THIS HOLIDAY, COME OUT AND MEET THE FAMILY.

Harper (Mackenzie Davis) is spending Christmas together with her family and her girlfriend Abby (Kristen Stewart)… but on the journey home she tells Abby that she hasn’t come out to her family.

Clea DuVall based the idea of this romantic comedy on personal experiences, which is probably why a movie that looks formulaic on paper and could easily fall into predictable traps does a good job of largely avoiding them. Most of the characters also come across as real people, not clichés who are there to generate cheap laughs.

Warm and funny, very appealingly staged, with terrific performances from the whole cast; Stewart is the stand-out.

2020-U.S. 102 min. Color. Directed by Clea DuVall. Screenplay: Clea DuVall, Mary Holland. Cast: Kristen Stewart (Abby), Mackenzie Davis (Harper), Alison Brie (Sloane), Aubrey Plaza, Dan Levy, Mary Holland, Victor Garber, Mary Steenburgen. 

Last word: “It’s not so much like my specific coming out story, per se. I did come out to my mom in a very dramatic way on Christmas Day and I’ve spent the majority of my Christmases with other people’s families. I’ve definitely gone home with people and been the ‘friend’ and I’ve had people come places with me and they were the ‘friend.’ It’s really like a mosaic of all the different experiences of, at least for me, being a gay person.” (DuVall, Indiewire)