The Most Nostalgic R-Rated Movie of 2023 Lands on Prime Soon
Here comes a curious blend of the genres which appears to be a must-watch for all.
Summary:
- The loudest comedy-drama with which the Internet fell in love with last year will soon be available for streaming on Prime Video.
- It features a student and two employees of a boarding school forced to spend the Christmas break together.
- It gained lots of public praise for its atmosphere, humor, dramatical aspects and perfect writing of the characters.
What if we blend the elite private school setting of Robin Williams’ Dead Poets Society, the buddy humor and road atmosphere of Steve Martin’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles with Home Alone ’s Christmas vibe? This seems to be a crazy mix, but it’s exactly what the best movie of the last year was, and it finally finds a new home on Prime Video.
Set in the early 1970s, the movie starts by showing a strict and seemingly erratic teacher of a boarding school in New England, Paul Hunham, who is forced to remain here on the Christmas break to observe the students who have nowhere to go on a holiday.
Hunham is then left with the school’s cafeteria manager, the charismatic Mary, and with a smart, though troublesome teenage student, Angus, and the trio are forced to meet the New Year together and to encounter each other’s inner conflicts and mysteries.
The Breakfast Club-esque setup here later develops into a road movie, similar to Green Book, where the main characters also have to deal with their differences. However, this film stands out among other examples of the genre due to its wholesomeness.
It touches a solid number of the tropes and themes, familiar to everyone, including family issues, grief, challenges of coming of age, but does it with a perfect elegance and well-written humor, which makes a really deliciously cooked mix of the genres of it.
The characters, portrayed by Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa and the Oscar-winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph, are so well-written and acted, it’s easy to forget they’re not real. Besides, the perfectly captured aesthetic of the 1970s makes you question if this film was aired in 2023. So to speak, they really don’t make movies like that anymore.
Cinephiles have already guessed we’re talking about Alexander Payne’s Christmas dramedy hit titled The Holdovers, which amazed the audience last year.
“This movie felt so real to me on a level I can't describe. There's a feeling I get in Minnesota during the holiday season and I felt it in this movie,” confesses Redditor @ohwowverycool69.
Luckily, The Holdovers will be added to Prime Video’s catalog already on April 29, so don’t miss the chance to dive into the mood of this cinema masterpiece.