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.
Review of Happy Christmas
