A Yuletide treat: Why Happiest Season is the queer Christmas film we’ve been waiting for

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “It’s a gay Christmas movie,” its star Kristen Stewart told The Guardian. There are times when the film even feels in conversation with itself: when Abby tries to look on the bright side, telling her best friend John that “it’s kind of fun having a secret”, he shoots back, “Yeah, I mean there’s nothing more erotic than concealing your authentic selves.” It is not insignificant that Happiest Season was written and directed by a queer woman, made with a “queer female crew”, and counts several queer people among its stars – Aubrey Plaza, Victor Garber and Kristen Stewart among them. “I so appreciated making this movie with Kristen,” DuVall told The New York Times, “because I felt she could understand it in a way that not a lot of people can.” Despite becoming something of a gay icon when she starred in But I’m a Cheerleader in 1999, DuVall didn’t come out publicly until 2012. Having experienced “every side” of this story – she’s been the one hiding and the one being hidden – she has empathy for her protagonists without letting either of them off too easily.