 At the end of 2023 there was a deluge of films that hit theaters, so much so that I was overwhelmed to the point where I couldn't see some of the ones that were even up for Oscars. It also didn't help that some of these movies didn't even get picked up at my theater, so I was unable to go see them. One such movie was The Holdovers. A film that thankfully came out last week on Peacock. I was able to check it out with the family, and here are my thoughts. The Holdovers is, I'm sorry, what's that? Golden Globe winner Paul Giamatti who doesn't want to come on camera right now? Yeah, Paul's right. You should subscribe to the channel Adam Does Movies because I post tons of movie reviews, rants, roasts, live streams each and every week, and it's all a movie base, so please do that now. Thanks Paul. Yep, you just stay over there and not come over here. This movie takes place in the early 1970s on a remote preppy campus, and it's going to follow a cranky teacher who really loves history and really nothing else. The film's going to focus on three main characters here, Paul, Mary, and Angus. Paul, the cranky history teacher, Mary, the cook who lost her son early on, and Angus, the angsty teenager who likes to ruffle feathers and see what he can get away with. We're going to find out as this movie progresses that all these people have a dark past, they have a history, they have something that they're trying to move past, and we will spend a lot of time with them because they're held over during the Christmas vacation. They don't get to go home and see their families, or they don't want to because they don't want to face what's coming down the road. I love this movie to get that out of the way right away. The movie's two hours, a little over two hours, two hours 12, two 15, some change. I watched it with my parents who actually came up. It was nice. They came up for a few days and they watched with me along with my wife and we all had a really good time with this. It's quirky, it's intelligent, it makes you think afterwards. It's not your typical movie that came out in 2023. I enjoyed this on a lot of different levels. First off, it's got a very simple storyline that has some layer to it. It's got a lot of good commentary about people and how we have to overcome obstacles and how it's sometimes hard to get out of that rut and to kind of start over and pick up and get a new life going if the first one was kind of taken from you. Secondly, I like the dark humor in this. Anytime there's a scene that feels like it's gonna drag, it doesn't. They hit you with a quick joke that you're not expecting, keeps you on your toes. There's some good drama in this without feeling melodramatic. It doesn't go overboard with the drama. It's very concise to the point. They don't let it linger too long and also it's not drama for the sake of it. This isn't over the top with some of the bad things that happen. It's quaint in a lot of ways, in the best ways for me. The fact that it takes place mostly at this campus with a bunch of teenagers, it's an all-boys prep school and we get to spend a decent amount of time with them before really getting into the big meat of the picture which is going to be the relationship between the professor and one of his students and this cook that's along for the ride. It just works so well. It establishes the school, it establishes the rules, the perimeters and then it gets to go wild with it. The setting's fantastic. I like that it takes place early 70s. There's no phones to be seen unless it's a rotary phone, a dial phone. It's just everything looks fantastic. The cinematography is great. I loved the music in this. Very 70s inspired. Yeah, I don't have any negatives and I don't really want to drag this out. This came out a few weeks ago. Like I said, it wasn't playing at my crappy regal theater. Thankfully I got to check it out in the cock. Peacock had me covered. We had a good time. I highly recommend checking it out. It is a slower movie. It's not rapid fire with the humor or anything but if you pay attention there's a lot there and I wouldn't mind rewatching this in a few more months or make it one of my Christmas staples because it does take place during the holidays and just has its own vibe and I appreciate that. You know, actually the vibe it has is a throwback. It does feel like an older film even the way it presents itself with the beginning credits and how the title cards come up is very reminiscent of something you would see back in the 70s and 80s and even earlier. So yeah, holdovers. Fantastic movie. I have to redo my top 10 because it turns out during the live I actually put one on there. Puss in boots was in the lower spot and that came out in 2022 in December. At the end of December, what an embarrassing top 10 list that is for me a movie critic. A so-called movie critic. So I'm going to be redoing that and I was going to do it again anyways because some people don't like the live format. So please subscribe if you haven't and I will have my top 10 list updated and that will be out probably within a day or two and check out the holdovers. You might see it again on that list. You will. It was great. All right. Thanks for watching. Let me know if you saw this in the comments below. Like the video if you liked the, you know, the few minutes that I rambled for. Subscribe again if you haven't and if you really like what's going on here, maybe think about becoming a patron at patreon.com. Adam does movies or right here via YouTube. There's a join button. You just hit that and you're good to go. All right. Take care and happy new year.