The Holdovers / Stranahan's Snowflake

0:00 In 2023, director Alexander Payne and star Paul Giamatti gave the world a warm and Invitational film about the power of honest conversations. In 2024, we tried perhaps the perfect Christmas whiskey. The film is The Holdovers. The whiskey is Stranahan's snowflake. And we'll review them both. This is the. Film and whiskey. Podcast.

0:45 Welcome to the Film and Whiskey podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And Brad, it is officially the Christmas season here at Film and Whiskey. It's the weather. Outside is frightful, Bob. Yeah, well, that's because we live in Ohio. But sure, we'll, we'll tie it into Christmas. It's December 17th. So we, we, we're theming this around Christmas because next Tuesday we're taking a break from our regularly scheduled programming to bring you our latest episode of our Cruise Miss series. Cruise Miss. We'll be looking once again at a Tom Cruise film. We're going to try to tie it to this season's theme.

1:25 And folks, welcome into the show. If this is your first time listening to us, you're probably wondering what is Cruise miss? What is this season's theme? There are a lot of unanswered questions here. Keep up. There's a lot to keep up with here. And if you are not a new listener, if you've been here for a while, I would encourage you that in this Christmas season you would give us a like subscribe, 5 star review. All of those things help out the podcast greatly and you guys warm our hearts. Yeah, listenership definitely goes up over the holiday season. People are traveling and we want to get people's eyes on the podcast. So if you're able to share on your social medias or like and subscribe, especially subscribe whichever platform you're listening on, it would do us a great Christmas service. Now, what is film and whiskey?

2:10 Film and Whiskey is a podcast where we review classic movies and we drink a new glass of whiskey each week. This season we're looking at films released in the last 20 years and we're asking the question, does this film deserve to be considered a modern classic? And Brad, I don't think we need to bury the lead on the holdovers. This is a film that came out last year. It was, you know, always kind of in second or third place in the awards season run behind the juggernaut that was Oppenheimer. But I think the consensus both among critics and audiences at the time was like, man, if this movie had come out in any other year, this is like a lock for a best picture win because it is such a crowd pleaser and was immediately hailed as a new Christmas classic.

2:55 And I dare say Brad, it can easily be considered a modern classic. I am 100% with you, Bob. This was one that you very ardently strove to get me to see, not necessarily in theaters. You just wanted me to watch it. And it feels like it was around that time that you were really pushing the holdovers past lives. You had already tried to get me to see Oppenheimer unsuccessfully, but it felt like this year there was like a lot of movies that really, I don't know, tickled your fancy. Yeah, I think as we get farther and farther from it, it's going to be clear that 2023 is one of the best movie years ever, especially at the top of the heap. I can't remember the last time that I've made like my 10 best list, and I've looked through and said I'm going to go out and spend money on buying at least the top six of these. You know, there's a lot of times where I think a movie is like an 8 out of 10, and I still don't feel compelled to own that movie.

3:54 But between the Holdovers, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Anatomy of a Fall, Godzilla -1 even on the family side, the movie Wonka is a movie I really, really loved. I think it was just an absolute banger of a year last year, man. Yeah, and I'm super excited to talk about The Holdovers because this is a film that feels like one of the most honest and charming films that has come out in quite some time. It really is kind of a warm sweater of a movie, even though the characters are cold and prickly at times. It feels very familiar, and I think that's by design. You know, the director Alexander Payne is great at making movies like this where two prickly characters come together and have some sort of odyssey or journey together.

4:40 I think for a long time I've told you about this movie I love from him called Nebraska. I'm sure we'll watch it someday on the podcast. But this is probably the Alexander Payne movie that has clicked the most with the general public, at least since his movie Sideways, which came out in 2004. And I think that what he's trying to do here is he's trying to harken back to, there's a director from the 70s named Hal Ashby, who is it kind of had a resurgence in the last 10 years. People are looking at his movies a lot more now. And he had very sincere movies that are in the same vein as The Holdovers. So this movie is set in the 1970s. They do a lot of kind of gimmicky things with the credits and stuff to make it mimic 1970s films.

5:21 But more than that, it's just you don't get movies like this anymore where none of it feels new. All of it feels like pieces of other movies that you've seen. But it's the the alchemy, it's the recipe of adding all these ingredients together that add up to something that at once feels brand new and like it's been a part of your life for years and years already. Yeah, that. That's the magic of this movie. Like, I never found myself completely thrown by anything in the film, and yet I was able to move emotionally to the places that Paine wanted to take me. That felt so impactful and meaningful.

6:05 And yeah, I I just think he knocked out of the park. I, I can't wait to like, really get into it, Bob. All right. Well, in order to get into it, I think it's time to throw to our first segment of the day, which we call, Brad explains. Brad's going to give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds taken on the clock, so let's go ahead and do your take with this little segment that we call, Brad explains. Brad Explains is the part of the show where Brad breaks down the plot of the film that he has just seen, often for the first time. I'm assuming this is watch #2 for you, Brad. It is, yes. All right, well, you're it's old hat to you at this point, I think is what we're. Saying, I mean, for the amount of time it's been out to the amount of times I've seen it that like that, whatever that ratio is, it might be one of my higher ratios for a film.

6:53 That's true. All right, so the way Brad explains works is you get 60 seconds on the clock to break down the plot of the film in full spoiler territory. So we know this movie is only a year old. If you have not yet seen The Holdovers, you got to press pause. Now you have to go watch this movie. If you can't tell from the effusive praise we've given it, it's going to be very highly scored by us and I would hate to ruin the movie for you right now. Go watch The Holdovers. Come back and listen to Brad explain the plot of it. You have one minute on the clock and go. The Holdovers is a film about a group of students who are left at their all boys preparatory school, high school, and they are being left with a curmudgeonly old history teacher named Mr. Hunsley Hunson Hunnam. Hunnam.

7:44 Mr. Hunnam, played by Paul Giamatti. Within a week or so of them being there, most of the children go away with one of the kids dads on vacation and the rest of the film you follow Giamatti and the student that is left, Angus Tully and one of the staff members who stays behind to cook everybody meals. And I can't think of her name right now. Mary. Yep, Yep, Mary. So the three of them hang out together, learn about each other's lives, and descend into each other's madness, and yet come out all the more sane. Yeah, that's a good description of the movie, and I think it does enough of teasing what's to come in the movie without giving it away, because in a lot of ways this feels like a classic hangout movie, you know what I mean?

8:35 Like there's definitely character progressions and arcs, but one of the things that I really loved watching it this time through, and if I can just give 30 seconds of background, I've been trying to also get my wife to watch this movie for a solid year. And we sat down to watch it one night last year and it was really late and we hit almost the midway point of the movie. It's when right after Angus has dislocated his shoulder and they go to the bar as kind of a reward for Angus lying and keeping Hunnam's job. My wife looked at me and she's never done this before. She's like, I'm kind of bored. I was like, no, this movie is so good. And and. All of the good stuff is still to come, please. But we turned it off 'cause I, you know, at that point it was a lost cause. Flash forward to last week.

9:22 They're doing a free screening of this movie at my former employer, Case Western Reserve University. They have a film society on campus. They showed this movie on a massive screen. And so we went up there as part of a date night. And I was like, you got to commit to doing this with me. She's like, of course, we walked out of the movie. And she was like, OK, I get, I get it now. That was a really, really good movie. But on the way back to the car, I asked her, you know, what was it about the first half of the movie that didn't click as opposed to the second-half? And she just kept saying like, it's such an interesting movie. And she said, I don't want to call it disjointed, but and then she kind of trailed off and I understood where she was going because we've referenced this thing by the creators of South Park a number of times.

10:06 This video where Trey Parker is explaining how you can't just have a plot where it's this happens and then this happens and then this happens. There has to be some causality. This happens. So this happens, but this happens. So this happens and this movie kind of breaks that convention. Like they're they're kind of moving forward as a logical progression of things that happened before. But I do feel like you could take a number of scenes in this movie and reshuffle them and the characters still end up in the same place at the end of the movie. This is more a movie about kind of a totality or a volume of things that happened to the characters in the 1st 3/4 of it to get you on their side sympathetically so that the whole last quarter of the movie can be emotional payoff. And it really works.

10:53 And I'm, I guess I wasn't expecting a movie that felt so familiar to be such a convention breaking movie, but that's how it feels. That's interesting, Bob. I I don't know if I would say it feels quite that convention breaking. Like I, I think within scenes or, you know, within a small collection of scenes, you have the this happens so that this can happen. I guess I would say it feels to me like this movie kind of has distinct thirds. Yes, like the first third of the movie is them, you know, getting to know Hun Hunnam, Paul Giamatti Hunnam. I just keep on to say in Hunley, getting to know Paul Giamatti's character, getting to know Dominique Sera, Is that Sessa? Bro you are like 8.

11:45 For eight on not knowing names today. I'm nailing it, dude. Absolutely incredible. It's what everybody signs up for Bob, getting to know the characters and seeing how they interact with other people, which I think is really valuable. Like if this entire film was just the three characters, I think it would suffer. So you get to see them bounce off of other people, which helps you then feel the claustrophobia of the second act when it's just the three of them and occasionally the janitor. And then I, I don't know. Would you say that the third act starts after they leave the Christmas? Party. Yeah, I was. I was thinking and I have it in my notes here. First act is all of the kids and Giamatti. Second act is these three people are trapped together ending in Christmas and him saying like, I want to go to Boston. And then the third act is everything that happens after they leave the campus.

12:38 And what's what's really great about this movie, Brad, And it is a long movie. It's like 2 hours and 15 minutes. And I will say for a movie that I'm going to give perhaps my highest possible score to, it does feel shaggy at parts like it, but it's shaggy in a way that I keep going back to this phrase hangout movie. It doesn't really feel boring. It just sometimes feels like this is how life works and you just kind of watch pauses and sometimes days are boring. And they do a good job of reflecting how boring it can be in the middle of nowhere in the winter time. But if the movie had ended at the end of Christmas, where you've these three people have forged a truce together, you've watched them go through emotional ups and downs, you have that great scene at the Christmas party and then kind of just fast forwarded to everybody comes back from winter break. It would have been a passable movie. Like it tells a complete arc.

13:32 And yet Pain and the screenwriter do such a good job in that third act of continuing to give you character reveals to deepen the relationships. You watch each character bounce off each other in ways that are unique to them. I just what I love about the movie is you could end it in five different spots and it's a super satisfying movie. And ending it where they did somehow maximized the effectiveness. And if we had not ended it where we did, we would have never gotten one of the greatest insults in film history. When Paul Giamatti looks at the principal of the school and says, I've known you since you were a child, so I feel like I'm an expert and can say that you are absolute penis cancer in human form.

14:22 What a great insult. Man. All right, let's dive into not the plot of the movie. Let's start with performances, because to this day, Paul Giamatti should have won Best Actor over Killian Murphy in in. Oh, that is strong, Bob. Killian's great dude, but, and perhaps it's just because this movie is a much bigger warm hug and because he gets his oscari moments more than Killian does. When he walks out of that office and starts choking up and points to his his lazy eye and says like this is the one. And then he has the moment at the very end of the movie where he just says see ya. And that's that's it.

15:05 Tear 100% tears in both of those moments. It's so good dude. Also, his eyes, if we didn't mention this before, he is walleyed and it kind of feels like the hunchback in Young Frankenstein. We're like, it's like, it's like his right eye is the walleyed eye for a little while and then his left one and you're never quite sure which one is walleyed. It's perfect. I also think my favorite Oscar moment for Giamatti in this film isn't when he makes you cry at the end of the movie. I don't know if I've ever seen somebody capture the human desire to do random things and random moments for no real reason.

15:47 Better than when he's walking past the football. It might be my favorite scene of the movie, Bob, because he's just walking along in the snow, there's nobody on the campus. He sees a football laying there and throws it with the absolute worst throw I've ever seen in my life. And then and then it just cuts to the next scene. Like, and then he walks away kind of self satisfied too. Yeah. Like I did it, like I I did it. That ball went like 9 feet. Here's how I know this movie works. So I will admit on my wife's behalf, that first hour, there are moments where you're still trying to get into the rhythm of the movie and it really does replicate older Hal Ashby style 70s movies.

16:35 And you got to get on its wavelength or you're going to think it's boring. And the really good meat of the movie doesn't come until after that scene in the bar. So that was literally the worst place for us to stop watching it. We were watching last year. But here's how I know that everyone was bought in. I'm in this theater full of people, and it gets to the scene where they're at the holiday party. So the three of them have been holed up in this boarding school. And the, I believe the secretary for the headmaster is having a party, a holiday party at her house full of townies. And they had run into her at the bar. And then she invites Giamatti and the boy and Mary. And at this holiday party, it is like an extended, probably 15 minute sequence where everybody's character arcs to that point come to a head.

17:22 Giamatti is finally hoping to break out of his shell because he is, you know, a lonely man. He has his condition that makes him smell really bad. He's socially inept and he's taking a big swing and he's taking a risk because he has a crush on this lady, Dominic Sessa. We don't know what's going on with his character aside from he's just been left at school. He said that made it sound like Dominic Sessa was the Lady. He had a crush on. He's chasing after her. Super problematic movie. Dominic says his character Angus. We don't really know what's going on with him other than that his parents kind of suck and have left him at school. But he's lonely and he finds a girl that he starts flirting with in the basement of this house.

18:05 Mary, her son has been killed in Vietnam. She's living at this boarding school watching all these rich ash asshole ish kids have the life that her son deserved. And all these things come to a head. And the moment where it really, really clicks is when that woman comes over and starts talking to Paul Giamatti, reaches over, touches his leg, tells him, like, these kids need you now more than ever. And it really hits him. And he's like, oh, my gosh. And then she looks up off screen and says, oh, excuse me a second. And the camera cuts over to Giamatti as you watch her walk behind him and kind of in, you know, out of focus. And you don't see the top of her head or anything.

18:45 And he's sitting there, like, really happy. And then he kind of turns around to see who she's greeting at the door, and it pans up and she's kissing a guy. That's her bow. The look on Paul Giamatti's face is bro, it's. That's the Oscar right there, dude. That's the Oscar right there. It is such an incredible scene. Like, we have been watching Paul freaking Giamatti for decades now. Be one of the best supporting actors ever to do it. Like, I mean, he's got to be on the Mount Rushmore of best supporting actors. And here he is with his chance. He's taken everything he's ever learned about acting and he throws it into that moment. And it is perfect.

19:31 It it is the most crushing thing. And here's why I said this is how I know the movies working in the theater. You heard voices, male and female. At 1 moment, I'll just go, oh, like our sympathies are totally with this guy at this point. And then you get the even more crushing moment that follows it of Mary breaking down in the kitchen after she's gotten drunk and she's listening to music that she loved with her son. And just like, the anger of her just admitting like, he's gone. He's gone. It is such a necessary moment because from that point on, you're like, I don't know where this movie is going to go. Like, this needed to happen to give the movie direction, but what's going to happen to these characters now? And I'm fully bought in to all of them now in a way I wasn't 10 minutes ago.

20:22 And that's the beauty of a good script Like this film gives you all of these terrible human beings that kind of suck. Like, like they're all lovable in their own way, but they're not especially great. And you have just enough moments of kindness and seeing that they care. Like, you get it with Angus when one of the young students has wet his bed because he was crying at night and and misses his family deeply. And you know, Angus offers, says hey, like, like find a dry spot to sleep. I'll help you clean up in the morning, but don't tell anyone else otherwise they'll never not give you hell. And the way he says it is in that way of because they gave me hell right And all like despite all of the, and I think the best word is prickliness of these characters, you can't help but fall in love with them. And so that when you get those emotional payouts of them breaking down and being honest about their failures and fears and sadness, it, it's the most honest movie I've seen in a long time.

21:32 I think one of the most direct comparisons you can make between this movie and another is Dead Poet Society. It got a lot of that, and if you read up a little bit like I again, I skimmed to the Wikipedia for this movie, but it says that the screenwriter said it purposely in 1970 instead of in the 1950s or 60s because he didn't want it to be chronologically too close to Dead Poets Society. First of all, this is a better movie than Dead Poets Society, and I don't I don't mind saying that. Every time I tell people about it, they're like, oh, what's that about? And I'm like, it's a dead. It's a better Dead Poets Society. I think that the connective tissue though, is that I could see Robin Williams playing this role.

22:14 I actually don't think it would be as good with a Robin Williams type. You know, Robin Williams has this sort of nakedness to his emotions where you can see into the vulnerability. And I think the closest thing we have to that today is maybe like Steve Carell can do that really well in some of his films. I don't think either one of those characters does a better job than what Giamatti goes for here. It is really the perfect balance of even after you're on his side, he never sheds the like, Checadillos or the little idiosyncrasies of that character. He still is who he is, but it's you as an audience member who's changed in how you receive those things or perceive those things. And that's where I think like, Williams probably would have gone a little bit too schmaltzy with this role. And I love Robin Williams, but I think Giamatti's doing something here that's a little bit more nuanced. Yeah, the the beauty of his performance is that he does stay the same.

23:12 And yet those slight bits of warmth stick around and and and you recognize that this feels way more true to how human beings really are. And like, as as somebody who has worked as a chaplain and interacted with lots of human beings in their homes, in the hospital, this just felt way more real to who we are as a human race that we don't just live for, you know, 60 odd years as Giamatti's character does in this movie. And just suddenly, it's like 01 Christmas break. All of a sudden we're all happy, go lucky and good. Like this isn't The Breakfast Club. We're we're not all like perfect friends at the end of it. And yet it's that moment when he's teaching his class at the start of the new semester, and he looks at Angus and just gives him a tiny smile, like he's exact, the exact same teacher that he's always been.

24:07 But there's a warmth there now. There's a relationship that you can tell makes him feel like life might, just maybe, be worth living. Let's talk a little bit about Dominic Sessa. This is his first movie. This is like a true, honest to goodness introducing Dominic Sessa. They had an open casting call at, I believe the boarding school that they shot at, and Sessa showed up and they're like, that's our guy now. He he is a little bit older. I think he's 20 when this movie comes out. But they work it into the script a little bit where he says something like, I've been kicked out of three schools. That's why I'm still a junior, give or take a semester. So you can tell that he's an older character that's being forced into being a junior.

24:48 And I think just that one little addition, if it even was an addition, perfectly explains why this guy looks like he's 20 and not 15. I think he pulls off like 1718 year old kid. I think so too. I think so, too. Yeah. He's really, really good, man. And I think part of what makes his performance so good. There's a shot near the end of the movie, and again, we're in full spoiler territory. He goes to Boston because he secretly wants to see his dad, and he doesn't tell Giamatti. And so he tries to sneak away to go see his dad. Giamatti finds out and tags along. And the whole movie, he's been telling people my dad is dead. And it turns out his dad has actually been committed. He's in a sanitarium and he we have a moment where he actually goes and sees his dad on Christmas. And he does this thing where like he turns into a little boy in front of his dad.

25:38 And he's talking about how good he's doing in school and what sports he's playing and how, how, how much fun he's having. And his dad reaches over and grabs his hands and you think you're going to get this great moment. And it's another rug pull where you can tell the dad is like truly lost his mind because he says something like, I think they're putting something in my food. And that's it. That's all you get. And then you get the reaction shot of Cessa immediate cut to they're all at dinner together afterwards and Cessa's talking about how his dad got committed. And it is done in one unbroken shot that just kind of pulls back slowly for about two minutes. The first couple times I saw this movie, I was like, man, I wish Alexander Payne hadn't done that because it takes a lot of command on screen to be able to hold a shot for two minutes. And I could tell at times that Cessa was a little bit raw and a little bit new to this.

26:30 You're watching his Adam's apple bounce up and down when he's trying to play suppressing emotion. But I actually think the rawness of his acting chops is what makes this character so good. And it keeps everybody else's performance kind of grounded, too. Nobody feels like they're in a different movie here. And I think kind of quietly, Cessa bringing this untrained energy to the movie helps everybody else around him. I think one of the other things that really helped that scene is the sound design. Like if you want a master class in how you can help a scene feel like you're underwater a little bit and like this is a highly emotional moment, just watch the scene Bob just referenced when he's giving his little monologue about how his dad got committed. Because they they build it so that the camera is shoved up into his face.

27:25 You can see like vaguely in the background that he's at a restaurant, but there's no noise other than his voice. And then they slowly fade in the crowd noise of the restaurant as the camera pulls away and you realize Giamatti is sitting there. And it like it is such a well imagined scene to help focus the attention on what needs to be happening, which is the emotional performance of Cessa. Now, I I think that Dominic Cessa as an actor, the two things he does well in this movie are sullen and sad.

28:05 Like he nails those like when he's, I don't remember when it is at some point he is sitting in the back seat of a car, like looking angrily out the window and he just looks like a sullen teenager. And it's absolutely perfect. And the moments where he portrays sadness, he's incredible as well. I, I think my, MY1 struggle with the acting throughout this movie and the first time I saw it, I pinned it all on Cessa. And actually this time through I noticed it with all of the actor. Well, the main 3 actors, Giamatti, we haven't talked about it yet, Divine Joy, Randolph and Dominic Cessa. I think all three of them do this.

28:45 They all kind of have run on sentences at some points. Like, they all have moments where it's like, man, they, they needed a little pause in the way they were speaking. They, they needed to not just get this whole line out as fast as possible. I think that Cessa does it and I don't mind it as much because he is such a raw actor. It's the one or two times that Giamatti and Randolph do it that it frustrates me because I'm like, like, like all you needed was a tiny little pause and this would have been perfect. We we are about to review Dune 2 next week, but we had to get our scheduling out of order, so I'll reference Dune 2 here.

29:30 You'll you might hear me talk about it next week as well. 2-2 weeks but like next week is cruise miss man. Oh, next week is cruise miss two weeks from now. Man, we're like really getting ahead on our. Recordings, Bob. First it's cruise miss and then it's happy Doon year. Happy Doon year dude. I like that Christopher Walken, famous actor, great actor, has the exact same problem. He has like a few like run on sentences where he just keeps talking and should have just had a nice little pause. Interesting. I wonder if that's more of an issue with the performances or with the take that was chosen by the director. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that's and that's why this time through I think I'm penalizing Cecil Les because I noticed it in other characters, which makes me think it's more of a director thing than a individual actor. For sure, and I'm kind of with you too, on he does sullen and sad really well.

30:24 The moments of his performance that don't work for me are the moments in the movie that don't work as well for me. And it's when they're going for intentionally really broad comedy. Like the scene where he's making Giamatti chase him through the halls and just haunting him like a Looney Tunes character. It's funny and even like the cut to Giamatti's reaction after he falls and starts screaming. Like it's a great little moment. But it's not even that it feels out of place in this movie. It just feels a little too broad at times. And I think what Sessa's really good at is playing childlike at moments, and he's not as good at playing childish. Like when he's being antagonistic to Giamatti, it's a little much.

31:05 He's a little too snarky, but there's a great moment late in the movie when they go into Boston and he is like ice skating and Giamatti is just watching him skate and he he just waves at him like a kid waving to his dad. And it's really clear at that moment. Like this is his surrogate father in this moment. And Cessa absolutely nails the really hard to do child likeness of a kid who is still not grown up and really needs a parental figure. And I think that it it's actually harder to pull that off. But the childish moments are the ones that I didn't think were as good. And I think that's why this movie is successful. Like the the need of Cessa to have a dad who cares about him when he's being a little shit like that. Like, those are the moments that make this movie so beautiful. Because I think what this movie captures on the whole is the desperate need for every single teenager to have an adult who's willing to have honest conversations with them. You know what, when they're in the when they're in the liquor store after they run into his old Harvard acquaintance and, you know, Giamatti lies to him about what he's doing. And, and Angus is calling him out on it. Like that conversation, the rawness of saying, like, yeah, this is what happened in my life, and this has been the result of it.

32:32 Like, those are the things that teenagers desperately need in life. And this movie highlights the beauty of what can happen when those conversations take place. Well, and I think that's a great segue to quickly talk about Divine Joy Randolph. In this movie, she wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. I think it's really well deserved. She does. She is the epitome of a supporting character in this movie and I think that's what makes the character great. If she was in the movie more honestly it would become her movie because she has the most kind of immediately compelling character arc. Or not even character arc but character story. Like you know 5 minutes into the movie what her character is all about where the other two it takes some slow reveals to show what their characters are. So I think they use her perfectly in the film. And to your point about Dominic Sassa's character needing that parental figure, that's why her character playing in that that interplay between her character and the other two is so well done.

33:31 It's not just that she's a third wheel thrown into this dynamic, it's that she's the only one that actually understands how to care for and talk to a young man. And she has no outlet for that because her son has been taken from her. And and so much of the movie, you can tell that it's her grief that's keeping her at distance from Tully. But after the Christmas party, she kind of starts to really let him in. And it's the moment where Tully is sitting outside the headmaster's office while Giamatti is covering for him and getting fired because of it, that she sits down and takes his hand. And it's just the way she puts her hand out and totally looks at it.

34:16 And it's a great moment from Dominic Sessa, too, where he kind of looks at it and is like, oh, I guess I take her hand now. Like, like, I have to. And as he takes it, there's that like, relief in his body. Like, an adult cares about me. And they're not going to make me talk about anything. They're not going to force me into something I don't want to do. They just want to love me. Yeah, man, it's, it's just a great performance. I'm thinking about the moment when they're leaving the Christmas party after she's even had her meltdown and Giamatti kind of snaps at Dominic Sessa and says like, nobody wants you around anyway, you know? And he walks away and she's like, what the hell is wrong with you, man?

34:56 Like, you don't tell a kid who's been abandoned on Christmas that nobody wants him around. And it's just those little moments where she's the voice of reason for Giamatti that ultimately strengthen that core relationship. I Brad. It's a perfectly structured script. They're perfectly written characters. Let's hope that our whiskey for the Day holds up to the effusive praise we've been giving this movie. Let's go check out some snowflakes. All right, everybody, today we are checking out Stranahan's Snowflake. Now, this is a whiskey that comes out of the Stranahan distillery in Colorado. They have released 26 iterations of this whiskey. They used to do it twice a year, once on Father's Day, once for, you know, the Christmas season.

35:49 It got to be too big of a production schedule, so they've chopped it down to just once a year at Christmas time. And you know, the way they talk about it is this. There's a specific blend that they build every single year that's different and varied and nuanced, and it makes it a snowflake. I like it. And they name it after every iteration. They name it after one of the 14,000 foot mountains peaks in Colorado. Oh, I like that. What's this one named after? I don't remember Boo. All right. Hey, I remembered all of that other. Stuff that was pretty good, man, that was pretty. Good Yukon, Yukon gold, maybe all. Right.

36:31 We'll go with that. So we are drinking the 2023 release now. 2024 has just been released. We haven't got our hands on that one yet. We had 2023 waiting for review. So we're going to go ahead and give a review of last year's version because I think that it will give you a good indication of what we think of the label overall. Again, because these are precious and delicate snowflakes, they are very unique from year to year. So this is. One go ahead. And this one is called Pyramids Peak. There it is, not Yukon Gold. Close though I must. Have been thinking about the potatoes. So this 2023 release is an 8 year old single malt and it has been finished in all of the following kinds of casks, Carca, Velos, Soterne, Brandy, peated Scotch, rum, and Applejack. So we have a crazy blend of different finished single malts here.

37:26 Brad, I am super excited to try this. I've never had this label before. I'm pouring it out right now. Why don't you give us your nosing notes? This is a really fascinating nose Bob. There are baking spices, there's really strong cherry notes, it's floral, there's dusty leather and it has a little bit of a note I don't normally like, but I don't mind it here. It has some anise, really strong here on the nose. I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. I like this a lot, man. The very first note that hit me even before the malt was like a hard cider, like it's really bright, kind of tart apple. And then I get a little bit of the underlying malt and then I start getting pretty much in order.

38:09 What you mentioned, Brad, the leather note is really, really strong on this. There is a bit of cherry. I think that apple note overrides the rest of the fruit notes a little bit. Yeah, I get a little bit of anise on this, but I think for me it's more just malt with leather, and that's kind of replicating that licorice smell. I think I'd like this a little bit better than you. I'm going to give it an 8 1/2 on the nose. Yeah, and the palate is it dives into cinnamon. There is cinnamon. It's leathery. It turns into like a dried cherry. I got like a little bit of like a pumpernickel bread kind of vibe off of it. Really, really tasty palette. I, I am so impressed with what Stranahan's has done here.

38:51 I'm going to come up a little bit. I'm at an 8 1/2 out of 10 on the palette. This does have that note that I only ever describe on Kraft American Whiskey on the back where it's like that really strong, woody, vegetal note. And again, it's just a me thing, right? But this has the craft whiskey taste to it on the back. So I'm going to factor that into my palate score here because I don't like that note. But apart from that, it's really well done, man. There's tons of leather. You're right that cinnamon is predominant here. I do get a little bit of clove on this as well. It's less sweet than I would like it to be, but I think I was a little bit teased by the finishes on the nose and kind of forgot like do this as a single malt. Like, it's not going to be syrupy sweet. So what I'm essentially confessing to here, Brad, is my expectations for this.

39:46 We're not what it is. And I don't think it's the fault of the whiskey so much as it's the fault of me. I'm going to come down to it. Usually is your fault. Bob, this is true. I've been told this by many people. So I'm going to come down to just a 7 1/2 on the pallet. But as I sip a couple more times I it might rebound a little bit in the later categories. I think that the finish is beautiful and nice and like, there's nothing specific about it that makes it incredible. It is okie. There's cherries, the cinnamon sticks around, there's some black pepper for being finished partially in a peated Scotch. I was hoping to eventually get a little bit of that smokiness. I don't think I did.

40:29 I'll give it an 8 out of 10 here though. I like There is a lot to like here on the finish. I do wish that this tasted a little bit more well, aged 8 years. I mean, eight years is a long time, but you know, we've had scotches from from Scotland obviously that are like 20-30 years old now. And there's just such a maturity when you let it go a little bit longer. This still tastes just a tad young to me and it because it has that craft American finish on it. However, second sip of this cinnamon bomb and kind of like standard child's apple juice, there's a lot of that on here. It is a little bit sweeter than I gave it credit for last time, and that apple juice flavor really carried over into the finish, which bumped that score up for me. I'm going to be at an 8 out of 10 on the finish. I think balance wise we're at an 8 1/2 here like that. There is a little bit of complexity that helps it bump the score up and everything works together, like the nose leads you into the palate.

41:33 There's a little bit of a surprise with how prominent the cinnamon is, but not in a way that takes away it's, it's more of just like a wow, I, I knew there's some baking spices, but boy, that's some cinnamon. Incredible balance on this whiskey, Bob. I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. Again, I think that this is a whiskey that I respect more than I actually enjoy, but they've done so much here with the finishing and especially like an 8 year single malt. There were not a lot of places doing American single malt 8 years ago. So I can complain about how it's not old enough, but like there really isn't a lot of, you know, double digit aged American single malt laying around out there.

42:13 So I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10 on balance, on value. This is where I'm really curious, Brad, because I'm seeing it priced all over the place. I believe MSRP is around $120 on this. What are you seeing? Yes, OK. Yeah, they sell it at the distillery for $120.00. There are only 2000 bottles of this release. So it's, it's not like a tiny, you know, 200 bottle release, but also like it's a snowflake. There's 2000 bottles and then it's never around again so. I think I'm going to give it a 7 out of 10 on value. I personally do not like this enough to spend $120 on it. However, if we're following the like $10 per year rule, that would put you at like 80 and then all of the different things they're finishing this in.

43:03 There's a ton of Labor and craft going into this whiskey. I don't think it is overpriced at 120. Given the amount of Labor that they're putting into it now, I don't personally think I would pay 120 for it. That doesn't mean it's unfairly priced, so I'll give it a 7. I'm at a 7 out of 10 too. Like I think this is really tasty. There's a lot going on. I, I, I think at 120 bucks, if this was like $90.00, it'd be like a nine and a half on value. I like, I, I think this is really great under triple digits. I think it's pretty solid at 120 Bob. I am coming out to a 40 out of 50. Yeah, I feel like my comments sounded more negative than yours, but I'm literally one point below you.

43:47 I'm at a 39 out of 50, so we're coming out to an average of a 39.5 or a 79 out of 100, which is actually a pretty high score here on film and whiskey. If you get over a 35 out of 50, we typically start recommending that you try or buy a bottle. If you reach 40 out of 50, it's kind of a no brainer recommendation. So I think this is a definite thumbs up for me as try it at the bar and if you like it, I certainly would never say that it's overpriced. So it's a good value as well. Yeah, I, I think it's worth getting a bottle if you can get one. I know that you have to be in Denver and around the time of their yearly release and you have to go to the distillery and it's a whole big party and an incredible event.

44:33 Bob, it looks like they do all sorts of really fun events around Christmas time at the distillery. They have concerts and, you know, tastings and all sorts of things set up. So if you are ever in the Denver area around the holidays, I have to recommend go check out Stranahan's. All right, man. Pretty positive review for a movie that we also have a very positive review of. What do you say we get back into talking about the holdovers? Let's get to it. All right, everybody. That was Stranahan's Snowflake 2023 edition. A whiskey that is unique, it is individualized, and it is awesome.

45:18 All of which could be said about our game. 2 facts and a falsehood, Brad. Is going to try to stump your ball to our right and what is wrong? 2 facts and a falsehood. 2 Facts and a Falsehood is the part of the show where Brad presents me with three items as fact about the making of this movie, one of which is a complete lie, and I have to determine which one that is Brad. I'm currently sitting at 7:00 and 3:00 on the season with a chance to redeem myself here a little bit. I've let it, I've, I've just kind of let it slip a little bit lately and that's on me, man. Yeah, it it is on you, as are most things. That's the second time you've said that in like 5 minutes dude.

46:01 What? What? What secrets are you hiding about me right now have? You ever heard of the Jihari window? Bob all. Right. Let's, let's pivot, Brad. Let's get into. Let's get into two facts and a falsehood. Fact #1 Many of the scenes were filmed at Fair Haven High School in Fair Haven, Massachusetts in February of 2022 during the school's February break. At this time, the area received a snowstorm, much to the delight of the film crew. Since many of the scenes took place during a snowstorm, they took full advantage of the weather and the snow you see in the film was from an actual live snowstorm. Fact #2 All the costumes for the film were carefully sourced from local thrift shops and vintage stores, ensuring the authenticity and period appropriate detail.

46:50 One standout piece was a tie that Giamatti wore that was dated back to the 1940s, discovered in a small antique shop in the New England region. The costume department spent weeks meticulously curating the wardrobe to reflect the era's style. Fact #3 Paul Giamatti took credit for getting Dominic Sessa cast as Angus, advocating strongly for the newcomer. After director Alexander Payne expressed reluctance due to Sessa's lack of acting experience, Giamatti insisted he be given another audition, and his persistence paid off as Sessa's raw talent won over the entire production crew. These are very good. I have no idea man #1 sounds very plausible.

47:33 Snowstorm snow is a huge factor in this film. I'm going to say that I'm pretty immediately drawn to three as a potential falsehood. Not because that may not have happened, but because you started it with the phrase. Paul Giamatti took credit for Dominic Sessa getting cast and Giamatti for being a a very seasoned actor. And I'm sure having a lot of power on set doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would publicly take credit for something like that, even if he is responsible. So because I have no idea about the other two being potentially true or false, I'm just going to make this a very short 2 facts and a falsehood here. I'm going to say 3 is the falsehood, Brad. Bob, I I've not been able to say this many times this season, but you are 100% wrong.

48:22 That is a. Fact. Wow. Wow, what a jerk. Paul Giamatti taking credit. I don't, I don't know if taking credit is actually a jerk move. I mean, you know, I did credit where credit's due. I did it all right. What was the falsehood, Brad? The falsehood was #2 ties and costumes. It was way too vague. I had about 5 minutes to write the falsehood, and yeah, it was very vague. You know, there's a tie. A tie from the 1940s. Who knows? I'm on A2 game losing streak man.

49:03 Yeah, life. Life's tough. Life comes at you fast, Brad. I'm going to be honest too. Part of the reason that I only mentioned number one and #3 in my deliberation is that I completely forgot what number 2 was. So not only did you succeed in tricking me, you made it such a boring falsehood that I didn't even consider it. Yeah, I that's the goal, man. All. All I want to do is win. Yeah, at any cost, even being boring. All right, man, boring. Let's continue talking about the holdovers here. Brett, is there anything you want to mention about the film? Because I have a couple directions, we might go with the last few minutes of our episode, but anything you want to get out there in the open about the movie that you don't want to get lost in the shuffle.

49:45 I want more of the janitor. Like why don't we get more of the janitor? Because every single time he is on screen, he is charming and funny and down to earth and I want more of him in this movie. Good, good. Keep going. Give me more. That's it, that's all. I just want more of him. Yeah, I liked him a lot. He was really good. I, I wish that we got even like 1 little reaction shot of him being rejected by Divine Joy Randolph and just having like one more character that we feel sympathy for at Sad Christmas, You know what I mean? Like, just as a way of showing, like everybody's trying to get through, Everybody's worthy of sympathy. And I felt like they had an opportunity a couple times. Just give him one close up.

50:33 Yeah, come on. Don't let him get away unscathed. You can't just be happy. Brad, I think that there are a ton of movies that you could kind of pair this up with for Let's Make it a Double. And this is not an official segue into Let's Make It a Double, but I'm curious if you saw some of the same influences I did. Alexander Payne obviously has his own kind of style at this point, but I thought that there was a touch more kind of like whimsy at the beginning of the film in those opening scenes, especially with the boys choir, like soundtracking a lot of it. And the particular style of cinematography where they were showing like the different houses on campus and they were always filmed straight on with no angle, Like there was no depth to them.

51:23 It was almost like a 2D kind of thing. And there was a ton of, at least I thought Grand Budapest Hotel in the first few minutes of the movie there with that sort of like whimsical boys choir and almost kind of dollhouse look to some of the buildings. I'm wondering if you saw that or what other movies you saw that might have influenced this one. Oh man, I don't know if I want to be. I don't know if I want to pair this movie with this. What? What was Wes Anderson's first movie? Is it Rushmore? Yeah. It wasn't his first one, but that was the earliest one that we've done on the on the OK.

52:04 I kind of got some weird Rushmore vibes from this, you know what I mean? Like, obviously it's a much warmer movie than Rushmore. Like Wes. Wes is Wes. Like, he he does what he's going to do. I think that the the boys choir at the start, the shots of the overall facility just kind of reminded me of that. But I'm not going to lie, man, it's hard to get away from the Dead Poets Society vibes. Yeah, for sure. Like a lot of this, the shots of them running around, like in uniform and exercising and I, I don't know, there's just a lot of Dead Poets Society in this movie. And I think that I say whimsy because the shots of like the boys running around and stuff, it could tip into like quirky and not Wes Anderson quirky.

52:53 But like when they were trying to make all those quirky comedies in like the mid 2000s, like Juno. I think that if if they tipped a little farther, it would be more like Juno than like a Wes Anderson movie. And so I definitely see Rushmore. I definitely see some Royal Tenenbaums here. I see some Grand Budapest Hotel. But you're right, the kind of classic dead poet Society of it all is obviously an influence here. I think we should just go ahead and get into Let's Make It a Double Brad presented by Blackwood Distilling Company. We're near the end of the episode, so thanks listening to the film and Whiskey show. Let's have another film with this one, even if it's struggling. It's the final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double.

53:33 Let's Make It a Double is the part of the show where we pick a movie to pair up with this one to make the perfect double feature. Brad, I'm just going to take any opportunity I can to plug the movie Nebraska again, but that's not going to be my Let's Make it a double. That would be too easy. I'm going to plug another movie that we're going to get to at some point on this podcast because it's a hangout Shaggy movie that I love about young people just doing stuff. And it's a movie called Licorice Pizza. I would love to watch Licorice Pizza and the holdovers back-to-back. That would make just a fantastic Night of Bob book movie viewing. That that is a great pick, Bob. I, I think that all of Carrie's complaints about the first half of this movie are like the entirety of Licorice Pizza. Like it's just all sorts of random scenes put together. And I don't know if there's character arcs for anyone, but you're intrigued by who they are by the end of the film. That that's a great pick, man.

54:34 Thanks dude. I am going to pair this up with what I consider to be one of the absolute best coming of age hangout films where you have a kid hanging out with his two uncles and learning how to become a man. Bob, This is going with second hand Lions. Dude how good are coming of age movies? They're incredible. It's just a formula that never gets old. Just just also Robert Duvall, Michael Caine, Hailey, Joel Osmond. Yep. Like you just, you can't go wrong. Well, and that's why this movie works so well. You know, I remember on Twitter last year, and Twitter is a true cesspool of negativity and cynicism and nihilism, which drains the life out of me with every interaction. But even on Twitter last year, this movie was a freaking hit. And part of it was because I saw this mentioned many times, like we needed a good sad Christmas movie where people are sad at Christmas.

55:39 And of course that's going to appeal to film Twitter. Those people are miserable. But there's something about it being a movie about sad people. But placing it at Christmas, which is an inherently warm, comforting time of year even though it's cold outside, and making it a coming of age story means that despite the people being sad, it is not a cynical film. That is a deeply hopeful movie where even if you don't know where you're going from here, you feel like things are going to be OK. And honestly, like, that is that is such a great Christmas message. Like, I don't want to get too into the actual, you know, religious story of Christmas, but like, the idea of Christmas being a time where hope was born into a world that didn't have any hope.

56:29 And we don't know necessarily what that means, but things are just going to be OK. This is like a perfect demonstration of that Brad in a movie that is trying very hard not to be a religious movie given Giamatti's bent. You know what I mean? Yep, Yeah. And the the impetus towards hope bringing movement is so strong in this movie that like the closer the relationships we have, the more well known we are by others on an emotional level, the more likely it is we are to do the right thing, to do good things in this world. And when Giamatti does the, I mean technically the wrong thing, he lies.

57:15 But when he does the right thing in caring for and protecting Angus Tulley, it gets him fired, which is what he needed all along. Like it, it gives him the final impetus to finally go forth into the world, to leave his childhood behind and like stake a claim on the world at large. And I like what a great story to tell at the Christmas time. Well, we need to get into final scores, so let me say this, Let's Make It a Double was brought to you by Blackwood Distilling Company. Whatever you choose to pair this movie up with, you can always make it a double with Blackwood. And if you go to bourbonoutfitter.com/film Whiskey and use our code film Whiskey at checkout, you'll get 5% off your own bottle of Blackwood.

58:03 I cannot imagine a better Christmas gift this time of year than Blackwood. It is like the perfect gifting whiskey Brad. 100% It is delicious and sweet and has all sorts of complex flavors. It will warm the cockles of your heart even if you don't drink it on Christmas Day. Bob. Yeah, 100%, dude. All right, let's get into final scores. I'll make this quick and easy. This is a 10 out of 10 movie, Brad. I've seen it 3 or 4 Times Now. It is Shaggy. And it is. It isn't as tightly constructed as some movies are, but you need to get on this movie's wavelength. It has its own rhythm to it. And once you enter that stream, you're just along for the ride. And I think that the best movies do that. We're going to talk about Past Lives, another movie from 2023, later this season, which has become one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life.

58:55 And from day-to-day, I go back and forth on my what's the best movie of 2023? Is it Oppenheimer? Is it The Holdovers? Is it Past Lives? How lucky we are to have 3 movies as perfect as those three to debate, and The Holdovers is definitely one of them. Brad. I think this is this is going to make you angry, Bob. I think this is a nine out of 10. That does make me angry. You're correct. I knew it would I like the second time around, that this movie had more of an emotional impact on me the first time around. It wasn't. The depth wasn't quite there as much the second time around. Like this is an incredible film that has so many beautiful moments.

59:42 Some really great acting from Giamatti, especially. I I think that one of the reasons I want to rate this highly or even more highly than a nine out of 10, which I I understand, Bob, I'm not blaming you or putting you down for a 10 out of 10 pick, which I I often and want to do. I, I enjoy ridiculing your 10 out of 10s. This is I get it. I totally understand how this works for you. I think one of the reasons why we both rate this so highly. Is because it is such a rare film like I, I think we used to get more movies like this. And so, you know, maybe it's an 8 or an 8 1/2 normally, but because of the dearth of heartwarming, coming of age, honest hangout films, I I do think it deserves a higher score because we don't get those anymore.

1:00:35 So it's a nine out of 10 for me. There's definitely some stuff that it could have been cut from this film. It could have been like a sharp hour and 55 minutes instead of two hours and 15 minutes. But overall, The Holdovers is an incredible film that I'm probably going to end up watching more than other 10 out of 10 films I I've rated because I'm going to watch this at Christmas time now, Bob. It's a great like it has entered the rotation for me. I'm not saying like you gather the family and watch this on Christmas Eve every year. I. Was going to say that the one thing, the one thing that keeps us from being like a family watch is that there is a lot of drinking and a lot of swearing in this movie, Bob.

1:01:22 And it is not devoid of boobs either. There are, there is a picture. There's printed boobs. Yeah. There's. What is that boob section? Boobs. An image. An image of a boobs within an image. Yeah, sure. Anyways, there are enough things that make this movie real and honest that would also keep me from showing it to my kids until they're like, I don't know, 14-16? I I do think it's a perfect December 17th movie, like you're in the Christmas season, but it's like, let's watch this the week before Christmas. Honestly, what's? Your Christmas Eve movie, Bob. I mean, I want to say Maverick, I want to say It's a Wonderful Life, but my family won't watch that with me 'cause they're small children and it's a two hour and 20 minute movie. Dude I remember watching that movie when I was a kid. I know I'm trying.

1:02:09 I'm like, dude, I'm doing the Lord's work out here. I'm I'm doing yeoman's work. I'm trying to get it done. But all right, so it's a 9.5 out of 10 from us, but we want to know what you think of the holdovers. You can find us on any of our social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube at Film Whiskey. Or if you want to talk about the movies, we are on our Discord server every single day talking to you guys, fans of the Film and Whiskey podcast. So if you want to join the conversation, you can find a link to our server at the end of every single one of our show notes. As we said, we're taking the week off next week from our regularly scheduled programming, but we will be back with Cruise Miss and I think it's time to reveal the film for the 2024 Cruise Miss. Brad, you want to do the honors?

1:02:55 Bob, we are going to be reviewing Mission Impossible Fallout. Yeah, we are. A perfect action movie question mark. It's damn close if it's not perfect dude. All I know is Henry Cavill reloads his arms. He sure does. It's incredible. The fact that they didn't add like a like a rat click when he does that is the the unacceptable. The biggest blown opportunity of all time, dude. All right, join us next week for Mission Impossible Fallout. And folks, we won't see you until after Christmas. Have a Merry Christmas, have happy holidays. We will see you on December 31st for do New Year's Eve baby.

1:03:37 Oh, that. What a great man. What a great title, Bob. Until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.