Over the last few years, there’s been a Hollywood trend of what I’d like to call “Trojan Horse” movies. In 2015 Quentin Tarantino gave us The Hateful Eight. This movie seemed like a western from the outset, but quickly turned into an Agatha Christie-esque whodunit. We had Logan in 2017, the conclusion of the Wolverine saga that was secretly a classic western. Last year, Todd Phillips directed The Joker which was both an homage to early Scorsese and a treatise on mental healthcare in the United States. As of this Thanksgiving weekend with Happiest Season, we have a new entry to this list. Now this movie is a Christmas movie. It checks all of the holiday movie boxes: family, Christmas songs, at least one present being smashed, and holiday hijinks to name a few. A deeper look at Happiest Season shows that this is much more about acceptance, representation, and being able to be comfortable in your own skin. We’ll dive deeper into it below, with spoilers to come.

We open with an introduction to our two main characters: Abby, seemingly disillusioned by the holidays due to the death of her parents and played by Kristen Stewart, and Harper, excited about the holidays played by Mackenzie Davis. The two are on a date, which spontaneously ends with Harper inviting Abby over to her family’s place for the holidays. After some coaxing from Abby’s friend John (played by Dan Levy, who fucking rules by the way) she agrees to Harper’s offer, and even stops off to buy an engagement ring to propose on Christmas Day. On the way Harper confesses she lied about coming out to her parents, convinces Abby to pretend to be her roommate, and holiday hijinks ensue. Once we get to Harper’s family home, we see the heavy hitters: Tipper (Harper’s mom played by Mary Steenburgen), Jane (Harper’s eccentric younger sister played by Mary Holland), and Sloane (Harper’s older sister played by the perfect Alison Brie), to name a few.

Now as stated above this movie hits on the predictable Christmas movie tropes, but what makes it special is the deeper LGBTQ angle. We get some Bird Cage vibes to begin to blend into the movie, as Harper plays the role of the ideal daughter her father needs during his campaign run for Mayor. She begins to fall back into old patterns and even goes drinking with old friends and an ex-Boyfriend. Abby in the meantime is shunted aside by Harper’s dedication to her family, and we have the conflict of the movie. We learn from Harper’s ex-girlfriend Riley (played by the iconic Aubrey Plaza) this pattern is nothing new. They were in love in high school, and when rumors were spread about them dating, Harper lied and told everyone Riley was obsessed with her, making Riley into a pariah. Eventually Sloane outs Harper to her parents in the midst of a White Elephant gift exchange with campaign donors, and Harper denies her relationship with Abby in front of everyone. Before we yada yada to the happy ending, I just want to point out Abby’s saintly patience. She agreed to pretend to not be in love with Harper, agreed to an uncomfortable family get together, saw Harper flirt with her ex-boyfriend, and still stuck around. The level of commitment makes Golden Retrievers seem fickle. Now eventually they stay together and work everything out, Harper’s father even denies funding from a donor who wanted him to force his daughter to take up a “don’t ask don’t tell” mentality.

The non-holiday themes are what makes this movie special. Family is always a driving force of holiday movies, and the family dynamic here is the core of this movie. We have a politician father, a homemaking mother, Sloane an Ivy League educated attorney turned disappointing “gift basket maker” eldest daughter, Harper the closeted golden child, and Jane the forgotten child. All have their roles to play. All want to be loved. All are competing in varying ways with each other. Like Jane “I’m an ally!” but I could never imagine the feeling of hiding who I am like Harper, or the feeling of being denied like Abby, due to social constraints. The pain of not being your true self, and the fear of not being accepted was so well acted in this that it was moving. The way this movie is written anyone can empathize with both Abby and Harper’s struggles. At the end of the movie, and really in our lives, it’s the love that’s most important. Everyone becomes their most realized versions of themselves and it’s through true acceptance and unconditional love. That’s what turns this Christmas movie into a Trojan horse tale of representation and acceptance, and it was truly beautiful. All that being said, we deserved Abby and Riley to end up together at the end.

Top 5 Holiday Movies:

I haven’t done a list in a while so I might as well ride this wave of motivation while it lasts. As it is the season of giving, I might as well rank the best Christmas movies.

5. It’s a Wonderful Life

Classics are classic for a reason. I detested this movie as a child, and now that I’m grown I’m ashamed of my younger self. This depression era movie shows us George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) beaten and broken down, contemplating suicide. His guardian angel shows him how much worse everyone else is without him, and George realizes he should live. It’s truly beautiful to see how much he meant to everyone else and the ending is perfect. Dana Carvey’s alternate ending from SNL is equally amazing.

4. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Going back to our themes of family, and Trojan horse movies, this John Hughes movie has Neal (Steve Martin) and Del (John Candy) marooned during the holidays. Neal is just trying to get home, and Del goes out of his way to help. This is the original Click, because it starts off as a silly buddy comedy, Martin and Candy are hilarious, until about the last ten minutes when Hughes rips your heart out. We find out Candy’s character Del stays on the road because his wife died and he has no family to go home to. Neal eventually puts this together and invites the solitary Del to his family dinner. I’m not crying you’re crying.

3. The Holiday

I am sad to admit how late I was arriving to this movie. Not only is this the 3^rd best Christmas movie of all time according to my arbitrary list, but it is the greatest Rom-Com of this millennium (the Willenium if I may). Instead of dying in not sharing a giant door with Leo, Kate Winslet gets to fall in love with a perfectly toned down Jack Black. Cameron Diaz gets to be whisked away to England for peak Jude Law. There’s sweet interconnecting stories, and this movie may have invented AirBNB. Combine this with the random meta-movie appreciation and a great soundtrack, and this movie is nothing short of ICONIC!

2. Home Alone

While rewatching this I made two crazy internet discoveries:

1. Joe Pesci filmed this simultaneously with Goodfellas, and both of these were in theaters at the same time. Apex Pesci
2. There’s an excellent internet theory that Kevin becomes Jigsaw due to his enjoyment of booby traps and torture.

When I was a kid, I would’ve sworn the whole movie was Kevin dealing with the Wet Bandits and their break in, but apparently that’s only 20 minutes of this perfect Christmas movie. What struck me this time around was our queen Catherin O’Hara (Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek) as Kevin’s mom. The emotional weight she cared with her longing to get home to Kevin was so heartwarming to me. Culkin became a star, “Merry Christmas you filthy animal” became the legendary quote, but O’Hara is by far the best part of this movie.

1. Die Hard

What? An action movie? This can’t be the best Christmas movie ever, it’s not even a Christmas movie. Wrong. Let’s go back to our themes. Family: John McClane goes to California to be with his wife and kids for Christmas beginning with a Christmas party at her wife’s job. Christmas songs: Opens with “Christmas in Hollis” by Run DMC, closes with “Let It Snow” by Dean Martin. At least one present gets smashed: Holly’s watch that was gifted to her at the start of the movie is what is unlatched to drop Hans Gruber to his death, the watch falls with him, ergo smashed. Holiday hijinks: “NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN. HO! HO! HO!” Die Hard checks ever box. It is a Christmas movie. It absolutely positively belongs atop this list. Feel free to make your own list if you disagree, otherwise all I have to say is, “yippee kiyay mother fucker!”