Recent Movies

January 6, 2024 /

We’ve watched a few movies lately, The Holdovers, You Hurt My Feelings, and Good Grief.

In The Holdovers, Paul Giamatti plays a crusty teacher at an elite New England boarding school, who has to stay behind to chaperone the handful of students that don’t have anywhere to go for winter break in 1970. At first it is Mr. Hunham (Giamatti), the school’s head cook, Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and 6 students, but 5 of the students conveniently leave pretty early on, leaving 1 student behind, Angus (Dominic Sessa).

Without giving away too much of the plot (I was going to imbed the trailer, but I felt it gave away too much), we get to know these characters and their pains and loneliness. Mr. Hunham is a frustrated academic who drinks too much. Mary is grieving the recent death of her son in Vietnam. Angus is feeling rejected by his mother and her new husband, who are not available to include Angus in their Christmas plans, and missing his father. I won’t say more, but this movie stuck with me, and I think I’d like to watch it again next Christmas, it’s really good. We had to buy it, I think on Apple, though maybe it was Amazon. Worth the money.

You Hurt My Feelings is a story about white lies and the pain they can cause. Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a writer and teacher, married to Don (Tobias Menzies), a therapist. Beth has written a successful memoir, and is working on her first novel. She doesn’t feel that her editor is being supportive enough, and starts to doubt herself when the editor suggests major revisions. Don is supportive and tells her she is very talented, and should find another editor.

Then one day, Beth and her sister, Sarah (Michaela Watkins) come upon Don and Sarah’s husband, Mark (Arian Moayed) in a sporting goods store, and come up behind them, overhearing their conversation. Don is confiding to Mark that he does not like Beth’s novel, and is struggling with it because he wants to be supportive of her. What follows is, of course, hurt feelings, and an exploration of how we get past these lies that we tell those we love the most. I don’t remember whether we rented this one or bought it, but it was worth the money and again, I recommend it.

Good Grief tells the story of Marc (Daniel Levy) coming to terms with the sudden death of his husband, Oliver (Luke Evans). Oliver is a wildly successful British writer (think Harry Potter), and Marc is an artist who stopped painting in the aftermath of his mother’s death a few years prior, who illustrates the covers for Olivers books. After Oliver dies early in the film (before the opening credits, so not much of a spoiler), Marc struggles to come to terms with his loss.

Almost a year after Oliver’s death, Marc discovers that Oliver had rented an apartment in Paris, and that the lease is almost up. He decides to go to Paris with his friends Sophie (Ruth Negga) and Thomas (Himesh Patel) to check out the apartment and spend a few days together. Marc is a good friend, but he is not honest with himself or his friends. Ruth is a hot mess, pushing aside love in favor of excitement. Thomas is insecure and wants to find more meaning in his life. I liked this gentle film quite a bit (which I watched alone via Netflix, while Ted and Maya were at work.) I enjoyed the beautiful views of Paris and London, but I liked the story even more.

18 Comments

  • Beckett @ Birchwood Pie

    January 6, 2024 at 1:30 pm

    I don’t need to know anything more about You Hurt My Feelings than the two lead actors to want to watch it. Sold!

    I prefer just buying what I want to watch vs having subscriptions. It’s usually $4 to rent something on Amazon vs $10-16 for HBO, Netflix, Hulu etc and if you add up all of the months that I’ve had one of those services and never watched anything, clearly the $4 a pop is worth it.

    • J

      January 8, 2024 at 7:39 pm

      I agree in theory, but sadly enough, we pay for a lot of subscriptions around here as well. We do use them, though, so that’s something. The Holdovers was expensive, it was $20, but we own it now and can watch whenever we want to. Still cheaper than going to the movie, I guess, and we can watch it again if we want to.

  • Lisa’s Yarns

    January 7, 2024 at 6:06 am

    I really want to watch the first one as I’ve heard about it from multiple people but all 3 sound great! Anything with scenes of Paris is sure to be a hit for me so that elevates the 3rd one!

    We so rarely watch movies! We tend to watch documentaries or things like that. We are watching the Beckham docuseries in Netflix now. It’s really interesting. I can’t wrap my mind around how awful he was treated when England lost a World Cup game and he was blamed for the loss. Sports fans can be truly awful people.

  • Nicole MacPherson

    January 7, 2024 at 7:27 am

    These all sound really good! The only “new” movie we watched over the holidays was The Family Switch and it was kind of dumb, but fun. These sound like something I would like.

  • Ally Bean

    January 7, 2024 at 10:54 am

    Thanks for your reviews of these movies. All sound interesting to me. I don’t think I’ve heard of any of them, but that’s nothing new. I’m never in the know about movies. That’s why I rely on bloggy friends like you!

    • J

      January 8, 2024 at 7:44 pm

      Long ago, we used to go to the movies a couple times a week. Ted spent some time as a film major, so he was interested in seeing almost anything. Then we got a little older and had less time, but would still go most weekends. Then we had our daughter, and it dropped WAY off. We were up to maybe once a month or so, but then COVID, and we’ve never gotten our complete mojo back, even watching at home. I did used to like getting a newspaper and reading the reviews on Fridays. I guess I could still do that, we subscribe to newspapers online, but it doesn’t feel the same.

  • Ernie

    January 7, 2024 at 3:17 pm

    OMG – I am crazy about Paul Giamatti. Love him in Sideways. Such a hoot. I saw commercials for this moive and I really want to see it. I’m glad to hear that you liked it. I also am happy to hear the other movies are good too. I haven’t heard of You Hurt My Feelings, but it feels oddly relatable. 😉

    We are often stuck trying to find a movie that we like, so I appreciate the recommendations. We just started watching Longshot last night. It’s old, and it isn’t exactly deep. I was in the mood for something light and fun and it made me laugh. Seth Rogen is hilarious.

    • J

      January 8, 2024 at 7:45 pm

      You Hurt My Feelngs was totally relatable in a lot of ways, and then also not. I’m not sure I would want to be friends with the characters.

  • nance

    January 9, 2024 at 6:48 am

    Rick and I just watched Good Grief and we both liked it. I would watch Dan Levy in anything, I think, and his eye for direction is extraordinary. The restaurant scene with all the pink feathers is perfection, and so is the one in the tiny cafe when Sophie drags in her huge luggage. That one was so beautifully symbolic and ironic.

    I thought the denouement was rushed and a little pat, but overall, the film was good. He’s so talented.

    • J

      January 9, 2024 at 10:10 am

      I’m glad that you saw it and liked it! I agree with you about the denouement, but it did leave me fairly satisfied. Kind of a romantic comedy where the romance was the friend group rather than a partner. I liked that.

  • Tobia | craftaliciousme

    January 11, 2024 at 8:01 am

    I’ve not watched any of the movis you have talked about. Honestly I haven’t even heard of them.

    Lately I am not really into the movie watching mood. I feel like all i want to do is read my books. I guess its a phase.

    Glad you enjoyed them all and if I come across them I know you recommend.