Author Archives: Doc

Fargo S5 E1 & E2

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E1: “The Tragedy of the Commons”

E2: “Trials and Tribulations”

I watched the first few seasons of Fargo on FX and I liked them tremendously. However, the schedule was always tight and they were on a bad night, if I remember correctly.

But I saw the first two episodes of season five on Hulu during one of my trips to that sight for the bunch of rewatches that I am doing. They dropped the first two episodes together and there will be a new episode every Wednesday on FX and Hulu.

This pair of episodes were right in with the Fargo tone.

Juno Temple plays Dorothy “Dot” Lyon, who is a housewife in Minnesota. She seems that there is some kind of surprise to her because two men arrive in an attempt to kidnap her, but she shows that she is more than capable of taking care of herself.

When she set one of the guys’ mask on fire with a lighter and a spray can, it was astonishing.

She also was a bad ass at a gas station where she killed one of them and is able to escape. Strangely enough, though, when she returned to her family house, she denied being kidnapped and insisted that she was just having a bad day and walking around. She had bloody feet, and, even with the cops compiling evidence, she denied.

We also met Roy Tillman, a local sheriff, played by Jon Hamm and this guy is something else. He is a hard man for a hard time.

He is the one who sent the kidnappers after Dot. Why? I am not sure why and I can’t wait to find out the back story to these weird charaters.

As with Fargo, these characters are amazingly eccentric and interesting to watch. This was violent, fun and curious. I’m glad to be back on the Fargo train.

Bodies E7 & E8

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E7: “Catch Me If You Can”

E8: “Know You are Loved”

I have been hoping to finish this limited series on Netflix for awhile now, but it always seemed as if something got in the way. Well, it is Thanksgiving and I have the day basically open and so I finally got the chance to watch the remaining two episodes of this thrilling limited series.

Time travel is always mind-bending.

In episode seven, things really go wrong, for everyone except Harker/Mannix. Things for him go exactly as they are meant to go… the same as they have gone since the loop began.

However, in 2053, Iris Maplewood makes a decision. She saves Defoe in her timeline and they hatch an attempt to go back to 1890 and prevent Elias Mannix from his plot.

Unfortunately, she does go back in time, but does not realize that the technology that helps her walk does not exist in 1890 and that leaves her as a cripple.

So much is going down in this episode that I continued to wonder exactly what was going to happen to stop this time loop from continuing. Who knew that it would be Alfred Hillinghead?

Hillinghead had confessed to the murder to save his lover and, as we saw in ep. 7, he is strangled to death from Mannix’s orders. Mannix, as Julian Harper, goes to Hillinghead’s daughter, Polly, and ends up marrying her. She gave birth to a son that began the lineage that would lead to Mannix’s own birth and all the tragedy that occurs.

In episode 8, Maplewood was able to get to Hillinghead, when they were both in holding cells, and she let him know about everything. This time, when Hillinghead is visited by Mannix before being strangled, Hillinghead went on to insert doubts and uncertainty for Mannix.

Things went along, basically, but the marriage to Polly winds up being compromised and they are anything but happy. On his deathbed, Mannix records one more record telling his future self that everything was a lie. Before Charles Whiteman kills him, Mannix gives him the record and begs him to put it in a safe place and get it into the hands of Shahara Hasan.

Whiteman take the record with him and hides it at the police bar. Shahara, from 2053, goes back in time and finds the record, playing it in 2023 for Elias before he detonates the bomb.

Elias chooses not to explode the bomb and the future is changes, the loop is broken, and Elias and future Shahara disappear, having technically never existed.

This was a compelling 8-episode series that was well-written and very smart. It required the attention of the viewer and I like that kind of show.

we went back to the past to see that the lives of Whiteman and Hillinghead were better, and the people that had died in the time were back. There was a strange ending to the show. 2023 Shahara was in a cab talking about life in general, and the camera revealed that the cabbie was Maplewood and that she used Shahara’s name.

I am not sure how that happened or what that meant, but it put an odd button on this sci-fi series that was really well done.

Picket Fences S2 E13

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“Abominable Snowman”

Two stories, both trending toward tragedy, intertwined in a sad, yet joyous end in this solid episode that deals with two major issues.

Alzheimer’s Disease is a horrendous disease that robs victims of their minds and their dignity. Howard Buss was diagnosed with this affliction in season one.

Also in season one, we met Frank the Potato Man, and dealt with the city of Rome’s prejudice against the poor and homeless. Frank is back and hoping to find somewhere to live during the frigid winter months. Wambaugh petitions the city to build a shelter.

Howard’s son had a massive heart attack. Jill told Howard that his son required a heart transplant or he would die within weeks. Howard, faced with the prospect of slowly declining from the Alzheimer’s, wanted to donate his own heart to his son, effectively letting himself die.

Once again, Judge Henry Bone is placed in a seemingly unfathomable situation, requiring him to make decisions over the life and death of characters in the show.

Unfortunately, Frank the Potato Man froze to death before the ruling was given. Fortunately, Frank was a match for the heart and was an organ donor and his death saved Howard’s son.

Judge Bone had ruled that the hospital could not assist in Howard’s death and that the town had to build a shelter, both very ironic considering what was about to be revealed.

The scene of Maxine and Jimmy in the hospital waiting room after Maxine had found and brought Frank in was so sad. Beautiful writing. Maxine mentioned how there was no one here to cry for Frank, and Jimmy said that there was, meaning Maxine. It was a lovely and heart-breaking scene.

This is Picket Fences at its best. Dealing with timely issues with two tight stories that end up coming together. Wonderful writing. It also starts the elevation, once again, of the character of Howard Buss who will become more important as the season goes on.

Alan Arkin guest starred as a lawyer.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #69

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November 22, 2023

I got to go to Comic World today and sit and read my new comics on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY! It was such a treat. I have missed these Wednesday since school started. I got the entire new comics of this week right there at the little table.

Here are this week’s new books:

The Sensational She-Hulk #2. “Jen-Sational! Part 2” Written by Rainbow Rowell and art by Andres Genolet. Bonus Wyatt Wingfoot story was written by Bobby Wilson and art from David Cutler. Jen Bartel did the cover art. The Incredible Hulk makes a guest appearance with his cousin, though he doesn’t want any part of Jen.

The Uncanny Spider-Man #4. “Slice and Dice” Written by Si Spurrier and art by Lee Garbett. Tony Daniel and Yen Nitro did the cover art. Spidey is back for part of the issue and it seems that Silver Sable has made her choice about the contract that she has signed for Nightcrawler.

Amazing Spider-Man #38. Written by Zeb Wells and art by Ed McGuinness. The Rek-Rap story ends here. I had not been a fan of this story so far, but this is a solid conclusion as Peter has to deal with Re-Po, the demon that comes to earth to reclaim the escaped demons. The second half of this issue spent time starting to set up the Gang War storyline.

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #2. Written by Brian Buccellato and art by Christian Duce. Drew Johnson & Romulo Fajaroo Jr. did the cover art. I was a little down about number one after reading it because of the confusing continuity. That does not come into play in this issue and it is so much the better for it. This was great, with more of the giant monsters showing up and the DC heroes needing to take action. And the confrontation with Superman and Godzilla is epic. Definitely better than last issue and has me excited to see the next one.

Invincible Iron Man #12. “Patron Saint.” Written by Gerry Duggan and art from guest artist Ig Guara. Kael Ngu did the cover art. We get a fun mental battle between the White Queen and Riri Williams. They also had to battle one of the Iron Sentinels. They end the issue with a Thanksgiving celebration among Tony Stark, Emma Frost (in her alias), Kamala Khan, and the Uncanny Avengers team. Cool since tomorrow is Thanksgiving in America. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Enjoy that turkey!

Incredible Hulk #6. “Spirits of Vengeance” Part One. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Nic Klein. Some new characters debut in this issue. One that sure seems to be a ghost ride of some kind and it looks like that rider is going to take on the Hulk.

Universal Monsters: Dracula #2. Written by James Tynion IV and art by Martin Simmonds. Cover art was by Jason Shawn Alexander. This is great. I love the look and the feel of this book. The story is told a lot of the time through images, which I love in this.

Avengers Inc. #3. “Case Number 003: The Man Who Died Twice.” Written by Al Ewing and penciled by Leonard Kirk. Valkyrie comes to Janet and Vic to help try and figure out who, in Valhalla, killed Skurge the Executioner. Of course, the heroes in Valhalla are already dead so being killed again is weird. This was some Asgardian fun.

No/One #6. Written by Kyle Higgins & Brian Buccellato and art by Geraldo Borges. I love this series. It is keeping me guessing with who this No/One is and how it all fits together.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: Battleworld #1. Written by Tom DeFalco and art by Pat Olliffe. Giuseppe Camuncoli & Paul Mounts did cover art. This is one of those flashback series that is set in the past of the Marvel Universe. This was during the first Secret Wars. It focused on Spider-Man and Human Torch. It was fun. I am not a huge fan of these kind of flashback stories, but this was okay. Probably helped for me to have Spidey in the book. However, there is something I want to mention that I felt was very clunky. Twice heroes, during regular dialogue, used the whole name “Reed Richards” when speaking. One was Captain America who said to the whole heroes, “You heard Reed Richards. Let’s all take a break.” Why would Cap use Reed’s full name in that situation? But even worse was when Johnny Storm was talking to Spidey and he said to Spidey, “Who needs Reed Richards when we have a genius like you.” Johnny is Reed’s brother-in-law… why wouldn’t he just say ‘Reed?’ NOBODY TALKS LIKE THAT.

Daredevil: Black Armor #1. Written by D.G. Chichester and penciled by Netno Diaz. Mark Bagley and Edgar Delgado were the cover artists. Another of those flashback stories, but I did like the way this one was written.

Other books read this week: Void Rivals #6, Captain Marvel #2, Kill Your Darlings #3, Plot Holes #4, Carnage #1, Bone Orchard: Tenement #6, and Moon Knight: City of the Dead #5.

Napoleon

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Ridley Scott is back with a new epic film featuring Napoleon Bonaparte played by Joaquin Phoenix.

This film follows the life of Napoleon Bonaparte from the beginning through to his death. We meet Josephine (Vanessa Kirby), his future wife who could not give him what he wanted most of all, an heir.

We see a bunch of excellent battles with Napoleon leading the French armies against his multitude of enemies. The battle scenes are perhaps the best scenes of the film. Sadly, the best scene was the scene on the ice, which was spoiled in the trailer.

This movie looks amazing. It is shot beautifully. The action scenes are special. The costumes are perfect.

The acting is decent, but maybe not to the level that one would expect. Joaquin Phoenix is good, but it is curious that he never once attempts to have a French accent. I wonder if they were just incapable of doing the accent properly. Not doing it would be better than doing it badly.

Unfortunately, there are more problems with the film. The story just does not work for me. It feels as if it is nothing more than a series of events from Napoleon’s life. There is just not enough of a throughline in the film to make these moments feel like anything but a scrapbook.

I think the film wanted that throughline to be the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine, but that relationship just does not work fully. It felt very inconsistent.

Then, this film is two hours and forty-three minutes long and it absolutely feels like it. I was checking my phone for the time several times during the runtime. I have had films that were this long or even longer that felt like time flew by because the pacing was great. This one was not paced well because I was bored in several situations and that should not be happening.

There are positives here, but there is just something missing from the story that does not allow this to pop the way it should have. I think there could have been a better version of Napoleon.

2.8 stars

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S1 E3

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“Secrets and Lies”

The third episode of Monarch brought us Godzilla… and destroyed him with an H-bomb.

Not sure how I felt about that.

It was an incredible scene and some amazing images of Godzilla, especially on the old time camera, but the explosion was just uncertain for me.

I love the two groups we are following in each of the time frames. Both include Lee Shaw, younger played by Wyatt Russell and older played by Kurt Russell. There was such a great cut transitioning from old Lee to young Lee. It was a wonderful editing moment.

The monster at the end of the episode looks awesome and seems to be a wild danger. Since we learn that Cate and Kentaro’s father survived the trip but is now somewhere in hiding. I expect that he’ll pop up next time.

I do think that this was my favorite episode so far. The car driving by Kurt Russell (and airplane landing too) were all kind of fun.

Picket Fences S2 E12

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“Remote Control”

Picket Fences is no fire at this moment.

Middle of season two really took this show into the stratosphere. Season one was really more of self-contained episodes that happened in the city of Rome, Wisconsin. They referenced them throughout, but there was not any true running storylines.

In season two, they still had the major topics, but they also have storylines that carried across the whole series. Here, the story from “Guns ‘R’ Us” is continued as Timmy, who shot Matthew, is up for trial. Actually, he was up for sentencing because he plead guilty for attempted murder to drop other charges.

Meanwhile, the mayor Rachel continued her steps to crash down on human rights to make the town safer. They wanted to fingerprint the entire town as well as having random auto stops. Jimmy refused to go against the constitution and …

Rachel fired him.

They went to court and Judge Bone upheld the firing (which I was surprised about) but Jimmy would not give up his badge setting up a tense encounter with everyone.

At the end, of course, Jimmy got his job back and Timmy was sent off to serve his sentence.

The only thing I was a little disappointed with was how there was no follow up to last week’s sinister ending with Zack and the gun. They mentioned how Zack was having trouble dealing with seeing his brother’s shooting, but nothing like that last seen last week.

Matthew is slowly improving too, which started with a funny scene at the beginning with Matthew being able to pee on his own.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #68

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November 21, 2023

It’s been a busy week. Between a bunch of rewatch TV series, several active TV shows, a group of new movies in theater, and school, there has not been a lot of time to read last week’s books. In fact, tomorrow is NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and I am just now making a dent in last week’s large pile.

However, I am officially on Thanksgiving break and tomorrow I am excited to head into Comic World (after watching Napoleon in the morning) and spend the afternoon reading my new books. I may bring along some of the ones from last week that wound up falling to the side.

I really have missed these Wednesdays since school has started. These days of coming to Comic World and just lazily read the books while hanging out with the great people who work there. I’m thrilled this is going to work out.

I did carve out some time tonight after school to get caught up somewhat with the new comics from last week. Here they are:

Spine-Tingling Spider-Man #2. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Juan Ferreyra. This new Spider-Man horror series has been really fun these first two issues. The art is great and the story is rather creepy, as Peter finds himself powerless and being pursued by some true horrors. I have loved this original idea so far.

Daredevil #3. “Introductory Rites” Part Three. Written by Saladin Ahmed and pencils by Aaron Kuder and Farid Karami. John Romita Jr, Scott Hanna and Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Father Matt has plenty of problems, including one where an old friend, Ben Urich, is looking into the church Father Matt is at. Worse yet… Bullseye is back!

Astonishing Iceman #4. “Out Cold: Part Four” Written by Steve Orlando and drawn by Vincenzo Carratù. Jesus Saiz did the cover art. Iceman teams up with his Amazing friend, Spider-Man in his continued struggle with Orchis. Throws memories back to my childhood. All we were missing was Firestar.

Fantastic Four #13. “A Thing or Two.” Written by Ryan North and art by Iban Coello. Alex Ross did the cover art. Dr. Doom teams up with Dr. Doom the T-Rex against our heroes, including the FF-dinosaurs. Weird and wild issue and continues this excellent run of FF comics.

Red Goblin #10. Written by Alex Paknadel and penciled by Chris Campana. Inhyuk Lee did the cover art. Venom guest stars. Normie and Rascal come together and ‘make up’ in the series finale of this intriguing book. I do think that I am going to miss this book.

Capwolf and the Howling Commandos #2. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Carlos Magno. Ryan Brown was the cover artist. This has started off as some pulpy fun. Captain America has been turned into a werewolf and the Nazis are out there causing trouble in this WWII flashback.

The Deviant #1. “A Christmas Story” Story by James Tynion IV and Joshua Hixson with Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. A cool new horror story by James Tynion IV. It definitely has the flavor of some of his other horror books, such as Something is Killing the Children. Except this is with Santa.

Big Game #5. Written by Mark Millar and art by Pepe Larraz. This has been a bloody and shocking book so far. Sadly, they use time travel to make everything not matter any more. All those deaths were just done away with inside this finale. I must say that I was a little disappointed but not surprised. I mean, the whole Hit Girl fake out was about as cheap as you get.

The Cull #4. Written by Kelly Thompson and art by Mattia De Iulis. The crew comes back to their world to find things are considerably different, not even counting their own new powers. They are looking for their families and hoping everything is okay. Spoiler alert: it’s not.

Animal Pound Ashcan. Written by Tom King and illustrated by Peter Gross. A very thin or short issue. Admittedly, it was an ashcan, and it did give a nice flavor of the new Tom King series, Animal Pound. It feels too slight to matter. I am looking forward to the actual series though.

Antarctica #5. Written by Simon Birks and art by Willi Roberts. The first arc of this book wraps up here, with a pretty solid cliffhanger at the end. Hannah and Dr. Curtis have to unite to face their troubles. This is a beautiful looking book. I do have some challenges following with the story at times, but it has been a rewarding experience so far.

Killadelphia #31. “Death Be Not Proud. Part 1: From Hell the Dead Thing Spawned.” Killadelphia returned with an appearance by Spawn. I got into Killadelphia by reading the first 30 issues combined into trade paperbacks. This is interesting, but it really is a step in a new direction than the previous books. I’m curious to see where it goes from here.

The Immortal Thor #4. “To Possess the Power of Thor.” Written by Al Ewing and art by Martin Coccolo. Alex Ross did the cover art. Cool issue as Thor is reforming the all-new Thor Corps to help him face off with Toranos. There is Ororo, Beta Ray Bill, Jane Foster and Loki here.

Swan Songs #4. “The end of… a Sentence” Written by W. Maxwell Prince and art by Caitlin Yarsky. A man right out of prison, who loves word games such as Mad Libs, falls into a job as a watchout for his brother’s bank heist. Very original and fun to read.

Outsiders #1. “Never the End.” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and art by Robert Carey. Roger Cruz with Adriano Lucas did the cover art. Todd made me buy this one. I exaggerate of course, but he did point out that this is a new version of Planetary, which was a series from Wildstorm that I recently picked up and am currently (slowly) working my way through. This featured Batwoman and some other new versions of the old series. Unfortunately, this did not interest me as much as the previous series did.

Other books read this week: Uncanny Avengers #4, Superior Spider-Man #1, Superman: Lost #8, Jean Grey #4, Alpha Flight #4, Fishflies #3, and Something Epic #7.

Picket Fences S2 E11

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“Guns ‘R’ Us”

Honestly, there has never been a more sinister ending to this show than the end of this one. Watching Zack methodically find the key to his father’s gun drawer and then take it from the drawer, point it into the air and make a shooting sound. He did it with a blank expression and a coldness that we have never seen in Zack. It was chilling.

Things escalated big time. It started with Matthew being bullied by some high schoolers. He builds a potato gun in order to dent the bully’s car. Instead, it turned out the potato gun was more of a canon and the car crashed, breaking the bully’s back.

Matthew is arrested, but gets a lighter sentence. Then, the bully’s brother shows up at the school with a handgun and shoots Matthew.

Matthew is rushed to surgery and his life is saved, but he was potentially paralyzed. While Jimmy was out with Matthew, Maxine became the acting sheriff and started some drastic measures about the proliferation of hand guns in the high school in Rome.

This is such a good episode with so much tension. There was also some conflict with Wambaugh and Kimberly which made perfect sense. This was great writing with some stellar acting from everyone on the cast. It was truly some great TV.

Bonus Action Vol. 1 Ep.6

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“Fates Worse Than Prison”

The sixth episode of the Dungeons & Dragons campaign from Bonus Action has the group moving through a dungeon for the first time.

Well, sort of a dungeon. It is actually a multiple level building, with stacked maps as well. This dungeon actually goes up instead of deeper into the ground.

The group all showed some wonderful ingenuity as they moved through the different levels, avoiding what they could. Jay’s use of his goggles to avoid the bright light was brilliant.

There were some mysteries dropped too, including the drawings that look like Victor.

It appears that they have reached the showdown as it was left as a cliffhanger.

Another fun week with some very creative people.

Goosebumps S1 E10

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“Welcome to Horrorland”

I’m not sure if I loved the end of this series. I think I really would have preferred the end of episode eight to have been the season finale. All of this stuff from the last two episodes of this season could’ve been included in a second season.

The whole Kanduu bit felt kind of rushed. When he turned the people of Port Lawrence into human dummies, I will say that the visuals looked good. I liked how creepy it was.

The whole showdown with the Horrorland thing was just too much of a waste. I am also not 100% sure what was going on. There were a couple things that seemed horrible, but that was either reversed or didn’t really happen? It was unclear and the magic takes away all the stakes.

I also did not love the cliffhanger at the end of the film mainly because it made no sense.

It was a disappointing finale. I really would have like the series to be done after episode 8 and take all of this stuff and spread it out for season 2.

I would consider watching a season two of this series. I see a lot of potential here. I just wish it wasn’t as rushed as it was.

Picket Fences S2 E10

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“Paging Dr. God”

Picket Fences returns to the world of religious freedom with the episode “Paging Dr. God.” This time, the show looks at Christian Scientists and their belief that prayer is a better option than medicine.

A pregnant woman starts choking at a restaurant and Jill helps her. She then started going into labor. Jill wants to take her to the hospital, but the husband says that going to the hospital is against their religion.

Jill took her anyway and helped the baby be born. The woman had an attack during the birth. Her husband refused her treatment on her brain and they brought in Judge Bone a second time. The first, he ruled that saving the baby superseded the religion. This time, he said they could not operate on the woman.

Jill did it anyway.

Meanwhile, Zack wants to become Jewish. His teacher had talked about Judaism and Zack liked some of the ideals of the religion. This lead to the school board asking questions about Zack’s teacher.

As always, the religions are presented and it feels like everybody was right. It presented an impossible situation for Henry Bone to decide.

Picket Fences S2 E7-9

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“Cross Examinations”

“Strangers”

“Blue Christmas”

I went to Hulu tonight, just browsing some of the other films and shows that the streaming service offered when I saw something that shocked me.

On the icon of Picket Fences was a little notice in the upper left hand corner that said “exp. Fri.”

I couldn’t believe it. I just discovered Picket Fences was available on Hulu about a month or so ago. I was so excited because I had not been able to see these episodes in literal decades. I decided to do the Picket Fences DailyView Re-watch during November, making sure to watch at least one episode for every day. I was up to the sixth episode of the second season.

I did not know what to do, so tonight I started a binge to try and get through as many as I could before it went away off Hulu.

I watched three episodes in a row of Christmas in Rome. One of them was one of my favorite episodes, one I think of every time Christmas comes around, any time I hear the song ‘Blue Christmas.’ Watching Carter and his brother sing the song at the end of the episode after their mother died. It is a beautiful scene that was as sad of a scene as the show has ever had.

As I was watching this run of episodes tonight, I discovered something else. The whole four seasons of Picket Fences were on Amazon Prime. I did not think that it was on Prime, but there it was. All four seasons.

So the plans that I had to ramp up the re-watch in high gear before the Hulu episodes expire on Friday are now out of the window. When Hulu gets rid of the show, I will continue watching it on Prime.

By the way, the other two episodes in this rush included a potential virgin birth and a man who killed his brother because of his facial agnosia. Kimberly’s friend was arrested for having LSD in her locker and she faced charges as a drug dealer. At the end of e9, Littleton had to rescind a confession on made up grounds to prevent the girl from going to federal prison for ten years. Judge Bone delivered a scathing lecture to the girl about how all these good people were forced to do things against their ethics because of her and that it was nothing to celebrate. It was a powerful moment for Henry who has had a couple of questionable moments this season.

These were three excellent episodes in a row, all taking place around the holidays.

For now, I will continue on Hulu. Thankfully, I have an option when its gone.

The X-Files S1 E18

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“Miracle Man”

The X-Files does take some time dealing with religious aspects. This episode looked at a specific faith healer that reportedly saved the life of a burn victim years before and is the main attraction of a sideshow church.

The burned man was there in the most over-the-top outfit. He was dressed in a black coat, black hat and sunglasses.

Things happen in this episode in a rapid progression. It feels a little rushed as Mulder and Scully are involved.

The sheriff of this town was a real jerk too. I know a lot of the local law enforcement agents are usually not as fond of Mulder and Scully (especially Mulder), but this guy is particularly a pain. And I am not even that sure why.

The Holdovers

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Directed by Alexander Payne, The Holdovers was emotional, entertaining and filled with some of the best acting of the year, among an exceptional cast.

According to IMDB, “Nobody likes teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) — not his students, not his fellow faculty, not the headmaster, who all find his pomposity and rigidity exasperating. With no family and nowhere to go over Christmas holiday in 1970, Paul remains at school to supervise students unable to journey home. After a few days, only one student holdover remains — a trouble-making 15-year-old named Angus (Dominic Sessa), a good student whose bad behavior always threatens to get him expelled. Joining Paul and Angus is head cook Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph)-an African American woman who caters to sons of privilege and whose own son was recently lost in Vietnam. These three very different shipwrecked people form an unlikely Christmas family sharing comic misadventures during two very snowy weeks in New England.“

This is wonderfully written and spends a great amount of time developing these three main characters of the film. Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph are amazing in these roles, with these two characters that are so broken and pulled down by life. Giamatti and Randolph act their butts off.

Dominic Sessa played Angus, the one boy who winds up stuck at the school during break, does an excellent job as well, playing off Giamatti. He never looked out of place opposite Academy Award nominated actor Paul Giamatti.

The story was simple, but the characters were extremely deep and developed, bringing the conflict with them. This is not a plot driven film. It tells a story about these people and we see how they get through their lives.

The Holdovers was funny, dramatic, and full of a natural energy. The performances were so good, and I have a feeling that there may be one or two of these names will be back come Oscar time.

4.6 stars