Sydney! Come To Our Holiday-Themed Storytelling Night Tomorrow, Before We All Watch ‘Happy Christmas’
Featuring Lena Dunham, Anna Kendrick and the best baby in cinematic history.
Look, let’s be honest. Outside of Die Hard 1 and, to a lesser extent, Die Hard 2, Christmas movies suck. Okay, Gremlins is pretty great too. Those little guys were hardcore.
But in general, Christmas has proven a pretty woeful ground for filmmakers, all but a few caving to the obvious Hallmark-style sentimentality of the occasion and cramming their films full of dull, white-bread characters living dull, white-bread lives.
None of that for Joe Swanberg (2013’s superlative Drinking Buddies) though. In Happy Christmas, his latest and also, incredibly, 16th feature film – he’s 33 – Swanberg treats us to a typically understated, warm, funny and unexpected riff on family dynamics and in this most festive/most perilously stressful of seasons.
The film stars Swanberg mainstay Anna Kendrick, as well as Lena Dunham, Joe Swanberg (yep) and Joe Swanberg’s own baby Jude, who is, without a doubt, the best thing in the entire movie.
That’s not a backhanded compliment. This baby deserves his own TV show.
To mark the imminent and inescapable arrival of the Yuletide season, Junkee is putting on a special screening of Happy Christmas at Surry Hills’ Golden Age Cinema tomorrow night from 8:30pm.
Before the film we’ve got three Junkee favorites — comedian Michael Hing (Free To A Good Home), writer Elmo Keep and musician Brendan Maclean — regaling us with the best and the worst of their own holiday experiences.
Will there be family fights? Shit presents? Feeding a mogwai after midnight and then having to deal with the hilarious and city-destroying consequences? You’ll have to drop by to find out.
Junkee Night: The Christmas Edition
What: Joe Swanberg’s Happy Christmas – the New York Times were wildly enthusiastic.
Who: Michael Hing, Elmo Keep, Brendan Maclean
When: From 8.30pm, Wednesday December 17 — which, yes, is tomorrow night.
Where: Golden Age Cinema, Surry Hills
How much: $20 for adults, $15 for you freeloading concession types. Comes with 2-for-1 Stella deal — book now!