Ok, Scrooge. You don’t like Christmas films – boo hoo. What else are you doing during your Christmas break? Going to the gym because it’s empty? Hanging out with your family and playing board games? Ewww.
Enter Oh. What. Fun., Prime Video’s shiny new Christmas film starring Michelle Pfeiffer as a mum on the brink, a frankly reckless number of knitwear choices (our favourite is Nuts and Chest), and one very smug family across the street who sing in harmony for fun.
It also quietly blesses us with some queer representation in the form of Chloë Grace Moretz’s Taylor Clauster – the middle daughter who brings home a different woman every year like a literal lesbian advent calendar.
This is Amazon’s big festive bet for 2025, directed by Michael Showalter, adapted from a Chandler Baker short story, and fronted by a starry cast that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary, Dominic Sessa and Jason Schwartzman.
Become a Nonchalant VIP for ad free browsing.
Spoilers Alert ahead.
- What is Oh. What. Fun. about?
- Cast of Oh. What. Fun.
- What is the queer plot line in Oh. What. Fun.?
- Our Review of Oh. What. Fun
What is Oh. What. Fun. about?
So ….What if Mum Just… Left?
Article continues below.
Pfeiffer plays Claire Clauster, a Texas housewife who essentially is Christmas. She spends a lot of her time prepping the perfect festive fantasy for her husband Nick (Denis Leary) and their three grown kids, eldest daughter Channing (Felicity Jones), middle child Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) and youngest son Sammy (Dominic Sessa).
Naturally, everyone takes her for granted. They half-listen when she drops (a lot of) hints about the one thing she actually wants this year, to be nominated for a “Best Holiday Mom” contest hosted by her idol, daytime TV presenter Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria).
Instead of clocking any of this, the family get swept up in their own drama and literally forget her, leaving for a Christmas dance show without Mum (or should we say Mom), even though she got the tickets.
At this point, Claire does what every overworked, under-applauded woman secretly fantasises about on Christmas Eve: she gets in the car and drives away.
What follows is half Home Alone (mum edition), half The Family Stone, with a road-trip detour, some light crime, a lot of knitwear, and a viral talk-show meltdown.
Across The Street: The Terrifyingly Perfect Family
Every burnt-out mum needs a nemesis, and Claire’s arrives in the form of the Wang-Wassermans – the perfect family in the perfect all-white Christmas house opposite.
Their kids sing in harmonies like a tiny, smug Pentatonix. Their decorations are clinically flawless. Their life looks like a John Lewis ad run through a whitening filter. Claire is obviously obsessed, and the film leans into that classic “keeping up with the neighbours” neurosis – one-upping gifts, side-eyeing décor choices, and slowly losing it over an aggressively tasteful candle.
It’s one of the sharpest threads in the film – because of course every woman who’s ever tried to “do Christmas right” has spiralled at least once over someone else’s perfect tablescape on Instagram.
The Cast of Oh. What. Fun.
Because the film is absolutely stacked, let’s decode who’s who so you’re not whispering “what have they been in?” at your TV for two hours.
- Michelle Pfeiffer – Claire, the Christmas martyr-in-chief.
- Denis Leary – Nick, her husband, who is permanently assembling a Barbie Dreamhouse for the kids.
- Felicity Jones – Channing Clauster Austin, the eldest daughter, who has slid into “Pinterest mum with a spreadsheet” territory and is married to…
- Jason Schwartzman – Doug Austin, Channing’s geeky husband, who cannot (as much as he tries) connect with the rest of the siblings.
- Chloë Grace Moretz – Taylor, the middle daughter and cool queer of the family, who shows up annually with a new girlfriend.
- Dominic Sessa – Sammy, the youngest, heartbroken and processing feelings via a devastatingly sad rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.
And then there’s Morgan, the delivery driver Claire ends up sharing a motel room with on Christmas Eve -played by Danielle Brooks, aka Taystee from Orange Is the New Black. She’s working Christmas, she’s exhausted, but still very jovial about working all hours at Christmas (I’m sure Amazon drivers feel the same…)
You also get Joan Chen as hyper-competent neighbour Jeanne Wang-Wasserman, Havana Rose Liu as her too-cool daughter Lizzie, Devery Jacobs as Taylor’s girlfriend Donna, and Eva Longoria chewing the scenery as Zazzy Tims.
What is the queer plotline in Oh. What. Fun.?
Taylor and her Revolving Door of Girlfriends…
Let’s talk about Taylor, because this is where the film gets interesting for a Nonchalant girlie.
Chloë Grace Moretz plays Taylor Clauster, the middle daughter who brings home a different woman almost every year, like a queer advent calendar. This time it’s Donna (Devery Jacobs), who has walked straight out of a sapphic TikTok moodboard and into the Clauster family kitchen.
Taylor is that familiar queer archetype: hot, emotionally avoidant, and secretly more terrified of commitment than any of the straight people calling her “brave”. She’s also one of the few characters who feels like she could exist in 2025 without needing a time machine; her queerness isn’t a tragedy or a twist, it’s just part of the family dynamic.
Moretz has talked about being excited to play a “cool, gay character” in a Christmas movie – the only other big mainstream point of reference she had was Kristen Stewart in Happiest Season…
Related article: Top lesbian Christmas movies to watch this holiday season.
Does the script fully stick the landing on her storyline? Not really. There’s a late-stage proposal twist involving a straight jeweller and some very chaotic communication that feels like three drafts are missing.
Our Review of Oh. What. Fun
So… is it actually any good? It depends on what you mean by “good”. It has to be a 2.5 stars from us, it was going to be a 2 star, but the 0.5 is for the queer rep, which we do appreciate.
If you’re asking, “Is this the new Elf?”, then no. Even the nicer reviews land on “big cast, bigger sweaters, fairly basic Christmas movie” and a lot of critics have politely filed it under “Amazon Q4 product with feelings”.The Guardian straight-up calls it an “underbaked Christmas turkey” – a mix of Home Alone and The Family Stone that never quite earns the chaos it’s selling.
Others have complained about muddled stakes, chaotic plotting and a weirdly preachy tone about under-appreciated mums that somehow lets the husband off lightly.
From our perspective, we felt it was:
- Watchable, mostly because Pfeiffer is incapable of being boring even when the script is (trust us, the script is pretty boring.)
- Secretly about emotional labour, guilt, and the fantasy of downing tools and letting everyone else burn the roast.
- Annoying in places, particularly when it wants to have a big feminist “mums deserve more” moment without interrogating why Claire never asked for help in the first place.
The last act leans hard into talk-show sentimentality: Claire vents on national TV about being taken for granted, goes viral, and the family are forced into a public grovel. There’s a reunion, an apology, and a neat “one year later” epilogue involving a joint ski trip with the neighbours where everyone’s learned to share the load (allegedly).
Does it feel earned? Not fully. But if you’ve ever made six side dishes and then watched your family “forget” to buy you a present, you’ll probably still get a bit feral about it in a good way.
The Amazon of it all
Because this is an Amazon MGM production streaming on Prime Video, there’s been a lot of (fair) commentary that the whole thing sometimes feels like an expensive Christmas advert for its own platform – right down to the fact that one of the key side characters is, of course, a very chirpy delivery driver (who loves their job).
The Guardian basically argues that the film exists as much to sell you vibes and adjacent products as it does to tell a story, and you can feel that in the way the camera luxuriates over decor, food, jumpers and cosy clutter.
Should you watch it?
If you are:
- Hungover
- Snowed in
- Avoiding a third game of Monopoly with people you share a surname with
…then yes, Oh. What. Fun. will absolutely do the job.
If you’re looking for a new Christmas classic that will change cinema forever, maybe not. But if you want something to stick on between cheese courses while you text your mates “this is literally my mum”, it’s solid festive background noise.
And honestly, what else were you going to do? Go to the gym?
Where should you watch? Amazon, of course.
Nonchalant x
Babs heads up Logistics and Product here at Nonchalant Magazine.
