Happy Christmas

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.

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.

This movie is the most boring movie I have ever seen. How is a baby a better actor than the mess of schlumps in it. You people give white people a bad name. I swear we are not as boring as this movie portrays. Please don't watch this movie. There. My paragraph is a better script for a movie than what I just watched 😂

Joe Swanberg who wrote, directed and played one of the leading roles in this his latest film is known for his improvisational independent films. Although I liked, as other reviewers have noted his recent movie "Drinking Buddies", I felt this film's improvisations failed in that the dialogue was too stilted, awkward, and filled with what appeared to be inside jokes that the cast would laugh at, ignoring basically the viewers that were watching. Thus the whole thing just got more and more annoying for me as it progressed.

The plot centers on the loving couple of Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) and Jeff Spelling (Swanberg) and their adorable son Jude welcoming to their home, in Chicago around Christmas time, Jeff's sister Jenny (Anna Kendrick), after she just broke up with her boyfriend. Once Jenny enters the scene, they'll be a lot of scenes involving pot smoking, drinking, sex, and explicit sex talk. They'll be other plot elements involving Jenny's irresponsibility and her attempts along with her friend Carson (Lena Dunham) to convince Kelly to devote more time to her writing and to get help with the raising of her son.

All in all, as mentioned, I just felt the improvisational approach here just didn't work, and the movie ended up having little entertainment value for me.

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