My Year of Screens: Favorites of 2020

Is it an oxymoron to make best lists for 2020? Probably, given *waves arms at everything* But, because I’m stubborn and don’t learn well, I shall try. This year instead of best, I will just tell you my favorites. We spent much of the year inside, behind screens like everyone else. In a year as monstrous with its grief, pain, frustration, stress and anger, anything that helped you get through it is worth watching. So here’s what helped me. May it help some of you as well. Enjoy what you enjoy.

Favorite Holigay Rom-Com: Happiest Season
Whatever you have to say about this movie (and, clearly, I had a lot to say per my full review), this is the queer movie of the year simply because of how it moved the needle for queer representation in cheesy holiday rom-coms. For many of us it represents the first time we got to feel a part of something everyone else has already been doing forever. And that matters.

Favorite This Should Be Gayer Film: The Old Guard
This is unapologetically probably my favorite movie of 2020 for its elegant, seamless action and story that while obviously fantastical somehow perfectly fits the reality of our current moment. I mean, it’s about a team of world-weary immortals searching for a reason to keep fighting for this miserable world. That’s about as 2020 as you can get. But, you know, next time make it gayer. (Though, keep Charlize's hair exactly as is, please and thank you.)

Favorite Everyone in This Movie is Kinda Gay Film: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
I have watched this film four times now and it’s just a cacophonous delight of personality, color and baddassery. If only Hollywood would give us more female-fronted action like “The Old Guard” and “Bird of Prey,” instead of the 3 millionth incarnation of the Spider-Man/Batman/Superwhatever origin stories, well, I’d be a much happier moviegoer. That’s for sure.

Favorite Everyone in This Movie Already Gay Film: The Prom
Just a fun musical with an absurdly talented cast that is just shy of practically perfect because of James “Why Not Cast an Actual Gay Actor Instead of Me” Corden.

Favorite Queer Teen Film: The Half of It
Sweet, thoughtful, gay, diverse. What a lovely little gem of a movie that more people should watch.

Favorite Feel Good Queer TV: Schitt’s Creek
It took me ridiculously long to start watching this show. But if you have to catch up on this truly wonderful series I can recommend no time better than during a global pandemic when you need to believe in people, love and the joy of being gay more than ever.

Favorite Feel Good Queerish TV: The Good Place
There once was an entire sitcom dedicated to answering the question, “How to be a good person.” And it was very good, and the finale was sublime and looking back to the pre-pandemic beauty of it all it barely seems real. But it was real. And it was lovely.

Favorite Feel Good Not Queer TV: How to With John Wilson
This show is just weird, but in a wonderful and unexpectedly compassionate way. There’s not a single lesbian thing about it and the protagonist/creator is a straight white man and you should still watch.

So, that’s just a small sampling of what I watched in 2020. How about you? What got you through 2020?

p.s. If nothing else, 2021 should bring a lot less of a certain someone on our screens. Oh, he’ll yell and rant and tweet and spew and whine. But we just won’t have to care anymore – and about him ever again. The only thing I want to hear about anyone with the last name Trump after January 20 is how long their jail sentence will be. Otherwise, fuck off forever you hateful grifter morons. Getting rid of you is my favorite part of 2020.

Happiest Horror

we did it clea.. Happiest Season horror trailer cut pic.twitter.com/kWEuhTwGa1

— Erin Sullivan (@sullivem) November 12, 2020

I cannot think of a better way to usher in the Christmas season and month of December than with the “Happiest Season” horror cut. We’ve already discussed the importance of soundtrack and editing in determining tone and atmosphere. This appears particularly true with this year’s crop of lesbian-centered projects. Look, if “Bly Manor” can be a rom-com, “Happiest Season” can get a horror trailer. Kind of gives new meaning to, “You better watch out, You better not cry…” Also, it’s been a week since this film has been out (you can read my full review here). I’d wager that it and “Carol” are now required lesbian and queer woman viewing each December, no? 'Tis the season, ladies. Happy holigays, kittens.

p.s. Granted, if you look at it the right way, “Happiest Season” is a bit of a horror film. Like in some ways it’s horrifying to watch Abby stay with her repressed closeted girlfriend with bad bangs Harper instead of leaving her for the out, funny, fucking hot doctor who looks amazing in blazers Riley. And, hands down, K-Stew had better chemistry with Aubrey Plaza than Mackenzie Davis. Regardless, we all deserve a sequel that’s all about Riley’s holiday-season journey to find love. Make it so, universe. After the year we’ve all had, I think you owe us.

Review: Happiest Season

If you’re a lesbian or queer women who likes Christmas, or you ever dreamed of kissing a woman under the mistletoe, or you made out with your bestie freshman year when you both stayed in the dorms over winter break only to feel funny about it for months afterward, well, do I have the the movie for you.

“Happiest Season” comes out today on Hulu, exactly one month before Christmas. And it’s the early Christmas present your little gay heart always wanted to find waiting for you under the tree. In fact, it’s the lesbian holiday rom-com your inner cheesy rom-com watcher wishes she could be watching instead all those Lifetime/Hallmark Christmas rom-coms about marrying princes, medievel knights and/or blueberry farmers you secretly watch while wrapping presents year after year.

What’s most remarkable about “Happiest Season” isn’t its cast (which is undeniably remarkable given it’s filled with A-list names from Kristen to Mackenzie to Dan, Mary, Victor, Aubrey, Alison and more) or its subject matter (this is a year filled with a truly remarkable variety of quality choices for queer women who like everything from moody ghost stories or fossil hunting historical pieces and now holiday rom-coms). What’s most remarkable about “Happiest Season” is how utterly conventional it is, and I mean that in the best way possible.

“Happiest Season” is exactly what you’d expect from a holiday rom-com, down to scenes of sibling rivalry devolving into slapstick violence to The Big Unforeseen/Unlikely Obstacle that almost breaks them apart to that most classic of rom-com of moves involving one half of a non-married couple hiding semi-clothed behind a bedroom door from disapproving parents. And, like their straight counterparts, they get just physical enough to remind you they are adults who totally have sex, but not enough to make it too awkward to watch with your mom.

Yes, it’s that kind of movie. And that’s OK. That’s very OK. It’s OK because the big difference is, of course, instead of a good-looking straight couple at its center, there’s a good-looking lesbian couple at its center.

I have now watched “Happiest Season” three times in full and can honestly say that I plan on rewatching it each year during the Christmas season. It’s that kind of movie. In fact, along with “Carol,” I believe lesbian and queer women now have two – albeit very different - holigay classics to enjoy of their very own.

The light-on-its-feet affair is helmed by Clea DuVall, who directed and co-wrote the film. Along with proving the movie unassailable queer bona fides, DuVall and Stewart’s presence roots the movie in the modern gay experience. DuVall also makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance during the credits, finally bringing your youthful crush on her since her Graham days in “But I’m a Cheerleader” full circle.

“Happiest Season” walks that razor-sharp-enough-to-trim-your-lesbian-undercut line between appealing to its eager contemporary queer audience and reaching out broadly to straight folks. Hence the subject matter, which is admittedly some fairly basic Gay 101 stuff. A lesbian couple (Kristen Stewart’s Abby and Mackenzie Davis’s Harper) goes home for the holidays, only to find out that Harper hasn’t come out to her parents yet, thus complicating Abby’s plans to propose.

Along the way exes show up (someone get every single lesbian Riley’s phone number - hello, a single lesbian doctor working at Johns Hopkins as played with hand-in-pockets authenticity by Aubrey Plaza). And Parker’s sisters played by Alison Brie and Mary Holland (the film’s other co-writer) add plenty of zany WASP-families-are-secretly-crazy comedic interludes.

If you’re used to seeing K-Stew from the “Twilight” franchise or her more edgy indie fare, “Happiest Season” will give you a window into her funny side. It’s a little unbalancing at first watching someone so patently hip use a dorky reindeer glider to skate around an ice rink or awkwardly fail to impress the parents. Her very specific, low-key, continually too-cool-for-school persona at first might seem an odd fit for a rom-com. And at times, it seems Mackenzie and Kristen’s energies don’t entirely connect. But they have enough chemistry to make you care, and that’s what matters.

Making “Happiest Season” so traditional in many ways is perhaps the perfect bait-and-switch. It gets more people to watch what for queer viewers will be an affirmation and for straight viewers will hopefully be an eye opener about why some people still struggle with coming out. In the end, we’re all just humans who want to be loved, and anything that puts up potential barriers to that love is, shall we say, complicated.

Yes, a lot of things have changed in our political landscape. Things have gotten better. We can legally marry. We can serve in the military (and hopefully our patriotic trans and non-binary servicemembers will soon again – fuck, and I mean this most sincerely until the end of time, Donald Trump). But so much is still not equal, and we have so many fights left to win. And that fact that it took until the year 2020 for a mainstream holiday rom-com featuring lesbian leads to be even be made.

Dan Levy brings his best Woke David Rose energy to the role of Abby’s gay male best friend. He also provides its compassionate heart while walking hetero watchers gingerly through The Gay Experience, a bit like the unseen stage narrator of “Our Town,” except he is very seen and very welcome. Still, if you’re a hardened gaymo like me, you’ll find your heart growing several sizes as the movie reaches its inevitable emotional crescendo.

Look I never thought, growing up as as a nerdy kid in the Midwest who liked Jennifer Connelly in “Labyrinth” a little too much, that one day one of the biggest movie stars in the world who also happened to be gay would play a gay character in a lesbian rom-com with a major joke/plot point about literally hiding in the closet - but here we are. Now every little lesbian and queer girl growing up has a cheesy – and I mean that in the best way possible – lesbian rom-com of their very own. And that matters.

A Lesbian Little Christmas

Look, I spent the entire weekend (and then some) after about 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time Saturday morning drinking champagne, blasting “Fuck Donald Trump,” and intermittently crying about the fact that now, finally, we have a chance to maybe do a little good – or at bare minimum stop doing so many incredibly horrible things. Hearing them make the call was both a moment of total elation and exhausted relief. But, at least this past weekend, it was all about the joy. We’ve had to make our own these past four years. So if it feels a little bit like Christmas came early, well, there’s a reason.

And, it also helped that the trailer for “The Happiest Season” dropped yesterday. It’s the first mainstream lesbian holiday rom-com to be released here in the states. (Yes, I know there have been indie holiday lesbian movies, but let’s be real they didn’t have Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis.) But I think what I like most about it, aside of course from seeing K-Stew and Yorkie as a couple, is how extraordinarily conventional it seems – from a rom-com standpoint.

A cute couple is going home for the holidays for the first time together, one gets advice from her sassy gay friend (Dan Levy, David Rose-ing himself through life with aplomb), they try to avoid spilling the beans about something to the clueless parents and an emotional and/or physical obstacle is presented for them to overcome. Granted, the obstacle here is coming out and not being honest about one’s sexuality. But they are even sight-gag jokes about her hiding in the closet. And hiding from the folks behind the door to your childhood bedroom? That’s practically wholesome.

So while the storyline perhaps feels a bit basic for those familiar with queer cinema over the years, I have to think that’s the point. Again, this is the first mainstream lesbian rom-com. And it stars perhaps the most famous out actress working right now, and also has a queer filmmaker/actress in Clea DuVall behind the camera. The idea is both mass appeal, and to give I think lesbian and bisexual women who’ve been yearning for their own cheesy (and I mean that in the best possible way) holiday rom-com to call their very own.

p.s. Don’t worry, I put “Happiest Season” in an entirely other Christmas-time category than The Queen of Lesbian Holiday Movies, “Carol.” There’s room in this world for both, and in fact, so many more. Bring on the holly and the jolly, but make it super gay.

Happiest Holiday Photos

Look, lesbians also celebrate Christmas! Sometimes. And they use giant reindeer to help balance them while ice skating with their girlfriends! Sometimes. And they definitely have to awkwardly pose with their families on Christmas morning in their PJs! Sometimes. We’re getting a somewhat steady drip-drip of images from the new lesbian rom-com “Happiest Season.” Billed as the first mainstream lesbian holiday rom-com (yes, there have been others from indie outlets), the film is certainly building expectations.

I sometimes worry that with movies aimed at mass markets like this, the story naturally becomes something that’s most accessible to the masses. Hence the movie’s plot revolving around a woman (Kristen Stewart) wanting to propose to her girlfriend (Mackenzie Davis) over the holidays, which gets complicated by the fact that her girlfriend isn’t out to her conservative family yet. Yes, I know, another coming out story. But, under the helm of “But I’m a Cheerleader” (and lots of other stuff) alum Clea DuVall, I have faith it will be funny, sweet, romantic and relatable for both its queer female viewers and straight wider audience.

And, again, I’ve watched more than a lifetime’s worth of truly mediocre straight rom-coms over the years. So even an average effort (not that this movie will be average) would be a landmark for us gay ladies. So bring on the tinsel and strap on those skates (or whatever else, ahem). The “Happiest Season” is almost upon us.

Happiest (Movie) Season

You know what, fuck it, we’re taking the first week of July too because we didn’t get to have our parades and we’re worth it. And you definitely deserve to see Kristen “Like So Gay, Dude” Stewart and Mackenzie “San Junipero” Davis with director Clea “But I’m a Cheerleader” DuVall from their holiday themed lesbian holiday lesbian holidy rom-com “Happiest Season.” Because, kittens, it’s like a rainbow explosion of joys, quite literally. It’s almost like Pride Month threw up all over them, but in a good way.

The plot, about how a young woman (K-Stew) who plans to propose to her girlfriend (Davis) at her girlfriend family’s annual Thanksgiving party only to find out she isn’t out to her conservative parents (played by Mary Steenburgen and Victor Garber), is certainly intriguing. And K-Stew is probably the highest-profile out actress to tackle an out queer role. The cast is rounded out (see what I did there?) by Alison Brie (“Community”), Aubrey Plaza (“Parks & Rec”), Dan Levy (“Schitt’s Creek”) and Ana Gasteyer (please, you know who Ana Gasteyer is). As excited as I am for this film, I gotta say that’s a very white principal cast. Though I do think it has some more supporting POC actors.

But, still, any mainstreaming of queer identities and love is always welcome. And, well, who can resist a well-made lesbian rom-com? I mean, we’ve all suffered through enough bad ones. Like, I watched “Bar Girls” and briefly reconsidered my sexual orientation like every other lesbian who had the misfortune of seeing it. Plus we’re lucky this film – which started shooting in January – was able to wrap before the global pandemic and, you know, everything. So we’ll be able to see it in some form or another this November.

Now all that is left is to go find your rainbow stencils, grab a rainbow flag, make a “Love Is Love” sign and let’s do this thing.

p.s. Spoiler Alert: Something about this picture tells me those parents come around in the end. I mean, they practically look like they’ve started their own PLAG chapter.

K-Mac Sitting In A Tree

Remember when we learned that KStew planned to star in a contemporary, heartwarming holiday-themed lesbian rom-com? Well, it just got even gayer. Kristen Setwart has already signed on to star in “Happiest Season,” a lesbian rom-com written and directed by Clea DuVall. And now, Mackenzie “San Junipero” Davis is in talks to star opposite Kristen as her girlfriend.

Feel free to take a moment. It’s a lot to take in. All these lesbians worlds colliding in one picture. KStew hearts Yorkie thanks to Graham.

In the film a young woman’s plan to propose to her girlfriend over the holidays is complicated by her girlfriend not being out to her conservative parents. I am 100 percent here for KStew and Mackenzie engaging in familial hijinks and coming out shenanigans. Also, you know, all the smoochies.

20LezTeen

How do I know 2019 is going to be a good and gay year at the movies? Mainstream Hollywood is giving us Bisexuals in Black, Terminator: San Junipero and Captain Marvel-ous, but there will be at least two lesbian movies featuring high-profile casts. Late last year it was announced that Kristen Stewart was in talks to star in a Clea DuVall-penned lesbian holiday rom-com AND that Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are set to star in a lesbian period piece. Sure, it’s not quite 2018’s Carol Effect wave of movies just yet. But it is a super gay start.

A little more on both projects.

K-Stew’s “Happiest Season” was written and directed by Clea (who co-wrote the script with writing partner Mary Holland). Per its synopsis, Kristen would play a “young woman whose plan to propose to her girlfriend while at her family’s annual holiday party is upended when she discovers her partner hasn’t yet come out to her conservative parents.” K-Stew starring in a contemporary, heartwarming holiday-themed lesbian rom-com? We truly are living in the future.

Kate and Saoirse’s “Ammonite” is set in seaside 1840s England. Kate plays real-life pioneering paleontologist Mary Anning who meets a young, wealthy London woman who is sent to the coast for her “health.”

Butter that popcorn, kittens. It’s gonna be a super gay ride.