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Post by countjohn on Nov 4, 2023 2:25:52 GMT
Pretty much as good as I was hoping. I think my early Rushmore comparison held true, it feels a lot like that with a story about a bratty kid at a WASPY private school forming an equal friendship with an older man. Not quite as good as that but there's no shame in that.
Everything lands here, gorgeous cinematography and I loved Giamatti and Randolph. Hope it's a starmaking performance for Sessa too because he's also terrific. Not as funny as the trailer would lead you to believe though, they included all the funniest bits there (wish they'd saved a few). There's a lot more serious character moments then you might have thought. Doesn't really utilize the "70's movie" conceit that much either outside of the studio logos/titles and I guess they do the thing with the sound that they did in the trailer, which you get used to pretty quickly. Should have been grainier if that was what they were going for.
Hope it gets nominated for the whole truckload (BP, director, Giamatti, Randolph, screenplay, maybe cinematography) but it feels too lightweight to lightweight to win. Still a 9/10 from me and my favorite of the year so far. Napoleon might be the only thing I see topping it yet to come. In the conversation for my favorite Payne too, between it and Election.
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 6, 2023 20:59:04 GMT
Paul Giamatti is a maddening actor - I have told this story before - I saw him stop acting on stage - leaving his co-stars (Buscemi, Goodman, Pacino among them) dumbfounded.......he refused to hit his marks - read his lines like a flat prick, rolled his eyes at his co-stars and stood there and pouted.........he was not "underrated" or "always good".........he was a childish jerk-off....... ............in addition to that - I find his award winning work amateurish.......I don't think he's good in John Adams (more modern than Phoenix "seems" as Napoleon) or Barney's Version which is just annoying........Cinderella Man he seemed to be doing a goof on Wallace Beery - he sucks in that one and he almost won the Oscar ffs...he has 4 SAG awards.......4.........Giamatti is in effect that "he must be great because he doesn't look like a star" (this is the " Robert Duvall Effect" - and he's great but he ain't THAT great - there's a reason he lags behind the 70s big guns and that includes Hackman btw)............and yet.........Paul Giamatti can be not be dismissed ........he can be great (Sideways, American Splendor) and here in a role that evokes Sideways - he is not only great but exceedingly, brilliantly professional.
Giamatti - is brilliant in NOT condescending to this characters sadder qualities - he approaches it with a strict professional quality - play the script not the emotion - and this performance carries a pic with 3 Oscar nominees maybe in the cast (?) - and Giamatti is deeply sad as a guy maybe slipping into serious drunk from functional drunk This picture divides in a scene with a Cat Stevens mic drop (Cat Stevens fan on this board, I'm talking to you buddy ) - this scene and its immediate followup take losering to a level hinted at before and deepens the movie (across all 3 characters - THAT's good writing).........It was an utter pleasure to watch a movie that works as a movie - not that has half of its heavy lifting by its subject matter (The Bomb.....The Osage........The Heavy Handed Social Justice Blah Blah Blah) and not that you have to be in tune with to "get" - like the brilliant but baffling on purpose The Killer........... A marvelously entertaining film ........did it "surprise me"? Nah.....but there's something to be said for effective efficiency .............and especially after that Cat Stevens ice skating scene until the end it's this eye - great scene this movie won me over..........
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Post by countjohn on Nov 7, 2023 3:11:17 GMT
Giamatti - is brilliant in NOT condescending to this characters sadder qualities - he approaches it with a strict professional quality - play the script not the emotion - and this performance carries a pic with 3 Oscar nominees maybe in the cast (?) - and Giamatti is deeply sad as a guy maybe slipping into serious drunk from functional drunk I also appreciated Payne not turning the character into a joke. I got a little worried after the midway point especially after the scene where it's implied he's an adult virgin that the final act of the movie was just going to be humiliating him over and over again like Broderick in Election. Which was funny there but would have been the wrong approach here. Also the Cat Stevens song was the same one that plays in Rushmore and I specifically remembered it when I heard it playing with how similar the two movies felt for me.
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Post by Kings_Requiem on Nov 13, 2023 22:30:50 GMT
Goddamn did this sneak up on me.
I'm a huge fan of Giamatti and Payne, with Sideways being one of my all-time favorites, but for some reason I wasn't really jiving with this for a majority of the runtime. It was good, with individual moments of greatness, but something just wasn't completely clicking for me. Then the last 20 or so minutes happen and I realize that it actually had me roped in from the beginning and I just didn't know it. Those final minutes hit me like the proverbial ton-of-bricks and as the credits rolled I was left kind of in shock. It takes a special type of a film to make you reevaluate everything that transpired over the course of the preceding 100+ minutes.
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Post by Billy_Costigan on Nov 15, 2023 19:19:35 GMT
My #2 of the year behind Oppenheimer. Giamatti is perfect and I can see him winning Best Actor.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Nov 18, 2023 21:51:01 GMT
I absolutely loved this. Everything hit just right. Really great performances as well.
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Post by JangoB on Nov 28, 2023 23:40:35 GMT
While Alexander Payne's comments about being "nauseated" by people calling the film cozy and warm are probably a bit on the obnoxious side, I can kind of see where he's coming from. To me the real virtue of The Holdovers lies in how well it captures the melancholy that is, in my view, part and parcel of December's holiday season. On paper a story about Christmas uniting an unlikely group of people sounds fairly familiar and unexciting but Payne and his writer David Hemingson smartly put the emphasis on the reasons for their coming together - reasons which all have to do with pain. And, just as he did in his other movies, Payne allows his characters to open up to each other and to us without the tone ever becoming overly maudlin. I'd describe the film as quietly moving which, given the nature of its premise, is a very high compliment. Its slightly spiky sense of humor goes a long way too. It also happens to be a pretty excellent piece of stylization which is always a plus in my book. And the Giamatti/Sessa duo is fantastic. I need someone to ban this sound effect from movies though (part of it was used twice (!) in one scene of this): There's an ultra-banal fart noise in the movie too but that one I can kind of excuse since it's at least supposed to be funny. But the goddamn metal door sound needs to go.
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Post by countjohn on Nov 30, 2023 5:54:44 GMT
While Alexander Payne's comments about being "nauseated" by people calling the film cozy and warm are probably a bit on the obnoxious side, I can kind of see where he's coming from. I think the middle act where they're just having fun is cozy and warm, but the third act is a gut punch and a real downer which I didn't see coming and I think it's a better movie for it. Still, with the talk around this movie I have to wonder if it's going to become a Christmas classic over the years. It's the kind of thing I could see being marathoned on some cable channel on Christmas Eve because it captures how a lot of people feel at that time of year, both good and bad. Would like to see that because it deserves a larger audience.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Dec 1, 2023 6:20:44 GMT
Giamatti’s character’s attitude towards teaching is the most hilariously, painfully relatable thing I’ve seen in a movie since... well... since the scene of Indy teaching his class at the beginning of Dial of Destiny.
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Post by stephen on Dec 3, 2023 1:43:50 GMT
Yep, I loved it. Giamatti's great, Sessa's great (but totally not supporting and would be Mahershala Ali in Green Book levels of fraud if he got a nod, as good as he is), Randolph's great, the script's great, the craft's great. It's just great.
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Post by stabcaesar on Dec 5, 2023 18:55:08 GMT
Just finished this. Giamatti and Randolph would make really, really good winners next year. Sessa is great too.
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forksforest
Junior Member
Quit your shit-spitting
Posts: 492
Likes: 212
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Post by forksforest on Dec 15, 2023 3:15:40 GMT
Damn, this may be my favorite of the year so far. I was expecting to come out of this feeling it was overhyped, since Payne has been a hit/miss for me (not a fan of Sideways or Descendents but love Election and Nebraska).
But it really worked, on every level - emotional, snappy, sincere. I have to say that skating scene when the Cat Stevens beat dropped until the end credits really elevated the movie from good to great level, because it went from slightly fluffy holiday material to something a bit more hard hitting and original.
Giamatti and Randolph were perfect, loved her addition to the cast.
I’ll say I didn’t find it laugh out loud funny, because it feels like you hear one or two quips and you’ve heard the whole lot of Giamatti’s quips. But nonetheless the lines felt real to this character and were effectively delivered.
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Post by countjohn on Dec 15, 2023 19:47:59 GMT
Damn, this may be my favorite of the year so far. I was expecting to come out of this feeling it was overhyped, since Payne has been a hit/miss for me (not a fan of Sideways or Descendents but love Election and Nebraska). I’ll say I didn’t find it laugh out loud funny, because it feels like you hear one or two quips and you’ve heard the whole lot of Giamatti’s quips. But nonetheless the lines felt real to this character and were effectively delivered. Yeah, I like some of Payne's movies but he hasn't been exactly a personal favorite for me but this is his best movie I think and probably the best all around this year. Agree it isn't really that funny either, just a well written, well acted, well directed character drama, a "real movie". All the funniest quips were in the trailer and I do wish they'd saved them. I laughed so hard at the "all the Nazis are hiding in Argentina" line and it would have been even funnier in context but I'd already heard it.
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Post by sterlingarcher86 on Dec 30, 2023 5:19:34 GMT
Rewatched on Peacock. Fantastic. My number 2 of the year and will likely be my favorite of the Best Picture nominees.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Jan 13, 2024 22:04:29 GMT
I hate that I've been so negatively lately but I really wanted to like this more than I did. Giamatti is excellent but so much of the movie is spent establishing Angus as an annoying prig that the final act delving into his family trauma beyond being really telegraphed was also too little too late. The movie also felt really slight with an indulgent 130+ minute runtime especially given how plotless it is. I know Payne isn't new to hangout movies but Nebraska and especially Sideways hit harder for me than this did and had more likable characters to follow, and this wasn't as funny as I was expecting either. Even Randolph didn't affect me like I thought she would. It's a pretty laid back performance with only a couple short bursts of emotional anguish to cue the viewer into her inner turmoil and loss, but I kept waiting for more and never got it. I liked the movie fine but I wish Angus was less annoying and the first two acts at the school were funnier and shorter, because it's pretty clear from the outset where the story's heading and it takes its sweet time in getting there.
I loved Carrie Preston though. Such a ray of sunshine in this bleak wintry hellscape lol, and her scenes with Giamatti were really sweet.
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Post by sterlingarcher86 on Jan 18, 2024 19:06:27 GMT
I need a holdovers silent film version more than I need air.
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Post by stephen on Jan 18, 2024 19:18:53 GMT
I need a holdovers silent film version more than I need air. All I needed was one big "FUCK!" interstitial after Sessa hurts himself.
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Post by Pavan on Feb 18, 2024 18:21:36 GMT
A bittersweet dramedy that is funny and touching and it achieved that without overdoing stuff. Giamatti and Sessa are excellent. Randolph is good too but i found the very high praise for her performance, a little surprising.
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Post by futuretrunks on Feb 18, 2024 21:23:56 GMT
pacinoyes, can you elaborate on this incident where Giamatti stopped acting on stage. Why did he do so? What's the context?
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 18, 2024 22:08:10 GMT
pacinoyes , can you elaborate on this incident where Giamatti stopped acting on stage. Why did he do so? What's the context? It had something to do with what a terrible time Giamatti had on the play itself......I am pretty sure he stopped doing theater because of that play ( The Resistabe Rise of Arturo Ui - a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry difficult play to stage and to pull off) at least for a while.......he's had some interviews where he said Pacino yelled at him or something like that - but he likes Pacino I'm pretty sure.............it's likely he had a bigger problem with the director Simon McBurney who has a reputation of being a pretty unreasonable......so if I had to guess, he maybe missed his mark to come on stage - or his cue line on stage - and heard something from McBurney ......just a guess though.....he was sulking though...... It didn't ruin the play or anything but it ruined his small part - the play is long - like 197 hours long (kidding) with very complicated, ornate dialog and a lot of speaking parts - I've put a copy of the cast at the bottom.........but you know Giamatti didn't quit so I'm guessing the next performances were fine............. **************** Washington Post: "The pleasures begin with Pacino's wily, deliciously florid performance in the title role, a portrayal that should reignite speculation about his future ambition in the theater. He has proven himself a magnetic stage performer in the past -- most recently in a 1996 revival of Eugene O'Neill's two-character play, "Hughey" -- but his hunched cockroach of an Arturo Ui is a cut above, an achievement on a par with the great English actors of our time, such as Michael Gambon and Ian McKellen, who tackle this kind of acting challenge with the regularity of permanent residents. With his star power and technical gifts, Pacino proves here that he could very well join their ranks, be the charismatic linchpin, perhaps, to the formation of a national theater company, of the sort that this country so scandalously lacks."
The complete cast list for the production, which is being directed by Simon McBurney, follows: Al Pacino as Arturo Ui; Ajay Naidu as The Barker, Bowl, Shorty and Court Physician; Billy Crudup as Flake and The Defense Counsel; Chris McKinney as Caruther and Greenwool; John Ventimiglia as Butcher and Crocket; Jack Willis as Mulberry; Dominic Chianese as Clark; William Sadler as Sheet, O'Casey and the Judge; Chazz Palminteri as Ernesto Roma; Lothaire Bluteau as Young Inna and The Defendant Fish; Charles Durning as Old Dogsborough; Tom Riis Farrell as Young Dogsborough and Pastor; Jacqueline McKenzie as Dockdaisy; Michael Goldfinger and Matte Osian as Arturo Ui's Bodyguards; Paul Giamatti as Ted Ragg, Prosector and Ignatius Dullfeet; John Goodman as Emanuele Giri; Sterling Brown as Goodwill; Robert Stanton as Gaffles; Tony Randall as The Actor; Steve Buscemi as Giuseppe
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Nikan
Based
Posts: 3,212
Likes: 1,595
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Post by Nikan on Feb 22, 2024 19:05:29 GMT
Now I hope he wins based on these choices alone.
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Post by Allenism on Feb 26, 2024 13:50:28 GMT
Phantom Thread vibes in that the best performance in the film given by the least-recognized name is the only one not to be nominated. Overall this is probaly top 3 Payne, or just outside of it.
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Post by PromNightCarrie on Mar 10, 2024 21:36:12 GMT
Okay of all of the films I've seen from the 10 BP nominees (haven't seen Past Lives or Maestro), this was the least interesting. What a disappointment.
Okay ready for Oscar night. Just popped in here for an immediate reaction.
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Post by ibbi on Mar 10, 2024 21:51:53 GMT
Okay of all of the films I've seen from the 10 BP nominees (haven't seen Past Lives or Maestro), this was the least interesting. What a disappointment. Okay ready for Oscar night. Just popped in here for an immediate reaction. Nicely didn't leave yourself enough time to watch Maestro. Smart as always, PQC.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Mar 10, 2024 22:14:06 GMT
Okay of all of the films I've seen from the 10 BP nominees (haven't seen Past Lives or Maestro), this was the least interesting. What a disappointment. Okay ready for Oscar night. Just popped in here for an immediate reaction. Nicely didn't leave yourself enough time to watch Maestro. Smart as always, PQC. I meant to watch Nyad before tonight, but didn't leave enough time. Oh well.
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