Happy Christmas (2014)

Happy Christmas: Directed by Joe Swanberg. With Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey, Mark Webber, Lena Dunham. After a break up, Jenny moves in with writer Kelly, her filmmaker husband, and their child. Despite a rocky start, Jenny’s influence helps Kelly realize that an evolution in her life, career and relationship is necessary for her happiness.

“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 u0026quot;Drinking Buddiesu0026quot;, I felt this filmu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe 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, Jeffu0026#39;s sister Jenny (Anna Kendrick), after she just broke up with her boyfriend. Once Jenny enters the scene, theyu0026#39;ll be a lot of scenes involving pot smoking, drinking, sex, and explicit sex talk. Theyu0026#39;ll be other plot elements involving Jennyu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll in all, as mentioned, I just felt the improvisational approach here just didnu0026#39;t work, and the movie ended up having little entertainment value for me.”