Happiest Season | 2020 Christmas Movies

Now that I finished all of the Christmas movies form Hallmark and Lifetime, I can dive into the movies from Netflix and Hulu. Hulu gave us just one movie this year, Happiest Season, but it’s better to have one really good movie over 100 terrible ones.

Harper (Mackenzie Davis) has invited her girlfriend, Abby (Kristen Stewart), to her family’s house for Christmas. Unfortunately, Harper has not come out to her parents. Abby spends the next five days with Harper’s crazy family pretending that she is only Harper’s roommate.

Happiest Season has a lot of big names attached to it. It was written and directed by Clea DuVall. The cast has bigwigs like Kristen Stewart, Aubrey Plaza, Dan Levy, Alison Brie, Mary Steenburgen, and Victor Garber. It would have been difficult to make a bad movie with this sort of talent attached.

Thankfully, this was a wonderful movie. I don’t think I could have stood another bad movie. There are a few weird moments but these were true to life. Life isn’t always easy and sometimes there are moments you have to traverse that are weird. I think the characters handled it better than I would have.

This is definitely a movie you should watch. Actually, this might be a good annual movie as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Christmas Setup | 2020 Christmas Movies

As I have said before, Christmas 2020 is the season of inclusivity. The Christmas House is the “movie that broke Hallmark” because it featured a gay couple. Well, Lifetime did them one better with The Christmas Setup where the main couple is gay.

Hugo (Ben Lewis) is a New York lawyer trying to make partner. When he comes home to Minnesota, he meets Patrick (Blake Lee), a former tech entrepreneur. With a little meddling from his mother, Kate (Fran Drescher), and his best friend, Madelyn (Ellen Wong), Hugo finds what is really important to him.

The Christmas Setup is the best movie that Lifetime has aired this season. It might possibly be the best movie on television this season. In most romance movies, we don’t see that awkward stage where the couple likes each other but doesn’t know if the other person likes them back. Amazingly, we get that here. We get scenes where Hugo groans about how nerdy he is after an interaction with Patrick or how dumb a hat looks on him. There are shy glances between the men as they try to discern where they stand with each other. It is so sweet.

All of the acting is wonderful. Fran Drescher is great as Hugo and Aiden’s (Chad Connell) mother. She’s meddles a little and over plans the Christmas events but it’s obvious that she does it because she loves her boys so much. Ben Lewis and Blake Lee are a real life couple, which brings a reality to their characters’ relationship that you don’t get in other movies. And Ellen Wong as Hugo’s best friend? Perfection.

You should absolutely go watch The Christmas Setup. This is actually a movie you may want to watch every year. It is so good!!

The Christmas House | 2020 Christmas Movies

There has been some controversy about an LGBTQ+ movie on Hallmark. I heard people complaining about a “gay couple on Hallmark!” forcing them to cancel their subscription to the channel but I didn’t know which movie it was. Well, this is it. This is the movie that broke Hallmark.

Mike (Robert Buckley) is an actor starring in a television show called “Handsome Lawyer.” When shooting wraps for the season, he is called home to help his parents, Phylis (Sharon Lawrence) and Bill (Treat Williams), bring back The Christmas House. With some help from his brother, Brandon (Jonathan Bennett), and Brandon’s husband, Jake (Brad Harder), Mike tries to get the house ready for all of the Christmas revelers to enjoy.

The Christmas House has a lot going on in it. (Here is Hallmark’s description of the movie since mine is kinda terrible.) There’s a house being sold, a relationship breaking up, a relationship starting, a baby possibly being adopted, a career that might be ending….like I said, a lot. However, it all works. People’s lives are hectic around the holidays and this movie reflects that.

As I said in the opening, this is a controversial movie. This is the first Christmas movie on the Hallmark Channel that focuses on a gay couple. Surprisingly, they are treated well. I was expecting Hallmark to come out with at least one character that was against their lifestyle. But no, Brandon and Jake are treated just like everyone else in the movie. I know, it’s almost like gay people are…..people. (insert shocked face here) Hallmark did good.

I really don’t want to give away too much about The Christmas House because, yes, you should watch this one. Watch it multiple times. And not just because it has gay characters. It is actually a good movie. I don’t usually want to add Hallmark movies to my “annual movie” list….this may be the exception.

Jingle Jangle | 2020 Christmas Movies

When I was trying to decide where to start my Christmas movie festival, I remembered the hype around one of Netflix’s new movies - Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey. Granted, all of the hype I heard was about the color of the cast’s skins rather than the content of the show. So, knowing little more than this was “a Christmas movie with black people!” (Ugh, I hated typing that line….), I clicked on my Netflix and got to watching.

Jingle Jangle is the story of Jeronicus Jangle, an amazing inventor. Everyone loves his toys and creations. Jeronicus’ greatest invention is a sentient doll named Don Juan Diego. When Don Juan finds out that he is about to become a mass produced toy, he convinces Jeronicus’ apprentice, Gustafson, to steal Jeronicus’ Book of Ideas to become a master inventor himself. Gustafson quickly becomes a top toymaker whole Jeronicus’ life falls apart. After losing most of his business, Jeronicus’ wife dies. His heartbreak causes him to turn on his beloved daughter, Jessica, and he sends her away. Jessica grows up and has a daughter of her own, Journey. Journey, a brilliant inventor of her own, tricks her mother into sending her to spend time with her grandfather. But can Journey get through to an inverted heartbroken old man?

I’m not really sure where to start the review. Do I talk about the gorgeous steampunk visuals? Or do I talk about the awesome musical numbers? Or do I just jump into how freaking talented the cast is? OK. OK. Breathe.

The whole movie is set in this sort of 1930s-ish steampunk world. Everyone wears brightly colored suits and dresses and they all seem very happy with gadgets and gizmos a-plenty. The visuals are seriously gorgeous. Since the movie is framed as a book that a grandmother is reading to her grandchildren, when the story needs to move a little faster, we get steampunk doll versions of the characters acting out the scene. I love it so much.

Then we have the musical numbers. Thanks to songs from John Legend and Philip Lawrence (his songwriting team has written for Bruno Mars, CeeLo Green, Adele….the list goes on) and the musical talents of the cast, the score is just as beautiful as the visuals. The songs have a little more soul to them than most Christmas songs, which is a lovely change to the usually bland stuff we hear these days. And I seriously didn’t know that Forest Whitaker (old Jeronicus) and Keegan-Michael Key (adult Gustafson) could sing. They were very impressive. (Though not nearly as impressive as Lisa Davina Phillip as Ms. Johnston. I think I could listen to that woman sing for hours.)

And now the cast….I think maybe the casting directors found the most talented people in the entire world. (OK, maybe that is exaggerating a little…) A lot of the characters have two actors - a younger version and an older version. Justin Cornwell plays Jeronicus as a young man and Forest Whitaker plays him as an old man. So this might get a bit convoluted but stick with me.

Justin Cornwell does a lot of heavy lifting with the first song of the movie, “This Day.” It sets the entire tone of the movie and it does it well. My husband was so impressed that he actually came over to watch the movie with me. (He never watches these Christmas movies with me.) I already mentioned Forest Whitaker and Keegan-Michael Key. We also have Anika Noni Rose (better known as Tiana in Disney’s The Princess and The Frog) as adult Jessica, Ricky Martin as Don Juan Diego, and newcomer Madalen Mills as Journey. Mills absolutely blows everyone away as Journey. She has this amazing song “Square Root of Possible” that I was a little hesitant about at first…..but she nailed it.

To be honest, the only parts of the movie that I didn’t like were minor. Don Juan Diego was annoying. I understand the role the character plays in the movie…I just didn’t like him. But I suppose you aren’t supposed to like the villian. And I would have liked for them to do a little more with Edison, Journey’s friend and Jeronicus’s assistant. It was like he was around when the plot needed to move forward but then his mom would call him home when things actually started happening. I would have liked him to have spent a little more time becoming part of Journey’s family rather than an outsider who occasionally shows up.

Jingle Jangle is a great movie. While I know that Netflix will take it off the service after the holiday season, I wish they would leave it up so I can watch it again and again throughout the year. I mean, the Christmas part of the movie is so small that it doesn’t really matter. This movie is about the characters and their story…not Christmas. What are you waiting for? Go watch this NOW!