The Holdovers (2023)

The Holdovers is about a teacher, student, and cook stuck together over Christmas break.

The writing from David Hemingson is really on a different level than much of what I've seen lately. While the movie lacks in keeping your attention from a directorial perspective it makes up for with interesting characters, dynamics, and immersion into the year 1970. The odd thing about this film is that Hemingson is better known as a producer than a writer and for this to be his first writing duty for a full-length feature film, it's pretty impressive. He was the producer of one of my favorite shows called Lie to Me, but he was also the producer for How I Met Your Mother, and Just Shoot Me!

Dominic Sessa plays the student who is abandoned for Christmas break. His character is written in such a way that makes you believe that he's a seventies kid and not just some actor. It was great but it was Paul Giamatti who plays the teacher and displays his seasoned acting skills. He plays a completely unlikable lecture-bound teacher who has the most character arc in the film. This was Dominic Sessa's first anything, not even a TV show. Paul Giamatti has been in everything from 12 Years A Slave to Cinderella Man.

While the film has interesting characters the film can be difficult to sit through if you aren't invested in those characters. I imagine viewers with a lesser attention span would hate this film. It's probably best to watch this without distractions. Result: B

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Cinderella (2021)

Cinderella is a modern take on the classic tale. This time everything is politically upside down. Written and Directed by Kay Cannon, Cinderella takes any chance it can to push an agenda. It's nauseating in the forcefulness of the propaganda. It's hard to take any scene that isn't singing seriously. It lives in a dystopian world where anyone who doesn't think progressively like-minded is a fool and shouldn't have joy. The direction is okay, but that's to be expected as she probably picked up some being the producer of the Pitch Perfect trillogy. Camila Cabello plays Cinderella and her first major film. She can sing and performs well next to her stepmother played by Idina Menzel, who needs no introduction. Surely, she will be in future musicals and I can only hope for one with a better writer. Pierce Brosnan plays King Rowan and is forceful in his performance but given the point of his character, it's sad to see. Someone had to be the punching bag, and ...

Escape Room (2019)

Escape Room is presented as a Saw-like game of puzzle solving or your life ends. This time around they remove the gore to get a PG-13 rating and a January release. Adam Robitel is best known as the director of Insidious: The Last Key. Which I 'saw' and meh'd about last year. He also did Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension which I haven't seen. I stopped watching the Paranormal movies after The Marked Ones. There are some camera/direction problems nothing an average movie-goer would notice. Taylor Russell plays the main character Zoey. Don't take any offense, but she has a really hard time going full Aspergers, but once she turns Lara Croft she does a decent job. She also did the over-looked Lost in Space TV series which I still need to watch. I want to see Deborah Ann Woll in more movies after seeing her in this. She was a shining star in this film. She plays a former military survivor with a lot of baggage. You'll remember her as Karen Page from ...

Saltburn (2023)

Saltburn is about an Oxford student who is thrown into the world of his aristocratic classmate when he goes to his family's estate for the summer. Director Emerald Fennell lets you know this film is about homosexuals with the opening line. I really enjoyed Promising Young Woman , and so my hopes were high. It is set in 2006 which I adamantly remember since that was my graduating year. Perhaps people in England dressed that way but here in the States, we dressed very differently. Berry Keoghan plays the socially awkward main character who seemingly gets taken into this world of luxury and friendship that causes him to do some extreme things. He's not your traditionally handsome man and for some reason keeps getting roles. I mean he was good in The Banshees of Inisherin but no one remembers him in Dunkirk. Even in Banshees, he was just a weird and annoying character though. Jacob Elordi plays the love interest who has the charm to get any girl he wants. You...

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