All User Reviews

Excellent Biopic

Not woke. I like it a lot.

A rebuke of modernity masquerading as a smart feel-good movie

The Holdovers is a slow burning evolution of conflict in isolation, a feel-good movie that does not rely on musical theater crutches or fictitious airport hi-jinx to surface what glues important relationships together. The film is two weeks of three people struggling with loss of family and desertion. The school is an island slowly replacing the ocean with snow and walls shielding the outside world from view. Every shot is extremely myopic, we are very close the characters.

Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is a father without a son, and Mr. Tully (Dominic Sessa) is a son without a father. The entire film is a meditation upon the relationships between parents and children from the lost Curtis Lamb and his mother Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) to the lost Quarterback Jason Smith (Michael Provost) being in a stubbornness contest with his literal helicopter flying dad who comes into pull the rest of the Holdovers to the ski slopes, abandoning our trio to solely exist with themselves for ten days.

There is not a lot wrong with the Holdovers, perhaps with the exception of the running time. I don't understand why it was nominated for Best Picture, but I do understand why Da'Vine Joy Randolph was nominated for best supporting actress. Randolph does a great turn as Mary, the grieving mother of Vietnam KIA Curtis Lamb, and is the character with the most depth, evolution, and clear motivation for her actions. Randolph manages to carry a world weary weight with her through every scene despite being the only truly happy person in the entire film.

There are many parallels between the world of 1970 and today, illustrated perfectly by Mr. Hunham's unprompted opinion of the state of the world during Christmas party small talk :

"the world doesn't make sense anymore. I mean, it's on fire. The rich don't give a shit. Poor kids are cannon fodder. Integrity is a punch line. Trust is just a name on a bank."

Hunham is a martyr awaiting a sword upon which to throw himself and Tully seems to be a walking weapons rack, they are a match made in heaven and a fitting denouement for the relative lack of action.

7.4 CGI'd eyeballs out of 10

Stoic

Nothing woke here. It's a dry documentary about a British "explorer", though honestly he just travels to very difficult places by inconvenient means, which is a bit different than exploring. I found it a bit boring, but it might appeal a lot more to a Brit. I struggle over whether to give it a 2 or 3, so I will break the tie in favor of 3 due to non-fictional, non-woke material.

Purposefully ambiguous, well acted and well written. Anatomy of a Fall evolves heavily over the course of the 150 minute runtime from a slice-of-life introduction to the household to inter-family drama to a murder mystery to a courtroom drama that freely switches between English, French, and German. The chemistry between Sandra and the interviewer contrasted with the overbearing presence of Samuel off screen through 50 Cent's PIMP playing at deafening levels manages to create both tension and duality, conflict lurks unseen in this house and just off-stage.

Samuel's shadow is necessarily over every frame of the film. The home is empty and quiet after his passing whereas every retelling of memory of Samuel is loud from the music to the shouting to the fighting with thrown glass and recriminations. Samuel is everywhere from the first frame until Sandra's fate is sealed, where his presence relents and she is alone. The purposefully long courtroom scenes that give the viewer a feeling of what it is like to just sit interminably while Sandra's life is decided, it fits with the evolution of the film. Both lawyers (prosecutor and defense) are very good actors who carry half the show, maybe more, with tightly written dialogue and logic.

Justine Triet has accomplished something fantastic by managing to keep viewers engaged through what is fundamentally an argument between two lawyers twisting facts to suit their own narrative in a way that invites the viewer to join the jury and think. What would you would decide, who would you believe, how would you interpret the facts.. or lack of facts? There is no conclusion, Sandra even states this at the end "it's just over". The viewer applies their own logic and reasons, but ultimately that does not matter.

We are left wondering about Sandra's feelings for Vincent (Swann Arlaud, her lawyer) to whom she put her life into his hands. The french legal system cannot be real, yet we are assured by others that it does work this way, truly eye opening with regards to liberté, égalité, fraternité. This is not the best picture of the year, but it was a good film. Sandra Huller as the protagonist is fantastic, as is most of the cast including Milo Machado Graner as Daniel.

The musical of Bad Times

No major politically correctness in this film aside from the soul singing woman who's music we hear just a little too often. Jeff Bridges plays a pretend priest and Lewis Pullman has PTSD. It's got Dakota Johnson in it who I confused with Olivia Cooke. I really like Olivia Cooke. ♥ ♥ ♥.

As far as the story goes, I'm calling it a much longer than necessary, more straightforward and less interesting Pulp Fiction- or select another Tarantino film. Not a terrible movie, just a little too long. Way too long.

Surprisingly good except the end

This 1951 movie raises my hope that I may be able to find enough old decent movies that I won't need modern Hollywood. Nothing woke here.

No spoilers follow.

The special effects were... not horrible, except for the painting of a city. The science was... not as horrible as modern sci-fi blockbusters. The plot was... great, except for the ending, but we have different expectations than 1950's moviegoers.

The main actress uses a "Mid-Atlantic" accent, an artificial accent midway between American and British characteristics of speech. Actresses in the 30's to 50's learned to speak this way. Quite an attractive sound. Her accent reminded me of Rachael in Blade Runner, so I think Sean Young was going for that accent as part of the retro film noir style of that movie.

"I'm not in the business. I am the business." It's a line said by Rachael, but it could have been said by the heroine of When Worlds Collide.

Low Budget, Seen It Before.

Some DEI hires and a girl boss with horrible acting and one of the worst 'WTF were you going for' accents I've ever heard. Unoriginal story with average acting all around. Mostly boring with some bad writing.

Not the Younglings!

Although this series is basically Star Wars for grown-ups, it's still Star Wars, and so will attract younglings. And due to wokeness, the material is inappropriate for children. There are two main woke transgressions:

1. The rebel terrorist leader is a white lesbian who is in an interracial relationship with an Indian woman, who is also in the terrorist cell and is described as the toughest of all the rebels. No sexual intimacy is shown, but Disney is trying to normalize this to kids.

2. The white female senator is married to a white male, so far so good, but they are in a polyamorous/open marriage as is the custom on their planet (though apparently disapproved of by her) and her bisexual husband is banging dudes on the side. This is only mentioned, not shown, but kids don't need this crap from Disney.

These things go by quickly and will hardly phase most conservative adults, but I can't go for a 1 or 2 woke rating given Disney's intent to plant these ideas in the minds of our children. So 4/5 wokeness is my verdict.

Still, overall the series is way better than most other Star Wars series and movies. It's a bit slow and a lot complicated, so pay attention and consider binge-watching. Just don't give Disney even one piece of eight. Arr, savvy?

Such a good series, but they have to throw some wokeness in it.

Luckily they had the Russell Dad and Son actors, Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell to save this series, otherwise some of the young actors would have ruined the whole series on their own.
I was able to watch all the episodes but a little bothered by the lesbian actresses. Does everything out of Hollywood have to have a gay character in it? The straight black woman is not even attractive but one of the lead characters has a one night stand with her?
Some of the writing is really dumb but some is so good and the CGI is top notch.
If you love giant monsters, I still recommend watching Monarch.

Not woke at all. Just a really great movie.

This is just a well told story. Characters are well developed and just enough Godzilla to keep you excited. You do have to read subtitles throughout the whole movie, but it's very easy to keep up.

There are only a few movies when the audience claps at the end of the movie. This was one of them.

Very Woke but Enjoyable if You Can Get Past That

As others have noted the token well spoken, educated, well dressed black character is completely out of place for the time period. There is a woe is me racism speech from the same character. The female character is also very much a 'girl power' unrealistic character for the time. The acting and story are good with a very creepy and disturbing atmosphere. FX are also pretty good. If you can look past the issues it is very watchable but be aware it is very woke.

Horror sci-fi from the 50's

There could be a little proto-wokeness, because the most intelligent character is a woman who is disrespected by one of the men in a sexist way. It's not a big deal.

"Them!" has similarities to Aliens in plot, and the first part is a slow burn creepy mystery like the first Alien movie. However, the mystery is already spoiled by the film's poster and description. With an IMDB rating of 7.2/10, it's generally well-respected, and I agree that it is really well done, but I just can't hang with the 1950's era special effects. This is from someone who loves 1960's era Star Trek.