Happiest Season

 A friendly fuzzy Christmas lesbian movie - K-Stew is an engaging protagonist, much of the various family eccentrics around her are intriguing (in particular Mary Holland in the surely-this-was-written-for-late-90s-Missi-Pyle role of the awkward middle sister), and there's scene stealers on the edge of the story (Daniel Levy in the gay-best-friend-role, Aubrey Plaza in the mildly annoyed ex role). And it does let the not-quite-right-ness of the setup be a feature, not a bug. It does suffer slightly from being a comedy with not-a-lot-of-big-laugh-scenes in it, but it's gently genial and will be fine holiday viewing for years to come.

Misbehaviour

 This is an okay but not great British protest pic - it feels very much by the numbers, with a couple of side performances drawing attention - Jess Buckley steals every scene she's in, as does Leslie Manville and Gugu Mbantha-Raw. But ultimately this feels awfully familiar stuff.

David Byrne's American Utopia

 A beautiful celebration of music and stagecraft - this is David Byrne showing off what he can do, delving into the back-catalogue and his new material with an immaculately staged presentation. It's weird that this is the third filmed version of "This Must be the Place" that Byrne's done (between this, "This Must be the Place" the Sean Penn Nazi Hunter movie and "Stop Making Sense") but it still lands strongly. There's only one Oh Yeah This is Spike Lee section (which is presumably exactly that way because Byrne wanted it that way) and otherwise it's Byrne celebrating with a group of musicians and an audience, and it's enthralling all the way

Mank

 A reasonably engrossing look at old Hollywood through the eyes of the screenwriter of Citizen Kane, this leads into a lot of the early 30's political struggles in California as the left-leaning writers face off against the right-wing billionaires who fund their work - particularly looking at Upton Sinclair's gubernatorial campaign. I must admit the Kane element feels a little light on as a wrap-around Mank's frequent flashbacks, and the film does deliberately slight Welles rather a lot in ways that aren't quite fair (like most collaborative mediums, Wells and Mank were never as good apart as they were together, and auterism about screenwriters is ultimately as much a dead end as auterism about directors is). I feel lucky to be able to see this on a big screen - the shadow-packed photography would die on home-based media and it's a beautiful looking film.

Ellie and Abbie and Ellie's dead aunt

 A cute lesbian teen romcom with a little bit of an educational twist as a recently out young woman gets romantic advice from her deceased lesbian aunt.This is a bit high on the teen awkwardness to the point where I'm not sure if Ellie has actually matured enough to start dating, but it's mostly a good natured look at the changing nature of sexual expression between the 90s and now

Freaky

 The title they obviously wanted but weren't able to use is "Freaky Friday the 13th", and this plays the concept pretty well. Of the two body swappers Kathryn Newton does a better swap than Vince Vaughan who is a little too keen on flailing arms to indicate femininity, but this is pretty good with the self awareness, somewhat karmic kills and unwieldy Mayan bodyswapping lore

Brazen Hussies

 A look at the Australian women's liberation movement from the late sixties to the mid seventies- how it came together, things it achieved, ways it failed, with a small look at the aftereffects. It's a good look at political movements and the way they can struggle on the attempts to be both resistance to and implement practical changes within the mainstream, about the personal power of consciousness raising, about hostile media and some celebration