Alexander Payne

The Holdovers

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Holdovers
  • IMDb: link

The Holdovers

From director Alexander Payne comes this tale of an unlikely group of miserable people spending the holiday break together. In a Summer School-esque setup, we get Paul Giamatti as a frumpy history teacher at a prestigious New England boarding school dragged into filling in as the faculty member necessary to stay around while the rest of faculty and students return home for the winter holiday. Everyone’s least favorite teacher, Mr. Hunham (Giamatti) is paired with one of the school’s most unruly students (Dominic Sessa), abandoned by his family at the last-minute, and the school’s head cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) still grieving the loss of her son.

…

The HoldoversRead More »

The Holdovers Read More »

The Descendants

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Decendants
  • IMDB: link

the-descendants-posterOn the beautiful islands of Hawaii, Matt King’s (George Clooney) world crashes down when the real estate lawyer is hit with two bombshells at once. First, he learns that his wife (Patricia Hastie), who suffered a boating accident and has languished in a coma for weeks, isn’t going to get better. Her living will makes it obvious what will happen next, even if Matt and his two daughters aren’t ready for inevitable.

Things only get more complicated when breaking the news to his oldest daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) Matt learns his wife has been having an affair and it’s this, not the daughter’s recently troubling behavior, which was the cause of the friction between mother and daughter in recent months.

Through his anger and grief Matt tries to keep his dysfunctional family together, deal with the outbursts of his younger daughter (Amara Miller) in school, and put up with Alexandra’s moron of a boyfriend Sid (Nick Krause), all while managing a complicated land sale that means millions of dollars for his extended family.

…

The DescendantsRead More »

The Descendants Read More »