Being trapped at school is most students’ worst nightmare, but it is a way that some students have to live. Specifically, those who go to academy type schools, where they do live on campus despite still being minors. This misfortune can be amplified even more, when for holiday breaks all the other students go home, but even then, a select few students will have nowhere to go, and they get stuck staying at the school with a teacher chaperone. This is what happens in The Holdovers, but it is even worse than just being left behind and feeling unwanted, the teacher left in charge is an old curmudgeon that acts like a dictator.
Angus was not even supposed to be a holdover, his family was supposed to pick him up, and they were going to go to Boston, then St. Kits for a nice warm reprieve from the harsh Northeastern winter, but right as everyone was leaving Angus received the call from his mom, telling him that he was no longer invited, because she and Angus’s new step father had never gotten the chance to go on a honeymoon, so now he was no longer invited. A brutal attack on two fronts, from the familial love aspect and the loss of a new and warm adventure.
Just a few days into the holdover period, one of the student’s dad flies his helicopter in to retrieve his son, and he offers to free the other kids from the wrath of the dictator of a teacher as well, and all of the students get to go with him, except for Angus, because his mom was too busy having fun on an excursion in St. Kits to answer the phone and free her son from the Hell that he had been trapped. So this left Angus with Paul, the teacher, and Mary, the cook, for the rest of the break. It started out rough, but if you are trapped with a person long enough, the differences start to wash away as the walls these two men had built up start to evaporate and honest feelings and experiences start to flow. This leads to an unbreakable bond between two of the unlikeliest of friends.
The movie continues, and it explores more of the three Holdovers’ backstories, and they all have their own trauma, and once they start to share it with each other, it starts to become more digestible. It does not make it disappear, but it helps them to understand one another, which is the foundation for forming a strong relationship. There were multiple times in the movie where tears were brought to my eyes, and it really pulls you into the story.
The visuals in this movie were also great. The way it was shot gave it a grainy look, which corresponded to the age in which the film was supposed to be taking place, the 70s. It also helped that this movie was filmed on location. There were so many shots of the old buildings, like the school and the houses that had great architectural style. The soft color palette helped to add an aged feel to it, and nothing feels more Christmasy than old house with simple lights strung up with a fresh layer of snow blannketing the yard and the house. Even the 70s outfits were excellent and a great added touch. It made it easier to live in the story with these people and feel what they were going through.
A new film also came out onto Netflix this week, The Killer, directed by David Fincher, who is a big name. Sadly, it was not in theaters nearby, but it was one of the better films of the year. David Fincher is the master of dialogue, and it can be seen in this movie as well. There is an open monologue that lasts close to ten minutes as this headhunter sits and observes an apartment building, waiting for his mark to arrive home, and his mental dialogue is explaining all the rules that he upholds to make sure that he is good at his job.
This is not the only time that there is an inner monologue being spoke, in fact, it is happening for large swaths of the movie, and it makes this guy seem like he is an expert in this field. He sounds super meticulous, like every small detail is accounted for, and that every possible thing that could go wrong is planned for, but then you see him in action, and he is clearly not as prepared as he thinks he is. At times, it seems like he is only prepared for the surface level threats. This leads to some unintentional comedy. The movie is by no means a comedy, but there are multiple times where I could not help but laugh, because something absurd is happening. The best line of the movie was after his first botched killing, and he says in times like these I often ask myself WWJWBD? Or What would John Wilkes Booth do? Which is totally absurd, because in this situation, he failed, where Booth had succeeded, and after Booth succeeded, he went on to get caught and killed, so really, he is not the best role model for an assassin.
While watching the movie, I was thinking, there cannot be a worst combination of traits than thinking one is meticulous and detailed oriented, but not being self-aware enough to realize one is not those things. Then I realized that I probably fit into that category to some extent. Obviously not as an assassin but as a runner. I do all these preventive actions to try and prevent injuries, and I start to think there is no way I am going to get hurt, I do all these things to keep my body healthy, but things always slip through the cracks, and it is not until the injury happens that I realize all the exercises I should have been doing to prevent this. Self-delusion. What a pain.
The horror parodies also continue to hit the market, and the one that came out this weekend was It’s a Wonderful Knife, it was no Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey, but it was probably better, just not as absurd sadly. Hopefully, unlike Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey, this movie will not be shown in an elementary school, because this movie brings the violence quickly and bloodily. The story is about a girl, who kills a serial killer, but a year later, her family is not very sympathetic to all that she has been through, so she wishes that she has never been born. When this happens, like It’s a Wonderful Life, her existence is wiped from history, so the serial killer is back alive, and he has killed way more people, so to get life to go back to how it was, she must kill the serial killer. So she recruits the help of the town weirdo and a blood bath ensues, but they also included a heartwarming ending!
This story does a decent job of following the storyline of It’s a Wonderful Life. There is an obvious real estate plot line where one evil guy is trying to take over the town, which is like the original, there is the time travel, there is an acquaintance made who teaches the life lesson, and there is a return to normalcy with a renewed vigor. There are also glaring differences like the serial killer, and in It’s a Wonderful Knife, a meth problem comes about due to the girl never being born, which was not explained and totally absurd, but it made me laugh. Christmas horror movies are also on the rise, and soon enough there will be a 31-day Krampus watch in December instead of just horror movies in October.
I also forgot that Marvel had a new movie released last weekend as well, The Marvels, but it was on Thursday, so it feels like forever ago. It was by no means a top tier Marvel movie, but I feel like it was one of the better stories they have put out recently. The plot was negligible, and it did not interest me too much, but the chemistry from the main three leading women was great, and the development of the Kamala character has been wonderful to watch. At the end of the movie, they teased the Young Avengers, which is the most excited I have been for a Marvel property since End Game. So there was a massive release of movies this weekend, and the same can be said about this upcoming weekend, when four more new movies are released into theaters! It is that time of year go out and see a movie!
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