Happy Christmas

I only gave it 2 stars instead of NONE because that baby was cute. That is all.

OK it's mumblecore. You knew that before you hit the pay button. What did you expect? There is no script. It is actors improvising trying to be natural and create real drama out of pure inspiration. It's an interesting idea at least, especially for actors I imagine. You are not going to get bloody Shakespeare are you. But what you do get is a real sense of being present in the lives of the people involved. I feel like I know Joe Swanberg, or the gorgeous wife, or Lena Dunham... but most of all, and praise be to Jesus, it's like I know Anna Kendrick. She gives a superb performance of a very funny dysfunctional character with some very funny scenes and for me it was worth it just to watch her. The baby is hilarious too. It's about as entertaining as watching a real family fight going on if you are just a spectator. But hey, sometimes that is a lot of fun.

There was really no point to this movie. I have definitely seen worse but I wouldn't ever recommend this to someone.

Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) and Jeff (Joe Swanberg) are happily married with infant son Jude in Chicago. Jeff's younger sister Jenny (Anna Kendrick) moves in with them. She's irresponsible and makes a drunken scene at her friend Carson (Lena Dunham)'s party. Kevin (Mark Webber) is the manny. She convinces Kelly to make some life changes.

Director Joe Swanberg is doing his improvisational thing. Lynskey is great. Jenny is supposed to be the flighty irresponsible sister. I don't think that's Kendrick's natural range. She has made a career out of try-hard uptight girls. I can see her trying to expand her range. I think she is capable. I don't think the character is written completely right. If she's irresponsible, she needs to do more than getting drunk and smoking weed. During her sexual encounters, she reverts back to her uptight persona. She needs to let loose and go crazy with this character. This movie has a simple story without much drama. It needs to go a little crazier to heighten the intensity.

Happy Christmas was made with only three film crew members, not including the director, in case you were curious the level of 'indie-ness' in this film.

Joe Swanberg writes, directs and stars in Happy Christmas, the ensemble indie film that touches on the real life minor predicament that occurs during the holiday.

Recently broken up with her boyfriend, Jenny decides to crash at her brother Jeff's and his wife Kelly's house in Chicago while she considers laying roots in the city for a change of pace. She drinks and smokes away her sadness while she desperately tries to distract herself, coping terribly while hanging out with her old friend Carson and new friend Kevin.

Happy Christmas is a film for fans of the typical indie genre film. It utilizes real life cinematography and puts a microscope to the real life problems within the mundanities of life. This is not some film about profound transformation or extraordinary circumstances. In fact, Happy Christmas is so ordinary in its subject matter that 20-something viewers should see themselves or their friends in this film.

If you, as a typical movie viewer, enjoy to put a mirror to real everyday life then you should give this film a shot. If you typically watch films to escape or put yourself into a film beyond your routine existence, then you should stay away, far away.

Happy Christmas is a grainy film to watch, and was probably not shot in 1080p and then upscaled. this yields a mildly pixelated appearance which is nauseating on anything larger than a computer screen. Most of the film appears to be shot using hand-held or a steadicam operator which is extremely distracting as the film sight line moves along the edges of the frame. My guess is the techniques employed for the cinematography of Happy Christmas were deliberate to truly capture the reality in vision.

Though Joe Swanberg is listed as the screenwriter of the film it seems as though most of the dialogue was improv-ed, and poorly. Mark Webber who plays Kevin and Anna Kendrick who plays the self-destructive Jenny are the most natural and believable of the bunch. Otherwise the scenes are stiff and slow with a lot of awkward pauses from the dull and banal conversation topics. The star of the film is baby Jude, real life son of director Joe Swanberg, who is so comfortable and natural that you can't help but be enamored by his energy, alas if only the whole film was like him.

Happy Christmas is a narrative nonevent of a film that will be contemptibly boring to some and realistically introspective to others.

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