The Holdovers (2023) Film Review

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school remains on campus during Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school’s head cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.

The Holdovers is directed by Alexander Payne a director who while I’m not a die hard fan of his work I can still appreciate how great his films are (with the exception of Downsizing I still to this day have no idea what that was).

The Holdovers is quite possibly the most human film of 2023 and what I mean by that is it’s a huge character study that really studies the many emotions people feel during Christmas time. The film is also quite possibly the most wholesome rated r film you will ever see in almost every shot there’s heart and soul being poured into it.

The natural place to start is the performances, Paul Giamatti is the lead who plays Paul Hunham a curmudgeonly history teacher who teaches at a New England boarding school and has to chaperone some students over Christmas break. Hunham starts out as your traditional teacher character, the teacher that students do not get along with at all. But slowly through the course of the film we get to see a ton of development in Hunham, Giamatti’s performance is really what makes his character he effortlessly balances being comedic and having more dramatic moments as well. Whenever Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy-Randolph are on screen together that’s when some of the film’s best moments occur. The two truly bounce off of each other incredibly well and show their range as performers.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph is truly incredible here, much like Giamatti through the course of the film we slowly but surely get to learn about her character. Her chemistry between the cast is masterful she plays a mother named Mary who just lost her son in the Vietnam War, the emotion and pain we see from her conversations with the other characters and her actions is truly some of the most powerful moments from a film this year.

A performance that I feel is not getting talked about quite enough is Dominic Sessa which the film happens to be his first performance and it’s quite a powerful one. He plays a student named Angus who starts out as your typical student character that doesn’t get along with anyone, but much like Paul Giamatti’s character slowly evolves over the course of the film. When the film really starts to examine Sessa’s character that’s when you truly get some hard hitting moments, his parents don’t want him home from Christmas and he really doesn’t have anything planned out after boarding school. Where will he go? What will his future be? These are questions that almost immediately come to the viewer’s mind when learning about his life.

Eventually the film focuses on Paul, Mary and Angus three completely different people who are at different stages in their lives. Paul is a college professor who really doesn’t get a long with a lot of people, Mary as I said before is grieving because of the loss of her son and Angus has a very troubling family life. But in a lot of ways the three really help each other and it’s honestly what makes this film so great. The natural human connection especially during the holidays, the want to help another person out or at the very least understand where they are coming from or what their situation is. It’s beautiful moments like these that really hit the viewer hard in the heart.

The film itself really feels like a time capsule from the 70s, from the look of the film to how it’s filmed. Cinematographer Eigil Bryld does an excellent job of really giving this warm Christmas feeling to how it’s shot, you truly feel like you’re there during a Christmas in the 70s. Most of all though is the film has the feel of a Christmas card that maybe one of your family members or friends gave you. You stored it away and one day you open it up again, it’s a sense of nostalgia that cannot be beaten it honestly brings you to tears because of how beautiful the memories really are.

Lastly there’s the writing and direction which are both just phenomenal, the script from David Hemingson is truly touching and Alexander Payne’s direction is very natural. Something both Hemingson and Payne clearly wanted the viewer to know is that they both truly love these characters and want the viewer to see themselves through these characters and the two really accomplished that incredibly well. You truly feel the love in every single moment during the film, whether it be a comedic moment or a dramatic one there’s always some sort of love.

The Holdovers is one of the best films of the year and one of the most powerful ones as well, it’s a feel good film that is so much more than just being positive. It’s about connecting with others, loving others and helping each other however we can.

The Holdovers is available on all VOD platforms.

10/10 A+

Leo (2023) Film Review

Leo the Lizard has been stuck in the same Florida school for decades. When he learns he only has one year left to live, he plans to escape to freedom, but instead has to rescue his class from their horribly mean substitute teacher.

If there’s one movie from this year that I did NOT expect to be good it’s Leo an animated Netflix movie about a talking lizard who’s voiced by Adam Sandler. Okay well it’s about a bit more than that but you get my point, I was not expecting Leo to be any good but I really have to hand it to Adam Sandler (who wrote and is one of the producers), directors Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel and David Wachtenheim as well as writer Paul Sado and producer Mireille Soria they all took a concept that could have easily gotten old within 15 minutes but made it into something surprisingly touching.

I’m not a fan of the voices Sandler has been using in some of his films as of late, but I don’t mind it here. It fits the character of Leo well and there’s some genuinely funny moments, I think what makes Leo work so well is it goes for this exploring the home life of certain kids in the 5th grade class. There isn’t anything groundbreaking being said here and there really doesn’t have to be, much like your days of going from school it’s a routine and is very straightforward at points. The film actually does a decent job of showing that quite well.

There’s some music numbers that admittedly I do think are not the best, but they are fun and creative enough to leave you with a smile on your face. The whole message of growing up, worrying about the future and connecting the reptiles with the 5th grade students and how they both share growing pains is an interesting and clever one that’s executed quite well.

I do think Leo is held back a bit from a weak third act that isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just on the very generic side of things that is much weaker when you compare it to what came before it.

Overall Leo is a charming little surprise that I had a fun time with, it’s not anything groundbreaking. But it’s a charming little movie that has a huge heart and I can’t help but respect it for being just that.

Leo is available on Netflix.

7/10 B

Leave The World Behind (2023) Film Review

A family vacation on Long Island is interrupted by two strangers bearing news of a blackout. As the threat grows, both families must decide how best to survive the potential crisis, all while grappling with their own place in this collapsing world.

Leave The World Behind is directed by Sam Esmail who was the showrunner for Mr.Robot a series that I haven’t seen all of but from what I have seen I’ve liked quite a lot. So it’s a bit surprising to me how little Leave The World Behind really delivered.

Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke and Myha’la all turn in solid performances and work off of each other quite well. There’s some genuinely decent shots here that do help the movie have more of a bigger world, however when it comes to an interesting script that’s when the movie runs into a lot of issues.

The characters are shockingly two-dimensional with absolutely no depth to them at all, which is a shame because the performances as I said before are actually not half bad. The viewer is just not going to really care about characters who have very little personality to them at all and sadly that’s a huge amount of this movie. The preserving physical media message is nice and probably the strongest part of it all, because what the movie is trying to allude to at the end simply falls flat.

There were interesting ideas at play here especially with the ending, however there’s so much misdirection, random events that just happen for no reason at all and events that just don’t add up to anything investing. The 141 minute running time does not do the movie any favors either, it’s very slowly paced that really tries to be this next big slow burn but isn’t investing enough to get fans of slow burns on board.

Finally there really isn’t anything being said here that’s very profound, this honestly brings back memories of Don’t Look Up (2020) a film while yes it was undeniably about an important topic it was executed in such a bland and forgettable way that other films did a far better job at telling the same sort of topic. Leave The World Behind is in a much similar boat and wouldn’t be a bit surprised if this one get’s quickly forgotten about by the time the year ends.

Leave The World Behind is available on Netflix.

5/10 C

It’s A Wonderful Knife (2023) Film Review

Winnie’s life is less than wonderful one year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve. When she wishes she was never born, she finds herself magically transported to a nightmarish parallel universe. With the murderous maniac now back, she must team up with a misfit to identify the culprit and get back to her own reality.

It’s A Wonderful Knife is directed by Tyler Maclntyre director of the criminally underrated Tragedy Girls (2017)

it’s A Wonderful Knife is a Christmas slasher movie it’s always nice to see holiday related slasher films still getting released especially ones that get theater releases (most of the time they are shoved on VOD platforms). Unfortunately this movie it’s a bit of a mess that can’t seem to figure out what it wants to be.

The cast is very solid which is what definitely makes the movie, Jane Widdop makes for a fun slasher movie lead and Justin Long is quite solid as well as being genuinely terrifying at times. The movie has some neat opening kills and the movie itself at least looks nice. It’s mainly everything else that really holds It’s A Wonderful Knife from being any better.

The comedic parts of it are just not very funny and with a title like “It’s A Wonderful Knife” you would expect a much more comedic tone or parody. But you really don’t get that here, sure you get comedic moments but the movie really goes for a more serious tone which ends up being quite bland.

There’s definitely a few character moments that work well and there’s some level of fun to be had here, but a lot of this movie is just very forgettable and opts for a very disappointing direction that many fans of the genre can see coming from a mile away.

It’s A Wonderful Knife is available on Shudder.

5/10 C

Saltburn (2023) Film Review

A student at Oxford University finds himself drawn into the world of a charming and aristocratic classmate, who invites him to his eccentric family’s sprawling estate for a summer never to be forgotten.

Saltburn is directed by Emerald Fennell who previously directed Promising Young Woman.

I’m going to be completely honest here I saw Saltburn back towards the end of November and I’m still not 100% sure how I feel about it, but this review is going to have to get out at some point so let’s just move on. After Promising Young Woman I was really excited to see what Fennell’s next film would be and after watching Saltburn it’s definitely a step down from Promising Young Woman but I really don’t think it’s a bad film or even as polarizing as a lot of people are making it out to be. However that does not mean it’s flawless there’s a ton of issues here that I’ll get into.

But first the positives, which the cast is easily the most noticeable best part about it. Barry Keoghan gives yet another creepy and downright unsettling performance that really works in the film’s favor. At times it does get a little too goofy and can take you directly out of the film but that’s kind of the charm of it, Keoghan makes it work incredibly well and he gives this balance of creepy and bizarrely funny. Jacob Elordi is also quite great here, I definitely think his chemistry with the rest of the cast truly benefits him in the long run, his character isn’t really as explored as you would think but he still turns in a solid performance.

Rosamund Pike is once again phenomenal, this is definitely one of her weaker performances mostly due to the material that’s given. However that doesn’t make her performance bad, she uses the same techniques that make her such an exciting actress here and it works well. Carey Mulligan is in the movie very briefly but I couldn’t help but love her performance. The cinematography is also quite beautiful, especially when combined with the location. Say what you will about Saltburn but it’s very clear that Emerald Fennell certainly knows how to frame an interesting shot and Linus Sandgren’s cinematography makes said shots all the more stunning and compelling.

The biggest problem with Saltburn is it starts out very strongly but slowly ends up going for a much more natural conclusion, the movie’s final moments where it attempts to do this almost Saw like flashbacks on how certain events really happened during the film really acts like a cop out and cheapens almost everything that came before it. It’s such a baffling choice to go with especially after you had some truly strong moments, it doesn’t help that Fennell’s direction really spells it out at the beginning of what’s going to happen.

As far as being weird Saltburn has its moments of being bizarre (the final scene being one of the most notable) but I really don’t think it’s as insane as a lot of people are making it out to be. There’s definitely been weirder that have released this this year (Beau Is Afraid and Infinity Pool are a lot more strange). As far as themes go Emerald Fennell attempts to tackle class and while I do give credit for trying to go for a different sort of approach. It mostly ends up being the same sort of message that’s been done with other films. There is just honestly not a lot being said here about class and nothing that adds to the already gigantic discussion behind it.

It’s a shame because Saltburn is definitely not a bad film it’s just oddly enough holding back on a lot of its own ideas and really struggles to execute it’s ideas in a powerful way. I definitely had an entertaining time with the film but that’s really where it ends unfortunately.

Saltburn is available in Theaters.

7/10 B

The Sacrifice Game (2023) Film Review.

In the 1970s, boarding school students Samantha and Clara stay behind during Christmas break. Things take a deadly turn when a murderous gang arrives at their doorstep, intent on summoning a demon.

Jenn Wexler returns with her second film The Sacrifice Game and unfortunately this is a step down from her previous film The Ranger (2018).

The movie starts out with this 70s aesthetic sort of like how The Holdovers uses it’s style, it’s a decently effective start that includes some character moments, short but sweet introductions for the characters and the movie actually gets you to feel for the two main leads Madison Baines and Georgia Acken.

Unfortunately everything after that quickly starts to fall apart, The Sacrifice Game starts to become a very familiar home invasion movie but in this case a school. The performances remain strong the whole way through, but it’s the script that’s incredibly lacking with a ton of cliches that are thrown in during the second half of the movie. A lot of ideas are introduced and while sounding interesting on paper, they completely lack in execution. There’s also Mena Massoud who is having the time of his life in the villain role and it’s quite hilarious to see.

Overall The Sacrifice Game had a lot of potential but is unfortunately on the very forgettable side of things.

The Sacrifice Game is available on Shudder

5/10 C

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever (2023) Film Review.

After getting stuck with his family in the snow during his winter vacation, Greg worries about getting the new console.

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever is the third installment in the animated Diary Of A Wimpy Kid series and actually the first of these movies (and the live action ones) to be a an adaption of the Cabin Fever book.

Really don’t have a lot to comment on here, but perhaps I’m being too generous but I actually thought this one wasn’t as bad as the previous two animated movies. Granted it’s still not something I would actually recommend to somebody but at the very least I can see there was some sort of attempt to try and make this into something interesting unlike the last two movies.

The cast actually did a decent job this time around, there was one or two jokes that actually worked well and I do think the last 20 minutes or so were genuinely charming and ended on a sweet note. The main criticism here is that it’s quite honestly the exact same thing as the other animated movies but with the voice acting being a lot better and the movie having a Christmas theme.

Much like the other animated movies Cabin Fever does have a pacing problem, admittedly it’s better than the other movies but it still takes a bit too long to get off the ground. It starts to become very repetitive and even at the point where you can predict the rest of the movie, with that said I do ultimately think this is very harmless for kids. You could do absolutely worse and at the very least this showed improvement from the previous movies.

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever is available on Disney+

5/10 C

The Hunger Games: Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) Film Review.

Years before he becomes the tyrannical president of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow remains the last hope for his fading lineage. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow becomes alarmed when he’s assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird from District 12. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and political savvy, they race against time to ultimately reveal who’s a songbird and who’s a snake.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes is a prequel to The Hunger Games (2012) and is the fifth installment to the series.

The Hunger Games series was the only young adult dystopian series back in the 2010s that I actually really liked and perhaps the only one to go on and still have a huge amount of relevancy.The series did have it’s issues with Mockingjay Part One (2014) being the weakest of the films and Mockingjay Part Two (2015) while not being a bad film still felt a bit rushed and not quite up to the quality of The Hunger Games (2012) or Catching Fire (2013). So it was quite interesting to see a prequel be released 8 years later, we have seen how badly prequels can be with very popular book film adaptions. The Fantastic Beasts series simply does not compare to the Harry Potter films and The Hobbit movies (I understand there’s a fanbase for these movies I was just not a fan of them at all) are completely outclassed by The Lord Of The Rings films.

Luckily Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes ends up being quite shockingly fantastic with several contributing factors. Let’s get the obvious out of the way that everyone seems to be talking about the most…the performances. The acting has always been quite strong in The Hunger Games films but in Songbirds & Snakes they kick it up a notch and the cast really delivers in their respective role.

Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow is both fascinating and terrifying we get to see him slowly but surely turn into the man he goes on to be for the rest of the series. We get a very interesting backstory that is filled with many dramatic and character moments that are incredibly investing, it’s some really surprising character work combined with Blyth’s acting that really makes his performance stand out in every single way possible.

Rachel Zegler once again hits it out of the park and really shows how talented she is as an actress, Zegler plays Lucy Gray which admittedly was some big shoes to fill since everyone compares the importance of the character to Katniss Evergreen who was played by Jennifer Lawrence in the 4 sequels. However Zegler really stands out here on her own, much like Blyth’s performance Zegler gets a lot of character moments to really make her shine. The songs she sings are beautiful and really contribute to the film’s atmosphere (something I will get into a bit later), Lucy Gray is such a fascinating character that the viewer still has many questions about even when the film ends, the film manages to tell the viewer the information they need about Lucy Gray but keeps just enough from the viewer to wonder about her.

The rest of the cast are just as fantastic, Viola Davis as Dr. Volumnia Gaul is intimidating and really sets the scene as soon as she comes on screen. Peter Dinklage as Casca Highbottom and Josh Andreas Rivera and Sejanus Plinth are both fantastic. Jason Schwartzman who plays Lucretius or “Lucky” Flickerman who is basically the announcer of The Hunger Games, he gives such a darkly (I say darkly because the games themselves are brutal here) funny performance that doesn’t overshadow the character moments at all. Finally there’s Hunter Schafer who might not get a whole lot of screentime but delivers such a charming and incredibly likable performance that her being casted as Tigris Snow was such a smart casting move.

The atmosphere of the film is truly brilliant, something a lot of these young adult dystopian adaption films seem to forget is atmosphere the type where you actually believe this is a very horrifying future and Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes absolutely nails that down from the very beginning. You can feel the fear of the characters and just how incredibly messed up the future has become, when you combine that with the writing that is quite honestly some of if not THE very best this franchise has very had. You have yourself such an engaging story that really pulls out everything it has.

The world building is truly fascinating here, for a prequel the film really expands on the world of The Hunger Games and even makes some really important connections from the films that would come later, each of the film’s locations has personality too them and a story to tell. Which the film does beautifully with the cinematography, character moments and the pacing which while could be a bit much for some (157 minutes long) I however do think the pacing really uses the running time quite well to give each of the characters time to shine and really highlight how dangerous the world is.

Finally there’s The Hunger Games itself and it’s quite a brutal one. The film really makes the most use it can with the PG-13 rating and it ultimately works, there’s tons of emotional moments during the games as well as character bits that are actually gut punching at times. Sure the games might be a bit shorter this time around, however it makes up for that with very suspenseful atmosphere as well as being incredibly strong from a story perspective and thematically.

Overall The Hunger Games: Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes is one of the best films of the franchise, heck there’s even an argument to be made that it’s the absolute best of the series. It’s one of those rare prequels that actually adds something special to the franchise and explores even more that the other films really didn’t. I cannot stress enough how fantastic the acting really is here, it’s some of the best acting of the year and completely matches everything that the film goes for.

The Hunger Games: Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes is available in theaters.

10/10 A+

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match (2023) Film Review.

Action superstar Johnny Cage squares off against a sinister secret society that’s plotting a nefarious scheme. However, the brutal fight against the bloodthirsty warriors of the Netherrealm is just the beginning.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match is the fourth of these new animated Mortal Kombat films, so far I have found these films to be quite great. Each of these films tell a pretty interesting story to tell in each installment and have this Saturday morning cartoon feel you completely get invested in.

Cage Match is no exception, it focuses on the origins of Johnny Cage a classic Mortal Kombat character who’s been there since the beginning. This is yet another one of these films (much like the previous film Snow Blind) that doesn’t focus on the tournaments, Cage Match has this 80s Hollywood style too it that matches well with Johnny Cage. You can actually look at this movie as a goofy love letter to the 80s which actually did surprise me a bit.

The voice cast do a solid job here, Joel McHale is immediately fitting as Johnny Cage. One of Gilbert Gottfrieds final performances is here and while it’s not a huge part he still plays his part incredibly well and is definitely one of the most memorable parts of the film. The writing has its weak points as there’s not a whole lot thematically going on here, it’s a very basic “this person is missing and you have to find them” sort of deal. But what makes it investing is how fitting Johnny Cage really is in the film.

Johnny Cage interacting with everyone he comes across is just a lot of fun, he has that type of feel that a lot of Saturday morning cartoon protagonists had and it absolutely fits his character. Out of the four animated films Cage Match is the one that has the least connections to the Mortal Kombat franchise, while yes there’s a few characters here and of course Johnny Cage himself. But the movie really is much more focused on Cage’s backstory rather than throwing in connections which is a very good thing.

Cage Match does suffer a bit from having a slow start but quickly gains ground once the mystery itself kicks in, Cage’s one liners can get old very quickly and depending how you feel about 80s pop culture references you might get annoyed quickly. But for the most part Cage Match is a solid addition to the series.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match is available on all VOd platforms.

7/10 B

Family Switch (2023) Film Review.

When family members switch bodies with each other during a rare planetary alignment, their hilarious journey to find their way back to normal will bring them closer together than they ever thought possible.

Family Switch is if you took Freaky Friday (2003) and made it into a Christmas movie…look what do you really want me to say about this movie?

Emma Myers turns in a decent performance, Ed Helms is also quite decent here as well, but Jennifer Garner and Brady Noon fall behind unfortunately. Oh and for some reason Rivers Cuomo is in this movie (funnily enough his character is named Lake) plus Howie Mandel is here as well so that’s neat I guess.

I think this movie would have been fine enough if it came out back in the early 2000s, by now all of the plot points in the movie have been explored far better in other films. The movie has its best moments when it’s focused on the family just bonding together rather than the comedy (which is by far the weakest part about it.)

Family Switch is basically yet another Netflix movie that will be talked about for a week or two before being forgotten about, you can absolutely do so much worse on the platform that doesn’t really do the movie in favors.

Family Switch is available on Netflix.

3/10 D-