This is a film I would like to forget, a complete waste of time. The only entertainment I found in this came from watching the performance of the little boy, Jude Swanberg, who was very cute and amusing.

Also, while I was trying to keep track of the number of times Lena Dunham was using the word "like", Anna Kendrick started trying to outdo her. I just stopped counting. I was like, is she like making like fun of her like, or like just like unconsciously like copying her like way of like talking?

I saw an old interview with Lena Dunham and she really did talk that way all the time.

I've just checked out a more recent interview, and she seems cured now, thank goodness.

Camera work is ... did they use a fourth grader? Colors are bad, long moments of nothing (dark black room) for no reason, long shot of woman doing laundry. dialog....they didn't even try, I'm going to look up the name of the screen writer and run from that in the future. I can't imagine who they got to direct, but RUN if you see the name again! I couldn't make it passed fifteen minutes and I only hung in that long because it was clear that the actors were giving it their best shot. What a waste! In a sea of garbage produced by the industry, this wasn't interesting enough to hate.

Crappy movie but great drinking game = drink every time Anna Kendrick says "LIKE"!!! "I was like..." "She was like...." "He was like...." "We were like..." Totally horrible dialogue in a boring movie. It's like viewing other people's boring life but it just happens to be during Christmas. She's irresponsible and the brother's an enabler. That's the movie. I'm not sure why some critics liked this movie? Maybe they had seen too many good movies and this was different just because it was bad. I'm not anti Anna Kendrick, I just think she played a part in a bad movie. So to some degree, she is responsible for this flick. There are a ton of better Christmas movies to spend your time watching so disregard this on.

In Happy Christmas Anna Kendrick plays Jenny a young twenty something who comes to stay with her brother for the holidays after a break up. The director Joe Swanberg casts himself as her brother Jeff. His wife Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) is reluctant to have Jenny stay with them and their infant son, knowing her "wild" behavior. Her first night there Jenny goes to a party with her friend Carson (Lena Dunham) and gets hammered drunk. So much to where she needs to be picked up and is unable to babysit like she promised the following day. Stepping in for the babysitting we meet Kevin, (Mark Webber) your friendly neighborhood babysitter, musician and small time pot dealer. Jenny and Kevin soon spark up a romance. Jenny then tries to repair her earlier wrongs with her sister in law, Kelly by helping her get back into writing and shaking off the doldrums of being a stay at home mom. Together with her friend Cason, the three girls try to collaborate on a trashy romance novel.

I liked Drinking Buddies, the director Joe Swanberg's previous film. If anything it was fun to see a little behind the scenes of a craft beer business and see Ron Livingston in an indie film. Happy Christmas is a disappointing follow up. The title is incidental, this is not a Christmas movie. Unless you like to watch unfunny, non-irreverent holiday family dysfunction. The film is very low budget, think early 90's independent films. Grainy film stock and a ton of unfunny, what seems like ad-libbed dialog. The director takes to the old indie film look like a hipster listening to vinyl records. Just to be pretentious. I appreciate independent film as much as the next guy, this just doesn't have anything to be enthusiastic about. Lena Dunham tries to add her own bit of irreverence to this movie. But as each disappointingly unfunny new season of HBO's Girls comes out, I am becoming increasingly aware that it was Judd Apatow's influence in season one that gave it good, not Lena. If you are fan crushing on Anna Kendrick or you are looking for a new Christmas classic, don't bother. Anna Kendrick's usual adorable charming spark is dulled to a faint glimmer like that of a tiny Christmas tree light on the saddest of Charlie Brown trees. Even for the minimal effort this film takes to watch on Netflix it isn't worth the time.

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OK it's mumblecore. You knew that before you hit the pay button. What did you expect? There is no script. It is actors improvising trying to be natural and create real drama out of pure inspiration. It's an interesting idea at least, especially for actors I imagine. You are not going to get bloody Shakespeare are you. But what you do get is a real sense of being present in the lives of the people involved. I feel like I know Joe Swanberg, or the gorgeous wife, or Lena Dunham... but most of all, and praise be to Jesus, it's like I know Anna Kendrick. She gives a superb performance of a very funny dysfunctional character with some very funny scenes and for me it was worth it just to watch her. The baby is hilarious too. It's about as entertaining as watching a real family fight going on if you are just a spectator. But hey, sometimes that is a lot of fun.

This movie is the most boring movie I have ever seen. How is a baby a better actor than the mess of schlumps in it. You people give white people a bad name. I swear we are not as boring as this movie portrays. Please don't watch this movie. There. My paragraph is a better script for a movie than what I just watched ????

Joe Swanberg who wrote, directed and played one of the leading roles in this his latest film is known for his improvisational independent films. Although I liked, as other reviewers have noted his recent movie "Drinking Buddies", I felt this film's improvisations failed in that the dialogue was too stilted, awkward, and filled with what appeared to be inside jokes that the cast would laugh at, ignoring basically the viewers that were watching. Thus the whole thing just got more and more annoying for me as it progressed.

The plot centers on the loving couple of Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) and Jeff Spelling (Swanberg) and their adorable son Jude welcoming to their home, in Chicago around Christmas time, Jeff's sister Jenny (Anna Kendrick), after she just broke up with her boyfriend. Once Jenny enters the scene, they'll be a lot of scenes involving pot smoking, drinking, sex, and explicit sex talk. They'll be other plot elements involving Jenny's irresponsibility and her attempts along with her friend Carson (Lena Dunham) to convince Kelly to devote more time to her writing and to get help with the raising of her son.

All in all, as mentioned, I just felt the improvisational approach here just didn't work, and the movie ended up having little entertainment value for me.

I don't know what to think about this movie. The first impression was that it was a home movie because of the picture quality (16mm), lack of lighting, shaky shooting and strange camera movements.

Anna Kendrick was showing her white teeth all the time when smiling thousand times exactly same manner which was odd. Perhaps she had new teeth and wanted to show them. These overly white and too perfect teeth look funny here in Europe because they don't look natural.

And why an Earth was this called Happy Christmas? I wanted to give only one star of ten just to warn people if they think that this was some kind of Xmas-movie and more over a happy one. Well. The kid was nice and that's why I watched the movie to the end.

It was shockingly awful.

Anna Kendrick plays a character that has literally no good qualities about her. I'd say it's a nod to how well Kendrick can play an unlikable character, but it's just so infuriating to watch this movie.

The irony in the title is really obvious, given this movie is depressing and it pertains to Christmas for about 15 seconds before the movie ends.

It's just a movie that shouldn't have been made. No one learns anything, nothing is gained or lost in the end, it's just the story of a horrible person being horrible to the last person that can tolerate her.....and then it ends.

1/10, will unplug the TV if it means saving someone from watching this awful awful movie.

This film is a Jungian metaphor for the banality of human existence, and our constant need to redefine our social roles in the world to justify our nature. We wear masks not to hide who we are, but to convince others that our behavior is okay. The breadwinning father submitting to his freeloading family. The hardworking housewife/mother owning her role so she doesn't have to face life as a failed writer. The irresponsible sister passing out at a party so no one will discover what a horrific babysitter she is. The babysitter who embraces his job simply because his actual (floundering) profession as a pot dealer is at odds with his other "profession" as a noise band leader. Perhaps he could justify his coexisting real jobs by continuing to sell pot and changing his musical aspirations to a Grateful Dead cover band, or continuing his noise-band venture, but selling meth instead. Perhaps most disturbing, is the two-year old, who displays superior intelligence to all of the other characters, but prefers to languish in barely sensible utterances and soiled diapers so he doesn't have to be responsible for the travesty of being the most entertaining character in this potpourri of retarded existentialism.

Joe Swanberg directs "Happy Christmas". Like most of his previous features, the film is heavily improvised and only loosely scripted.

The plot? Anna Kendrick plays Jenny, a cute but irresponsible young woman who spends a few days hanging out with Kelly (Melanie Lynskey), the wife of her older brother. Kelly's a serious, pragmatic and focused woman, whose life has been forged by the responsibilities of being a wife, mother and writer. Jenny, in contrast, is lackadaisical and directionless. The duo's contrasting personalities lead to several low-key clashes.

"Happy Christmas" climaxes with Jenny helping Kelly write an erotic-novel. Here, female sexuality, fantasy and the possibility of transgression, "liberate" Kelly from her perceived obligations. By the film's end, the soft-spoken Kelly and the reckless Jenny reach a point of mutual appreciation. Enlivening this straightforward narrative arc is some fine, raw, naturalistic acting. The film co-stars Lena Dunham. Swanberg's own three-year-old son steals the show, though; one of the best "baby acting" roles of all time, he out-cutes a cast full of cuties.

7.9/10 - Worth one viewing.

The low-key plot of Joe Swanberg's latest film is set in motion when a young woman breaks up with her boyfriend, and moves in with her brother, his wife and their toddler son. On Jenny's first night under Jeff and Kelly's roof, she displays her irresponsible tendencies when she goes to a party and gets seriously wasted, requiring her brother to be roused from his sleep to drive her home. Contrite over this bad beginning, Jenny suggests productive ways for Kelly to balance her creative impulses with the duties of motherhood. Unfortunately the dysfunctional behavior also persists, causing friction within the household which leads to more disruptions and minor confrontations.

'Happy Christmas' extends Swanberg's move away from the ultra-basic conventions of the 'mumblecore' school, but it's still a resolutely Indie production. The film's events are depicted with subtle humor as it focuses primarily on Jenny, and her relationship with her sister-in-law. Anna Kendrick portrays the feckless Jenny as charming, vulnerable, selfish and manipulative, while the support cast back her up with nice performances. Kendrick's nuanced character study is echoed by the story's understated resolution.

You know how some movies just never leave you? Well, I purchased Happy Christmas about two (2) years ago mainly because of the title and because it was priced reasonably. Heck, most people enjoy Christmas themed films. Buyer beware! This is not a Christmas themed movie. I am writing this review because I noticed it is going to go back in re- sale as a new item, and you can save your money, but more importantly any disappointment by avoiding this piece of crap.

Additionally it stars the triple threat that guarantees a flop. Three of my LEAST favorite actresses. The three very limited talented stars I am referring to are Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey, and Lena Dunham. Oh, and just for some good measure of locking in that five star crap rating, let's throw in writer/director Joe Swanberg to star in his own feature film. But I am not done yet. We are not only forced to listen to writer/director Joe Swanberg, not two Swanbergs, but a total of three Swanbergs. This film is filled with nothing but nepotism and nonsensical jibber jabber that made me want to gnaw on my knuckles.

I gave the film a 1 out of 10 rating because you have to give a film something on a scale of 1 to 10 stars. Too bad IMDb did not allow IMDb users to allow just one minus rating for every 100 films reviewed because if they did I would use my negative rating to score Happy Christmas a MINUS 10 rating.

I was psyched to see Anna Kendrick in a christmas themed movie but this was a poorly written movie, with no plot. I dont know why she agreed to be part of the cast in this film. The funniest person in the movie was the baby.

Anyway I would only watch it if you really like the cast. Otherwise its boring and doesnt deserve the 4 stars I gave it. They should have done more to keep the viewers attention but it was just so dull.

Truly unbelievable one of the worstHow can you have a movie titled happy holidays when you don't see a Christmas tree until the last two minutes of the movie. Make sure and watch the movie till the end of the credits as there's still more information. Still more information of nothing. Movie had great potential if it wasn't for the beautiful baby in the movie movie would've got zero. To great actresses both could not save this plot. Baby, that was truly the star of the movie! I love to see the actress back in pitch perfect. Sorry folks truly let down. But that's just my opinion

I've never reviewed here before and I was so moved by the horribleness of this movie that I had to. I just had to. Happy? Ya no. I like both of the lead females so this seemed like a great choice but OMG WTF. I couldn't take it and started hitting the 10 second skip until that even wasn't enough but I really did want to see if it got better so I skipped a little more. Still didn't miss anything and it never got any better, EVER. Wow. Just wow. I want that 50something minutes of my time back. I hope this saves someone else.

Joe Swanberg was on the precipice of becoming a recognized force in the indie film universe. He has plugged away for years making one film after another. They have grown from the "has promise" stage to the "this is pretty good" level. Drinking Buddies looked like he had found his footing and was going to build upon this success. It did not hurt Joe that his former muse, Greta Gerwig was nominated for a Golden Globe with "Frances Ha". Happy Christmas is blessed with a July release so that the world may not see it on the shelves in December 2014. This one needs to go straight to the cardboard bin in the Supermarket. It felt as if some devious film production executive found a movie that Joe made in college with his friend Anna and released it to cash in on their celebrity. Anna Kendrick ... how could she have put her name on this? The "lobby poster" looks like the graphic artist mated her with Mister Ed. She is not propped up by George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. Swanberg rolled back to the days when the hand-held camera shook and the movie was under lit since they could not open up the aperture anymore because the camera was already shaking. The audio supervisor was somebody's cousin and the budget could not afford the good microphones so they bought the East German surplus. Pray this will not be passed off as an artistic technique of the director. The unforgivable sin was when they used a scene where Kendrick forgets her line for a moment and the audience watches in bewilderment as she catches herself and continues. The cry of "We'll fix it in post" may have been abandoned. Neither Swanberg nor Kendrick can be so secure in their careers that they can afford to throw a wrench in the works. The big difference between those films from college and today is that the viewer is paying full price plus the cost of popcorn and soda to see a movie that is fit to be viewed while sitting on a metal folding chair.

This review can't contains spoiler because is nothing to be spoiled in this movie.

I don't necessarily dislike this kind of movie, because life itself can be boring and pointless, but when you do that, at least try to create strong characters, thrilling and interesting dialogues. From time to time we need a pointless slow pace movie about the recklessness of life and art, but here these things come from poor directing, lack of inspiration, dull camera work and bad acting. When an artist improvises the secret is to not let the audience to feel his struggle , otherwise is like feeling your dentist not knowing what he is doing to your teeth. So in this movie we have a director (played by the real director of this movie, who acts like a carpenter) and his wife, she is writer (but acts like a '50 suburb housewife). Those two artists look like an amish family giving moral lessons to a blacksheep.The bkacksheep si Anne Kendrick who acts like a disoriented teenager, having recreational drugs. Very evil indeed....the amish family must save her soul. At some point, the blacksheep commits the ultimate act of irresponsibility, she forgots a pizza in the owen, so the entire house is full of smoke. The carpenter-director and the housewife-writer are shocked, yelling at blacksheep, blaming for her behavior. The blacksheep disappears just on Christmas Eve.She will be found by the housewife-writer and the film ends in a stupid state of happiness.During the movie the housewife-writer try to writes an erotic novel with the blacksheep and another girl. Their storm-braining session are full of stupid dialogues about how to name genitals or intercourse in a mellow way. It seems in this movie everybody is waiting for inspiration.....the characters, the crew, the cast

"Let her prove to us that that was a one time thing." Jenny (Kendrick) has just gone through a bad breakup and decides to move in with her brother and his wife Kelly (Lynskey). Almost instantly she causes stress and is not the ideal house guest. Little by little she starts to calm down and even gets Kelly writing again. Jenny continues to struggle with her personal life and it continues to affect everyone around her. After watching and really liking Drinking Buddies I was looking forward to watching this. This movie had a very similar feel to that one as it feels like the dialog was pretty much made up on the spot. Drinking Buddies had something about it that made you really care for the characters and root for them. One of the problems with this movie is that everyone felt flat and I found it hard to make a connection with any of the characters. I'm not saying that this is a bad movie because it was OK but it really seemed to go nowhere. Overall, nothing terrible but not exciting or gripping at all. A disappointment after Drinking Buddies. I give it a B-

I watched this movie twice because I didn't remember watching it the 1st time. Toward the middle, I got aggitated, wondering WHY I'm sitting through this movie again, but then I just wanted to see how it ended (totally blacked this thing out the 1st time), so I finished 'er up.

The baby in this movie is the best thing about it. He's got personality. The climax is a burnt pizza. The elements that give it tension are sort of dull. Kendra's love interest is boring. It's sort of a half assed attempt at telling this story about a girl who may or may not be developing an alcohol problem, with bad taste in men. Relatable? Sure. Interesting? Not so much. I kind of hate all of the characters in this movie. There's something irritating about all of them.

Ya know, you get a name for yourself in the biz and you get to make a "for the hell of it" movie with stars in it. Great. I didn't realise it was improvised (at least partially?) so that makes it a little more interesting. I wish I knew going in--might have been more interesting to watch as a study piece.

I've rambled on enough.

So bad, no one knows how it ends. Barely made it to 15 minute mark. Don't. Just don't.

There was really no point to this movie. I have definitely seen worse but I wouldn't ever recommend this to someone.

terrible all the way around except the baby was cute at points but seemed poorly written or poorly performed... both at times..listen guys..just look at who ever you are there with...the entire movie..might get weird after 10 min or so but it will be more entertaining. at first i was like what..her friend and her friends husband is a film maker..uh oh! nope its her brother..it was over after that..sorry Anna ill be honest i liked pitch perfect..this movie..was cine muck............

guys..if you are doing this..she is worth it right? i have faith in you..good luck!

Happy Christmas was made with only three film crew members, not including the director, in case you were curious the level of 'indie-ness' in this film.

Joe Swanberg writes, directs and stars in Happy Christmas, the ensemble indie film that touches on the real life minor predicament that occurs during the holiday.

Recently broken up with her boyfriend, Jenny decides to crash at her brother Jeff's and his wife Kelly's house in Chicago while she considers laying roots in the city for a change of pace. She drinks and smokes away her sadness while she desperately tries to distract herself, coping terribly while hanging out with her old friend Carson and new friend Kevin.

Happy Christmas is a film for fans of the typical indie genre film. It utilizes real life cinematography and puts a microscope to the real life problems within the mundanities of life. This is not some film about profound transformation or extraordinary circumstances. In fact, Happy Christmas is so ordinary in its subject matter that 20-something viewers should see themselves or their friends in this film.

If you, as a typical movie viewer, enjoy to put a mirror to real everyday life then you should give this film a shot. If you typically watch films to escape or put yourself into a film beyond your routine existence, then you should stay away, far away.

Happy Christmas is a grainy film to watch, and was probably not shot in 1080p and then upscaled. this yields a mildly pixelated appearance which is nauseating on anything larger than a computer screen. Most of the film appears to be shot using hand-held or a steadicam operator which is extremely distracting as the film sight line moves along the edges of the frame. My guess is the techniques employed for the cinematography of Happy Christmas were deliberate to truly capture the reality in vision.

Though Joe Swanberg is listed as the screenwriter of the film it seems as though most of the dialogue was improv-ed, and poorly. Mark Webber who plays Kevin and Anna Kendrick who plays the self-destructive Jenny are the most natural and believable of the bunch. Otherwise the scenes are stiff and slow with a lot of awkward pauses from the dull and banal conversation topics. The star of the film is baby Jude, real life son of director Joe Swanberg, who is so comfortable and natural that you can't help but be enamored by his energy, alas if only the whole film was like him.

Happy Christmas is a narrative nonevent of a film that will be contemptibly boring to some and realistically introspective to others.

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It's terrific to see filmmakers evolve in front of your eyes, especially as you see their filmmaking abilities and keen sense of moments expand from movie to movie. In Joe Swanberg's Happy Christmas starring Academy Award nominee Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey, Lena Dunham, as well as himself, he manages to capture the feel of the early 90′s independent cinema culture that felt so mature and darkly magnetic. In this dramatic comedy that tells the story of Jenny (Kendrick), a 20-something who moves in with her brother and sister-in-law in Chicago.

It's interesting how Swanberg manages to capture the moments of life within in the picture. For example, little things like watching a 2- year-old sit in a bathtub or shove a fist full of Cheerios in his mouth feels magically authentic. Even in the way the adults interact with each other feels strangely familiar.

Anna Kendrick continues to test her boundaries as an actress. Whether it's playing the punk-rock DJ in Pitch Perfect, or the manic, irresponsible adult that she exudes here, I'm excited to see her evolve the way she is. In ten years time, she could be one of our most innovative and gifted actresses. Her Jenny feels edgy and risky like driving on the edge of cliff. You know there's a safer place to be but you want to get on the ride with her. There are bits to her performance that is reminiscent of Maggie Gyllenhaal in Sherrybaby, minus the full- out bravura turn that should have scored multiple accolades. This is a nice mark for her resume nonetheless.

Melanie Lynskey, the reliable actress who continues to one of Hollywood's best kept secrets for over twenty years, is completely compelling as Kelly. The truth in which she exists in the film is hypnotizing and I wonder just how much longer we have to wait until she breaks out into every living room and theater across America, and I mean something outside of "Two and a Half Men."

Lena Dunham serves her purpose to the film however, if there's a chink in the armor of some of Swanberg's creations, Carson is likely it. This is by no means a home-run from Swanberg. While the authenticity and honest demeanor in which he portrays his characters are appreciated, they're not always engaging or interesting. There might have been some unrealized ideas or actions that could have brought this film over the finish line. There are plenty of laughs, sensational dialogue, and an intimate look into a very familiar family dynamic. It's moving and artistically relevant in films today.

Happy Christmas opens in limited release July 25 and is distributed by Magnolia Pictures. It is currently available on VOD.