An immature party girl (Anna Kendrick) moves in with her brother's family to get over a breakup and throws their lives out of whack.

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Critics Consensus

Intelligent, well-acted, and satisfyingly low-key, Happy Christmas marks another step in prolific filmmaker Joe Swanberg's creative evolution.

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Amanda P

Could not get past the first 10 minutes🤦🏼‍♀️ never wanted to turn a movie off so quickly. Had the feel of a COVID movie... But turned out to be done in 2014,😮 Didn't care to see how it carried on. The positive reviews could not convince us to see what happened.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

12/13/23

Full Review

Ken L

From my persepective, this movie has to be a serious contender for the title of 'most boring film of all time'. It's not actually bad, as such - no really painful bad acting, no bad cinematography. But there's just nothing of any interest in it at all. It's basically just a bunch of young, middle-class types hanging around and muttering about this and that (doing the dishes, is someone drinking too much). My own family are way more interesting. You could probably sit on a bus and eavesdrop on the people next to you and hear something more interesting. One couple have a fat baby, and the most interesting parts of the whole movie, to me, were just scenes where the fat baby was eating and playing. But you can watch babies eating and playing on YouTube without sitting through the other, completely boring, stuff. It doesn't help than one of the principal roles is played by Anna Kendrick, an actress who range runs the gamut from 0 to 0.00001. In everything I've seen her in, and in every picture I've seen of her, she has only shown two facial expressions - blank, and a silly grin (well, she has to transition, so you might get a half silly grin). I think the director of this movie was actually aware of this, as in the few scenes in this movie where her character has to show some sort of emotion she is filmed with her face turned away, buried in a blanket, or something similar, so she is never put to the strain of actually producing a facial expression. The other two lead actresses, Lena Dunham and Melanie Lynskey, can certainly act with some range, as I've seen them do it in other things, but here they just seemed to be muttering and making it up as they went along. I can't imagine why anyone thought that it was worthwhile to make this movie, or to release it. I guess there must be people who appreciate the vague mutterings of young, middle-class types more than me.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

12/09/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Once this movie actually got going, it was over. Some stuff to enjoy, but it didn't leave a lasting impression.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Awful. There was no ending, it just literally ended and that’s it.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

12/24/20

Full Review

Audience Member

This film is perfectly dreadful. I love Lena Dunham and Melanie Lynskey, but even their considerable talents could not elevate this film. I had never seen Anna Kendrick in anything, and I shan't watch her again. Not entirely her fault - this is a film with no story arc, unbelievable conversations, and nothing to say. The baby was the best thing in the entire film. Dull, pretentious, and NOT humorous.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I was expecting a decent movie and this was not it. It looked like it was shot on a shoestring budget. The editing was poor, story line was OK. For a movie with Anna Kendrick and Melanie Lynskey in it I was expecting better. Melanie had a bit of an accent, but wasn't to bad, I have never noticed it before. The best part was the little kid who was supposed to be about 2 yrs-old, who was excellent. The ending left you hanging and then in the credits there was more but it did not add anything to the movie. Watch at your own risk.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

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Joe Swanberg

Director

Anna Kendrick

Jenny

Melanie Lynskey

Kelly

Mark Webber

Kevin

Lena Dunham

Carson

Joe Swanberg

Jeff

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Karl Quinn

The Age (Australia)

The performances all round have a slightly improvised vibe, with Lynskey and Girls creator Lena Dunham (as an old friend of Jenny's) especially finding the groove where a little roughness around the edges only serves to enhance the charm.

Nov 8, 2018

Full Review

Jason Bailey

Flavorwire

Swanberg's let-the-camera-run aesthetic can go either way - towards self-indulgence, or overheard, naturalistic candor. Thanks in no small part to the considerable gifts of his cast, 'Happy Christmas' goes the right way.

Jun 18, 2016

Full Review

Keith Staskiewicz

Entertainment Weekly

Swanberg's naturalistic, improvised style lets the conflict come about organically, repeatedly putting the characters in situations to which they could react with clichés but instead go with something more empathetic and nuanced.

Rated: B

Dec 2, 2014

Full Review

Michael J. Casey

Michael J. Cinema

Although not an entirely successful movie, 'Happy Christmas' is a giant leap forward for Swanberg.

Rated: 2.5/5

Nov 17, 2021

Full Review

Debbie Lynn Elias

Behind The Lens

Loosely crafted story works and has an easy natural flow ... shooting on 16mm, Ben Richardson's cinematography is textured with a 70's cinematic feel.

Dec 14, 2019

Full Review

David Bax

Battleship Pretension

A personal, hilarious and well-made work of art piped straight to me on my couch; if that's the form that the rescue of the modern film comedy is going to take, I refuse to complain.

Nov 5, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

An immature party girl (Anna Kendrick) moves in with her brother's family to get over a breakup and throws their lives out of whack.

Director: Joe Swanberg
Screenwriter: Joe Swanberg
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Production Co: Tiki Bar Films
Rating: R (Language|Drug Use|Some Sexual Content)
Genre: Holiday, Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 25, 2014, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 17, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $30.1K

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