T&K's XMas (2020) Advent Calendar: Day 10 - Happiest Season

 2020, Clea DuVall (The Intervention) -- Amazon

We... agree?

*re-reads*

Yeah, we agree. So, for the recap of the movie and most of our shared touchpoints, go read Kent's post.

So, Kent is very aware of my dislike for tense situations and cringey interactions. I dislike it when it is the basis of a comedy, and when it becomes the focal point of someone's trauma, I almost turned it off. But then Aubrey Plaza would show up, or Dan Levy would appear on screen, and I was enjoying myself again. Alas, even the very sweet ending, did not save this movie for me. This was a traumatic movie about horrible people being horrible to other people who did not deserve it.

So, my brief is that Abby and Harper are ... a year into a relationship, unless you want to go with the lesbian cliche of moving in together after one date, then they are six months in. Abby wants to propose, but Harper just wants to bring her home. But half way between Pittsburgh and the PST where Harper is from, she gets cold feet and admits she never came out. Abby is the roommate.

From there it gets only worse, much worse. This movie makes Mary Steenburgen and Victor Garber into horrible people who pit two of their daughters against each other, like gladiators for affection, while pretty putting the third in the servant's quarters. The latter is obviously so broken, I was all for their depiction of her being an awkward writer of terrible YA fantasy, and I would probably love the books. Once Harper is mixed back up in all this disfunction, she falls back into who she was there, which is, frankly, also a horrible person.

And yet, there are a few scenes that shine through this morass of reprehensible people. Abby starts escaping out into the PST with Harper's ex Rylie, played by Plaza. One night they end up at the local dive bar, a hole in the wall with relaxed young folk and comedic drag queens singing offbeat Xmas songs. It is suuuuch a comfortable looking place. Conversely, Harper is the local sports bar "Fratty's", which probably only has shitty beer. The place is wretched, and this dichotomy says a lot.

When Abby has finally had enough of all this bullshit, Dan Levy reminds her of the spectrum of experiences in coming out. Some are wonderful, some are traumatically shitty and many somewhere in between. But for me, this wonderfully poignant point of the movie was not enough. They try and railroad a sweet ending, where the family instantly understands they are shitty people and reconcile, but all the terrible terrible behaviour, and the destruction of Jane's lovely painting was more than enough. Like Abby had had enough, I had enough. Like Kent, I like that this movie happened, I just didn't like the movie. I cannot accept they would stay together.