THE HOLIDAY CLUB (Alexandra Swarens 2024)

[Chris Knipp]

ALEXANDRA SWARENS AND MAKAELA SHEALY IN THE HOLIDAY CLUB

AKEXANDRA SWARENS: THE HOLIDAY CLUB (2024)

When Harriet met Sally

Next door neighbors meet when Bailey (Alexandra Swarens) delivers a Valentine's Day pastry special to Sam (Makaela Shealy, who says she meant to cancel the order. Bailey, who owns a small bakery and is making her own deliveries (and hides till the end the fact that she lives next door) stays and looks around the apartment, and persuades Sam to sample some of the pastries she has brought. Sam, a lawyer and a loner, tries to hide that she had ordered the party pack for herself, but Bailey sees through this. There you are. This film is subtle, but a bit flat. I missed the confusion and quirky realism of mumblecore, and three dimensional outside people other than Sam's and Bailey's dates or coworkers, who are paper-thin. But it's only Sam and Bailey who matter, and their relationship.

Key moments in this lesbian super indie film, full of suspense, involve sampling fresh baked goods, sometimes with delight, sometimes not. There are some cupcakes that taste like they were soaked in sea water. That Sam can tell Bailey this may be a good sign they are friends, not lovers.

And they seem to aim to keep it that way. When they first met, it​ was the year's most romantic holiday. Sam hates holidays, but Bailey loves them. That first scene, though, is a meet-cute. Why else would Bailey have lingered so long at Sam's? Well, maybe they are just going to be lifelong friends. But at work here is the friends-to-lovers genre, governing the action.

Bailey breaks up with her girlfriend; Sam isn't happy with hers. Sam and Bailey may want to remain just friends, but what should they choose to see together from the Nora Epron retro at the local rep house but When Harry Met Sally? Another friend points out that it's a movie about friends who become lovers. There you go.

We know and the movie knows where this is headed. But the two friends, Sam and Bailey, take the movie's year-long span to figure it out. The film depicts this process by skipping from holiday to holiday, with a focus on how they share or don't share them. Sam dislikes them, and Bailey likes them. Sam and Bailey are charter members of the Holiday Club, a group who can bond over their their feelings about holidays - a theme, though, that's left undeveloped.

On one holiday they sort of double date, Bailey with Katie, and Sam with Kayla. (Are the names meant to be a joke? Bailey, Kayla, Katie? or to rhyme?). Bailey has broken up with her girlfrriend at this point and is trying out Katie. Sam is with Kayla but they seem bored with each other. In the event, Sam and Bailey go off to play pinball together, leaving their dates to sneak glances at them and mumble from afar. Game on!

By Halloween, Kayla and Sam have now broken up. Sam and Bailey kiss and make love after a pumpkin seed fight. The pumpkins were too small to get your hand into. But then they decide to back off to preserve the friendship they have been enjoying since February 14th. Sam proposes a definite break.

There are so many sayings about how friendship is more important than love. But sometimes would-be friends can't help becoming lovers after a while - or when "just sex" - friends with benefits - turns into a romance. There are plenty. of movies about these themes, not only When Harry Met Sally,, but No Strings Attached, Friends with Benefits, My Best Friend's Wedding, Some Kind of Wonderful, and lots and lots more.

This has ​p​roven a wise and worthwhile approach to the romcom, but the working out in The Holiday Club is awfully low key. The relationship between Bailey and Sam never becomes quite as complex or as emotionally fraught as it might.

The film will no doubt appeal, nonetheless, to fans of LGBT films, of the lesbian sub-niche, and of this filmmaker, Alandra Swarens, whose other films have a similar niche appeal.

The Holiday Club 88 mins., available digitally from Nov. 26, 2024, is one of several films showing on Tello, the first network dedicated to telling stories featuring and about lesbian/queer women, as part of the festive season. They will also be showing City Of Trees and Looking For Her, two more Alexandra Swarens starrers, alongside Season Of Love, starring Wynonna Earp’s Dominique Provost-Chalkley. These films can be rented from Tello as part of a special seven-pack for 30 days. Alternatively, The Holiday Club can be purchased as a standalone film. Pre-orders open 1 November