James Proclaims!

‘Tis the day before Christmas, a day which also goes by the epithet of Christmas Eve. While one does occasionally happen upon advent calendars bestowed with 25 doors, the traditional (and frankly correct) number is 24. Which means that once again my annual folly of writing about movies with links to the festive season must come to a conclusion. Until next December, when I’ll start the whole nonsensical thing again.

For the Christmas Eve post I generally try to use a movie that I really love. This always proves a challenge, insofar as when I put together the first of these advent calendars, I had absolutely no idea that I would continue to do this in perpetuity, so a lot of my favourite Christmas(ish) movies were used up in 2017’s iteration. While I still have managed to find a suitable Christmas Eve entry for all of my ensuing advent calendars, this year’s entry has perhaps raised the bar.

I’m sure director Alexander Payne was not interested in making a movie specifically for the Christmas Eve post of a little-read annual countdown of Christmas adjacent movies, but if he had been motivated by that goal, then he could not have done better. 2023’s The Holdovers almost feels like it was made for this list.

The Holdovers is a fantastically bittersweet comedy drama, that manages to oscillate from heartbreaking to hilarious without breaking a sweat. Lead trio of  Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa are never less than compelling (that Sessa is able to hold his own in such company is all the more impressive given that this is his debut role).

While not entirely free from cliche (and really this is the kind of movie where you’d be disappointed without some of the sentimental tropes on offer), the plot transitions often take the story in unexpected directions, so the movie never feels predictable.

The Holdovers is a movie I intend to revisit many times.

Score for Christmasishness

The Holdovers was not released in the UK until January 2024, although I understand it was released elsewhere in the world in October 2023. But as I live in the UK, I feel I can assert that a January release is not aiming to tap into the ‘Christmas movie’ market. Nonetheless, while The Holdovers is such a good movie that it would be enjoyable at any time of year, it is very much set at Christmas time, and Christmas is pretty essential to the plot. It might not be an actual Christmas movie, insofar as Christmas is not the reason this movie exists, but it still deserves maximum points on the Christmas(ish) scale, and for me, the latter days of December will always be the best time to view this masterpiece.