It’s the most wonderful time of the year: snow is falling, lights are twinkling, children travel home to visit their families and make new memories toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her. E grossly body wants to possess’own’nurse a perfect Christmas. But what happens when you throw in a secret that could potentially ruin eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything? It’s what the women of Happiest Season — director Clea DuVall, co-writer Mary Holland, and stars Mackenzie Davis and Kristen Stewart – present with generosity, wit, love, and plenty of Christmas cheer.###Harper (Davis) and Abby (Stewart) possess’own’nurse a perfect relationship — loving, patient, understanding — but the stakes are with regards to’concerning’with respect to to acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure higher, and their devotion is with regards to’concerning’with respect to to be put to the test: Abby is planning on asking Harper to marry her on Christmas Day, and Harper has invited Abby home to spend the holidays with her family — who claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate both women are straight.###Stewart plays the frustration of keeping Harper’s secret perfectly, her often chilly physicality softening a bit in the name of love — the star infuses her perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mance with a sense of control, conveying moments of both comedy and vulnerability. She is aided by a sharp script from DuVall and Holland, so quotable you can already see the Happiest Season Cinematic Universe (HSCU) expanding bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e your eyes (“She is not a rice cooker,” Abby’s best friend points out, offended by the potential marriage proposal). Davis is engaging, too, as Harper, channelling a similar scared but loving energy to her character as that exhibited in Black Mirror’s ‘San Junipero’ episode – aldespite’in spite of’albeit where that storyline felt evenly split between its two lovers, this film belongs more to Abby.###A lively, appeal’tempt ive paean to impressing and caring in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the ones you love.###Happiest Season also thrives on the chemistry between its family members: Alison Brie has a blast playing uptight and acerbic older sister Sloane; Mary Steenburgen is endlessly entertaining as the self-conscious, social media-savvy matriarch; and e grossly scene Mary Holland is in becomes all the better in/with regard to’concerning’regarding it — no-one is better written than the desperately peppy middle sister, Jane. And then there’s Abby’s best friend John (_Schitt’s Creek_____’s Dan Levy on tremendous in/with regard to’concerning’regarding m) and Harper’s ex-girlfriend Riley (Aubrey Plaza, always a joy).###It’s an embarrassment of riches, a lively, appeal’tempt ive paean to impressing and caring in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the ones you love which grapples with the impossible expectations of perfection and happiness — all in the name of a rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent Christmas. It’s more complicated than just saying the right words at the right time: the glee of the holidays, here, must be earned.