Love your movie reviews, Roy. I've heard vague good things about the film, but before reading this it would not have made its way onto my watch list. Now it has.
So bizarre... Saw the trailer a couple of months ago and got a hit of deja vu. Thought I had seen it a couple of years ago...
Just checked. It was shot relatively recently, so obviously that couple of years ago thing is wrong. It's an original screenplay, so it couldn't have been because I had read something about the source... Maybe the trailer reduced the story to something familiar, almost a cliche plot? (Yes, I know, the relationship between trailer and actual movie can be very tenuous...)
Now that's going to gnaw away at me for a couple of moments til I forget about it...
Up until now, I'd only read a one line description like "Curmudgeonly instructor at New England prep school babysits students with nowhere to go during Christmas." Being a cynical old fart, I thought this was going to be one of those "Dead Poet's Society" meets "History Boys" at "The Breakfast Club" or something worse, and dismissed it out of hand. Your persuasive and thoughtful review makes me think the missus and I would enjoy it. So thanks for that.
There are a few actors that I will eagerly watch whatever they're in, even when it's pretty bad (e.g., Meryl, I forgive you for "Death Becomes Her"). Paul Giamatti is one of them; Streep of course, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Emma Thompson, Cillian Murphy, Damian Lewis, etc. etc. and many from the BBC roster. Who are yours?
I guess we’ll watch this but I have to admit, when I saw the trailer about the lonely boy abandoned at the boarding school with the tyrannical teacher, I thought, “Oh, somebody decided to expand on the Ghost of Christmas Past’s first vision.” Of course Dickens, who saw the evils of the world clearly without the benefit of rose colored glasses, made young Ebenezer’s school holiday a season in Hell, giving his protagonist a reason to become a greedy asshole as an adult. His redemption is less saccharine because we see how he was embittered at an early age, so much so that even the saintly Fezziwick can’t save him. The old boy didn’t write Hallmark flicks, that’s for sure.
Think I mentioned before how much I hate teacher movies (as do most of the teachers I know) so I'll probably be steering clear of this one. But I enjoyed the review very much, you're quite good at this!
There‘s a YouTube channel, In Front of Ira, with two German historians (of American history, and speaking in English) who do deep dives into Hallmark Christmas movies. O brave new world, &c. (Don‘t get me wrong, these two are a blast! I just never had anything like this on my Gettin‘-Old-Bingo card)
Dammit, once again you have made me want to see a movie I had dismissed as treacle. Bitter old man and angry young man teach each other the meaning of life while trading insults. I'm seeing Adam Sandler and Timothy Calumette (sic). Throw in a wise black woman to call out both of them and we've got a movie! Now I have to start over. Though I did love Citizen Ruth. One of the darkest things I've ever seen.
My own history including the way biology and environment all the way back to the Big Bang and the first living cell cause me to view Payne's movies as studies of a way I'll never be. We're talking schismogenesis to the max. Even my open-minded acceptance of differences in others fails to quell my extreme dissociation of myself, what remains of identity I have been shedding over a lifetime, with Payne's characters and his storylines.
It has been a long time since I saw Citizen Ruth, but I have a fairly good recollection of it, and its humor appealed to me. Election I have seen bits of more recently and that one, not so much. By the time we get around to Sideways, we have arrived at the place where I am drawn back again and again to cringe at every turn, every detail, only for it to be eclipsed by a greater cringe-worthiness of a following scene. It is like a mysterious bad smell I want to identify: What was it before it went bad?
Based on your review here, however, I intend to watch this latest film. Así soy yo.
I knew I would be seeing The Holdovers so I avoided reading this post until now. I started tearing up a bit reading it. I loved this movie. I still think about it a couple of weeks later. My partner insists it had a happy ending.
Love your movie reviews, Roy. I've heard vague good things about the film, but before reading this it would not have made its way onto my watch list. Now it has.
So bizarre... Saw the trailer a couple of months ago and got a hit of deja vu. Thought I had seen it a couple of years ago...
Just checked. It was shot relatively recently, so obviously that couple of years ago thing is wrong. It's an original screenplay, so it couldn't have been because I had read something about the source... Maybe the trailer reduced the story to something familiar, almost a cliche plot? (Yes, I know, the relationship between trailer and actual movie can be very tenuous...)
Now that's going to gnaw away at me for a couple of moments til I forget about it...
Glad the Maestro enjoyed it.
Up until now, I'd only read a one line description like "Curmudgeonly instructor at New England prep school babysits students with nowhere to go during Christmas." Being a cynical old fart, I thought this was going to be one of those "Dead Poet's Society" meets "History Boys" at "The Breakfast Club" or something worse, and dismissed it out of hand. Your persuasive and thoughtful review makes me think the missus and I would enjoy it. So thanks for that.
There are a few actors that I will eagerly watch whatever they're in, even when it's pretty bad (e.g., Meryl, I forgive you for "Death Becomes Her"). Paul Giamatti is one of them; Streep of course, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Emma Thompson, Cillian Murphy, Damian Lewis, etc. etc. and many from the BBC roster. Who are yours?
I got Sardou and scribe/ well made play.
It took awhile. It was a 48-year-old memory of something that didn't really interest me. But I found it.
"Strabismus" though- I am convinced that only you and some ophthalmologists know what that is.
Fine review! You should do more of these.
I guess we’ll watch this but I have to admit, when I saw the trailer about the lonely boy abandoned at the boarding school with the tyrannical teacher, I thought, “Oh, somebody decided to expand on the Ghost of Christmas Past’s first vision.” Of course Dickens, who saw the evils of the world clearly without the benefit of rose colored glasses, made young Ebenezer’s school holiday a season in Hell, giving his protagonist a reason to become a greedy asshole as an adult. His redemption is less saccharine because we see how he was embittered at an early age, so much so that even the saintly Fezziwick can’t save him. The old boy didn’t write Hallmark flicks, that’s for sure.
Think I mentioned before how much I hate teacher movies (as do most of the teachers I know) so I'll probably be steering clear of this one. But I enjoyed the review very much, you're quite good at this!
Mr Holland's Opus meets Die Hard!!
There‘s a YouTube channel, In Front of Ira, with two German historians (of American history, and speaking in English) who do deep dives into Hallmark Christmas movies. O brave new world, &c. (Don‘t get me wrong, these two are a blast! I just never had anything like this on my Gettin‘-Old-Bingo card)
Dammit, once again you have made me want to see a movie I had dismissed as treacle. Bitter old man and angry young man teach each other the meaning of life while trading insults. I'm seeing Adam Sandler and Timothy Calumette (sic). Throw in a wise black woman to call out both of them and we've got a movie! Now I have to start over. Though I did love Citizen Ruth. One of the darkest things I've ever seen.
My own history including the way biology and environment all the way back to the Big Bang and the first living cell cause me to view Payne's movies as studies of a way I'll never be. We're talking schismogenesis to the max. Even my open-minded acceptance of differences in others fails to quell my extreme dissociation of myself, what remains of identity I have been shedding over a lifetime, with Payne's characters and his storylines.
It has been a long time since I saw Citizen Ruth, but I have a fairly good recollection of it, and its humor appealed to me. Election I have seen bits of more recently and that one, not so much. By the time we get around to Sideways, we have arrived at the place where I am drawn back again and again to cringe at every turn, every detail, only for it to be eclipsed by a greater cringe-worthiness of a following scene. It is like a mysterious bad smell I want to identify: What was it before it went bad?
Based on your review here, however, I intend to watch this latest film. Así soy yo.
I knew I would be seeing The Holdovers so I avoided reading this post until now. I started tearing up a bit reading it. I loved this movie. I still think about it a couple of weeks later. My partner insists it had a happy ending.