Variety
Another half-formed feature from indie cinema's most prolific doodler... demonstrates that Joe Swanberg makes better babies than movies.
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Happy Christmas
Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect) stars in this indie comedy as 20-something Jenny who had just suffered a break-up, prompting her to move in with her film-making brother Jeff (Joe Swanberg, You’re Next) and his novelist wife Kelly (Melanie Lynskey, TV’s Two and a Half Men).
Jenny’s hard-partying, booze-swigging ways shake the family’s idyllic life, as does her rocky relationship with their baby sitter-cum-pot dealer (Mark Webber, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). Swanson also writes and directs, following up 2013’s Drinking Buddies. Co-stars Lena Dunham from TV’s Girls.
Less2014Rating: R1678 minsUSA
ComedyDrama
- Director:
- Joe Swanberg ('Drinking Buddies')
- Writer:
- Joe Swanberg
- Cast:
- Anna KendrickMelanie LynskeyJoe SwanbergLena DunhamMark Webber
Happy Christmas | Reviews
75%80 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® Score
All reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Time Out
Swanberg is good at futzing with our moment-to-moment expectations, but he can't shape all these well-acted scenes into a satisfying whole.
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The New York Times
A quiet, serious comedy about marriage, parenthood and the everyday strains of bringing up a rambunctious toddler while struggling to sustain a creative life.
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The Dissolve
Has the ramshackle, slice-of-life, ragged verisimilitude of mumblecore at its best, but fused with a story with actual momentum and unfailingly excellent performances by smartly cast professionals.
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SBS
The performances are so believable, and there's such warmth, that you're likely to leave the cinema with a smile and a nod to Swanberg for daring to make such good drama out of simple everyday scenarios.
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