The Holdovers

Year 16, Day 361 - 12/26/24 - Movie #4,900

BEFORE: Here we go, the last movie of 2024, and it's another Perfect Movie Year, there's an unbroken chain from January 1 to today, 300 movies linked by actors, as planned in chunks, for the SIXTH year in a row, no breaks, no bad links.  I may get tired of this system at some point, but it still seems to be working, I guess it works for me until it doesn't. 

This is also a Christmas-themed movie, or at least a post-Christmas-themed one, and that's great.  PLUS this played at the theater where I work, I think as part of the New Yorker Festival 14 months ago, AND as a bonus, Alexander Payne came to the screening and did a Q&A panel about it, so I got to see him, and I took his picture.  So great news all around, I peeked in on the film a bit and then of course put it on the list.  Considering how long it took me to watch "All Is Bright" I think 14 months is a pretty good response time for a holiday movie. As I said the other day, there are Christmas films that have spent years on the list, but I can only do so much to push the linking in the direction that I want, the links have to BE there. I can aim for certain movies next December, but the range will be limited, as a result of the other decisions I make throughout the year. 

Paul Giamatti carries over from "All Is Bright". 

Now, I've got a LOT to do after I watch this one. I've got to double-check my stats, the counts of how many films each actor or person has been in, and there are over 8,000 different people to track.  But making a spreadsheet makes it much easier, just paste in all the names, sort it, and then a little bit of re-arranging, and I should have it.  Then I still have to add the new films streaming in December to my list, and then I need to take a shot at figuring out the starting point for 2025.  Which will depend, to some degree, on the starting point for February, which is the ending point for January.  So I had an idea about where to start 2025, but I kind of ruined that plan by watching "Speed Racer" last week.  Unless there's another connection I missed, I'm going to need a new plan.  Had I known, I would have dropped in "MaXXXine" back in October, to be one more film, then I could have skipped "Speed Racer" in December and held it for January.  But that would have had its own problems, and I've sworn I won't go back and change the past, only look forward to find new paths.  I'll come up with something, it's just going to take a little effort. 

The other option would have been to just add in another Paul Giamatti film, but then I'd be ending the year with something like "Big Fat Liar" instead of the movie about the holiday break.  This is probably a better way to end the year, right? 

THE PLOT: A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England school remains on campus during the Christmas break. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school's cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War. 

AFTER: OK, so the last THREE films of this year all seem to be riffing off of the same theme - people from different backgrounds are thrown together by fate or circumstance and are forced to cooperate to get through a challenging time. And in two of those films, that time is the Christmas season. The universe is clearly sending me a message, I have to take notice of these sorts of things, because there may be a greater meaning in there, or at least some kind of life lesson.  Spending the holidays away from family is difficult, noted - and getting along with who you do spend the holidays with can be even more difficult, it's probably best if you resist any temptation to harm that person.  This is fairly universal good advice, right?  

I think I've had a pretty chill Christmas week, I'm away from my parents, sure, but I can call them on the telephone or have a Zoom call with them, so even though I can't be with them in person, I can check in with them.  And my wife and I just made a lasagna at home - a practice we started during the pandemic - and we had no lights, no tree, no decorations, we just exchanged a couple small gifts, and played cards with "A Christmas Story" on in the background, there's a channel that loops it all day long, like the classic UHF station "Yule Log" programming. Whatever nostalgia you have for the Christmases of your childhood, you can probably find something in that movie to connect with. 

But I'm also on break from one job, because it's for an arts college, they own the theater where I work part-time, so the last class or booked screening was last Tuesday, and then the staff got together for drinks at a bar last Thursday.  I don't go back on shift until January 9, but I still have the other job three days a week until then. I'm looking at a lot of down time, because just like the prep school depicted here in "The Holdovers", the students and teachers all head off somewhere else for the holidays, so the place is like a ghost town. January could be busy with guild screenings prior to the Oscars, SAG Awards and WGA Awards, but nothing's guaranteed. I could have only one shift a week for all of January, which is why I took every shift I could during November.  Only the security guards get to work over the holidays. 

Professor Hunham in this film is an exception, since the school depicted here is some kind of boarding school in 1970, and kids are away from their parents, there could be a few children who are too far from home to travel back, or can't go home for other personal reasons.  One teacher needs to stay and supervise this small group, and they take turns, only the teacher whose turn it is this time has a sudden medical excuse involving the health of his mother, so Professor Hunham draws the short straw as his replacement.  An older teacher, five high-school kids, one cafeteria worker with a small supply of food, and one groundskeeper.  What could POSSIBLY go wrong?  I ask this with sarcasm, of course, because by now I fully expect everything to go wrong in a movie that CAN go wrong, because, well, I've seen it happen so many times.  What would be unusual and different would be for nothing to go wrong, but then that would also be very boring. 

So we put these three (or four) characters together and we wait.  Really, the movie starts off with Hunham watching FIVE teen boys for the holiday week, but one boy who's having an argument with his father reconciles with him, and so his rich father sends a helicopter to pick him up from the school and go on a ski trip, and it appears he got permission to take three other boys with him - only Angus Tully's parents are unreachable, so he's got to stay behind, bunking in the infirmary with his classics teacher, because the school saw fit to turn off the heat in the dormitories and other buildings. So, really, this just leaves three main characters at the school, and Hunham tries bonding with the cafeteria worker by watching "The Newlywed Game" on TV with her, even though he doesn't watch much TV, unless he's slumming or bored, apparently.   

Well, if you've got to spend a lot of time with someone who's not in your usual social circles, there are things you can do together, besides watching TV.  Plus it's 1970 and most of the great TV shows like "Knight Rider" and "The A-Team" haven't even been made yet.  So Hunham sets his sights on Angus Tully, they go out to a local pub and Tully almost causes a fight just by trying to play a pinball game.  Hunham also learns that one of the secretaries from the school works at the pub during the holiday season, and he scores an invitation to her Christmas party, and decides to bring along Angus and Mary, the cafeteria worker.  (Again, WCPGW?)

After several more days of sheltering in place, and a few more disastrous incidents, the three loners reconcile and decide that a change of scene is in order, perhaps it's the school environment that is causing all of their Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Angus suggests they drive to Boston, so he can ice-skate and Mary can visit her sister in the Roxbury neighborhood. Mr. Hunham discloses that they're not supposed to leave the grounds, however he could declare a "field trip" and tap into the school funds available for such things, so he and Angus could share a hotel room for a few days and visit some of Boston's finer museums, and that city is known for its museums.  So under the guise of further education into ancient history, the three hit the road.  

Though the teacher and student end up sharing a bond, and they do all drive back to the school and watch the ball drop in Times Square together, their Boston trip turns out to have implications that none of them anticipated, and when Angus' mother learns about the trip, there's the threat of military school for Angus, and with the Vietnam War raging, it may be the worst time to enroll in a military school.  

I'm not really sure what I was expecting from this film, but it seemed to simultaneously provide both a lot less AND a lot more than I thought it would. Is that possible?  Like really it's a bunch of comical misadventures in a closed-down school, but it really wants to be MORE than that, and it somehow both is and isn't. Or it's everything I wanted it to be and yet also not enough at the same time. I've got mixed feelings, I guess.  But Paul Giamatti is always good, so there's that. And he's playing a cranky older man, which he excels at, so that's also good.  I really should re-watch "American Splendor" one of these days.  

There's a real feel for the look of the early 1970's here, I think there are some parts of Boston that haven't changed that much in 50 years, with a few old-timey signs there are some streets that could pass.  And of course a prep school always looks like a prep school, no matter what year it is. There's one shot of Paul Giamatti's character smoking a pipe in a movie theater, and I can't really remember a time when that was allowed, but then again, it must have been. Back then people could smoke in restaurants and on planes, I guess also at the movies? 

NITPICK POINT: The film opens with the choir learning "O Little Town of Bethlehem", but the film opens one or two days before the holiday break. Would the choir leader really be teaching this song to them at the last minute?  You would think they would have covered this at least two or three weeks ago, I mean, everybody knows Christmas is coming, and they need time to learn their different parts.  

Also starring Dominic Sessa, Da'Vine Joy Randolph (last seen in "Rustin"), Carrie Preston (last seen in "Space Oddity"), Brady Hepner, Ian Dolley, Jim Kaplan (last seen in "Marry Me"), Michael Provost (last seen in "Barely Lethal"), Andrew Garman (last seen in "Julie & Julia"), Naheem Garcia (last seen in "Madame Web"), Stephen Thorne (last seen in "Don't Look Up"), Gillian Vigman (last seen in "After the Sunset"), Tate Donovan (last seen in "Shooter"), Darby Lily Lee-Stack, Bill Mootos (also last seen in "Don't Look Up"), David J. Curtis (ditto), Dustin Tucker (last seen in "American Fiction"), Juanita Pearl, Alexander Cook (last seen in "The Purge: Election Year"), Liz Bishop, Cole Tristan Murphy, Will Sussbauer, Carter Shimp, Michael Malvesti (also last seen in "Madame Web"), Rena Maliszewski (ditto), Dakota Lustick (last seen in "I Feel Pretty"), Melissa McMeekin (last seen in "Unfinished Business"), Osmani Rodriguez (ditto), Jonathan von Mering, Oscar Wahlberg (last seen in "Daddy's Home 2"), Dan Aid, Mike Kaz, Kelly AuCoin (last seen in "Drunk Parents"), Colleen Clinton, Fred Robbins, Pamela Jayne Morgan (also last seen in "Space Oddity"), Joe Howell, Peter Krasinski, Greg Chopoorian, Ian Lyons, Kevin Fennessey (last seen in "I Care a Lot"), Elaine Victoria Grey, Lily Steven (last seen in "Free Guy") with archive footage of Dustin Hoffman (last heard in "Kung Fu Panda 4"), Chief Dan George (last seen in "The Outlaw Josey Wales"), Bob Eubanks. 

RATING: 7 out of 10 frames of candlepin bowling

All Is Bright

Year 16, Day 358 - 12/23/24 - Movie #4,899

BEFORE: Paul Rudd carries over from "Prince Avalanche", and it's very nearly the end of the Movie Year, just ONE more film to go after tonight, and I may wait until after Christmas or llate on Christmas Day to watch it, because it's all about the holiday, but specifically the holiday break. 

Things slow down this time of year, just a few work days left and TV is all reruns, because nobody wants to work, not even the crews on the late night shows.  Fine by me, I've got my classic holiday films to watch - I saw "Bad Santa 2" the other night (OK, the last half of it, but that counts), and this evening we caught "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (the original one) on TNT.  Tonight I think I'll watch "Scrooge", the Albert Finney version which is my favorite one, because it's available on demand.  Then tomorrow "A Christmas Story" runs for 24 hours straight, so that's a given, and maybe I can convince my wife to give the "Wonka" prequel a try, even though it's not specifically Christmas-y.  

Then after Christmas I'll have to write my wrap-up post for the year, give out my own version of awards, and then figure out where to start the New Year.  I had an idea for the first two movies of 2025, but I ruined the linking by watching "Speed Racer", I probably should have saved that movie for another week, because it could have been really helpful in starting off the first week of the new year.  Oh, well, I'll figure out something else to do.  

THE PLOT: While out on parole, Dennis reluctantly takes a job selling Christmas trees with his old buddy Rene in order to make enough money to buy his estranged daughter the piano she's always wanted. 

AFTER: This one's probably been on my list for three or four years, so a few Christmases have come and gone without being able to link to it. BUT, I think I've proven that, given enough time and some planning, I can get to just about anything. Eventually.  That's good news for the other films on my list that don't connect to anything else right now - just wait, maybe?  There's maybe 20 holiday films that I wouldn't mind watching, and another 10 that I'd consider, only I don't have the cast lists worked out, so really, how would I ever know I could get to them?  I said I would try to get to "Christmas in Paradise", a film with Kelsey Grammer that got dropped last year for lack of slots, and then there's "Violent Night" with David Harbour and TWO sequel films to "A Christmas Story", but obviously I can't get to any of those this year, since there's very little year left. I'll try again next time around. 

Really, this film kind of feels like it's cut from the same cloth as "Prince Avalanche" - two guys who are very different are forced to work together, they get on each other's nerves as they endure terrible working conditions, and then some very odd things happen, and it all kind of works out.  Whether that's for better or for worse, who can say?  Sure, there are vast differences between the two films, but at the heart of things, they're essentially the same film, only one is Christmas-themed, though.  

We first see Dennis after he's been released from prison - Canadian prison, though, so come on, how bad could that be? - and he tracks down his wife and daughter, only to find that his wife wants nothing more to do with him, and also she's told his daughter that he died.  Dennis also learns that she's been seeing his old partner-in-crime, Rene, who he's also forced to turn to for work, since his parole officer can't seem to recommend a decent job that will hire an ex-con, and money's in short supply because there's a recession.  Rene's got a money-making scheme that worked out great last year, he borrowed money to buy a truck full of Christmas trees from a tree farm and drove them down to New York City, and made five times the cost of the trees, so he paid back the loan and kept the difference. 

What could POSSIBLY go wrong?  Well, just about everything, as you might imagine.  The two men can't seem to agree on how the trees should be sold, or who should be in charge of the prices or the money, or who should sleep in the bed in the little shack to keep an eye on the tree lot overnight.  Things get bad when they learn that another, nicer-looking tree lot has opened up across the street, and they get worse when 10 days go by and nobody has bought one tree.  The outlook is bleak and they have no idea how they're going to turn a profit, or even pay back the initial loan for the cost of the trees.  

I was forced to watch this on a DVD I burned, even though it's available on demand - I tried to watch it on Starz but the image was all screwed up and pixellated, not sure if there's a problem with my cable reception or if the Starz channel was having some technical difficulties, but either way I had no captions, so I missed a few plot points, but I got the gist of the storyline.  Olga is a woman who bought the first tree from Dennis & Rene's lot, and she overpaid because I guess she felt sorry for them?  Or maybe she was interested in Dennis, it's a bit tough to say.  She let him take a shower in the Brooklyn townhouse she lived in - I thought maybe she was rich but I guess she just cleans that house for a pair of dentists who are never home?  

There's also a weird message in the film, like Dennis is an ex-con and a thief, but he swears he's gone straight, only he really hasn't, because a thief never stops being a thief?  Also, you might think that when their Christmas tree business gets robbed, maybe Dennis would learn some lesson from that, but no, he really doesn't, because his answer for how to fix things is to just steal more stuff.  I guess when all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail?  Anyway, it's not a great holiday message because stealing actually works out for him, it's like that "Grinch" movie if the scheme to rob Whoville actually worked and the Grinch never felt bad about it at all. 

But if you've ever seen people selling Christmas trees on the street and wondered about their backstories, well, here is such a movie.  And then of course the human condition dictates that if two people are forced to work together, they may end up hating each other before they learn to tolerate each other - that's probably universal, of course if the other person is dating your ex then it's unlikely you'll ever see eye to eye.  Except maybe on Christmas?  I've never sold Christmas trees, but I've done my time in a Comic-Con booth, selling DVDs and animation art - I know what it feels like to sit there for HOURS while nobody buys anything, and then the rush you get later on when suddenly everybody wants to buy what you have at once, and that feeling can turn your day right around.  

I also learned that without the captions on, I'm now unable to distinguish between the name "Dennis" and the word "dentists".  Considering there's a main character here named Dennis and Olga works as a cleaning lady for dentists, naturally I was confused.  But I'm a fan of both Pauls, Giamatti and Rudd, so that goes a long way here. And I'm also thrilled to finally cross this Christmas movie off the list. Now tonight I'll watch "Scrooge" to get me in an extra holiday mood.  

If you're in NYC, the restaurant seen in this 2013 film is still in business in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, it's called the Three Decker Diner on Manhattan Ave. and they have some omelettes named after the movies "Mean Streets", "New York Stories" and "The Departed".  I've never been there, and I'm not in the Greenpoint neighborhood often, but if I were I would definitely check it out. Or you can order a chicken salad & bacon triple decker with disco fries, tell 'em Honky sent you, though that will probably not get you anything. 

Also starring Paul Giamatti (last seen in "Jungle Cruise"), Sally Hawkins (last seen in "Wonka"), Amy Landecker (last seen in "I Love My Dad"), Peter Hermann (last seen in "Swimfan"), Emory Cohen (last seen in "Blue Bayou"), Halley Feiffer (last seen in "Margot at the Wedding"), Colman Domingo (last heard in "Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken"), Tatyana Richaud, Adam Phillips, Michael Drayer (last seen in "Blonde"), Nikki M. James (last seen in "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them"), Gordon Joseph Weiss (last seen in "Reversal of Fortune"), Curtiss Cook (last seen in "West Side Story" (2021)), Darren Goldstein (last seen in "The Girl on the Train"), Rob Munk, Morgan Spector (last seen in "Chuck"), Desmin Borges (last seen in "Hangdog"), Gracie Lopez, Liza Colon-Zayas (last seen in "IF"), Vincent D'Arbouze, Pamela Stewart (last seen in "Hustlers"), Lucy Taylor (last seen in "Senior Year"), Gregory Perri (last seen in "Not Fade Away"), Amanda Warren (last seen in "The Wizard of Lies"), Verna O. Hobson, Elli (last seen in "The International"), Bonnie Rose (last seen in "Night Falls on Manhattan"), Luke Tomalin Sherman

RATING: 6 out of 10 sad inflatable character decorations