Happiest Season, Hulu’s new holiday movie, was shot on location in Pennsylvania.
The fresh flick, which stars Kristen Stewart as Abby and Mackenzie Davis as Abby’s girlfriend Harper, takes viewers all over the Pittsburgh area during this rom-com romp.
One of the film’s most memorable locations is the Real Luck Cafe located in Pittsburgh’s The Strip District. According to IMDb, this local bar, known as Lucky’s, stands in for the Oxwood Inn.
What is Happiest Season all about?
To understand the reason for Oxwood’s role in Happiest Season, it’s helpful to review the film’s premise being touted as the first holiday-themed rom-com to center around a lesbian couple.
Soon after the movie begins, Harper asks Abby to join her at her family holiday party in the country. Completely in love, Abby agrees, saying she wants to meet the people “who made her favorite person.”
In fact, as old-fashioned as this seemed, Abby intends to ask Harper’s dad for his blessing.
One major problem, though.
Harper has never come out to her family, and she isn’t about to do so. Instead, she asks Abby to pretend to be her straight roommate while mingling with her uptight clan.
So, to make Happiest Season as merry as possible after being scorned by Harper’s family, Abby goes to the Oxwood Inn with new-found friend Riley.
Abby enjoys the local gay bar where she could kick back, have a drink, and be herself.
Is the Oxwood a real place?
In fact, The Oxwood Inn is not based on a Pennsylvania-situated bar but rather on a lesbian bar in Los Angeles that closed in 2017.
NewNowNext interviewed Happiest Season’s director and co-author Clea DuVall, who said she wrote the screenplay “so she could see her own experiences play out on screen.”
She stated to the source that the West Coast outpost called the Oxwood was her “favorite gay bar ever.”
“I always went there and had such a wonderful time,” she said, adding, “…I would end up having conversations with people who would tell me how much that place meant to them and how they would live their lives during the week closeted and look forward to the Saturday night when they could go and be their authentic selves at the Oxwood.”
Besides being the destination bar for two of the main Happiest Season characters, two other stars enjoyed cameos in the flamboyant film: Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme.
This pair of true Drag Race icons interacted with Abby and Riley during their respite at Lucky’s, which stood in for the Oxwood Inn.
In addition to Kristen Stewart as Abby and Mackenzie Davis as Harper, the Happiest Season cast includes Allison Brie as Sloane, Aubrey Plaza as Riley, Dan Levy as John, Mary Steenburgen as Harper’s mother, and Ana Gasteyer as Harry Levin.
Clea DuVall wrote the newly released Hulu movie with Mary Holland while Marty Bowen and Isaac Klausner produced.
Happiest Season is currently streaming on Hulu.