November Highlights Part 1: The Holdovers & The Marvels

November has started off well in the theaters. This weekend do you want to see a quiet comedy-drama set over Christmas in New England at a nearly empty boys' boarding school? Or do you want to see the latest blockbuster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that features three incredible female superheroes? Let's be real, it's not a choice, you should do both.

The Holdovers: Written by David Hemingson and directed by Alexander Payne, this movie is an absolute delight. Set in New England in 1970 during the winter break at a boys' prep school, we follow the adventures of the cantankerous Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti, who is sublime as a Grinch who does have a heart hidden in there somewhere as we unpeel his backstory), the Ancient Civilizations teacher that none of the boys like but who has agreed to serve as the sole supervisor for any students who aren't going home for the holidays. Initially there's a small group of boys who are "held over" for the break, and none are happy about it, but the least happy is Angus (Dominic Sessa), who thought he was heading to a sunny beach vacay in St. Kitts but gets a call from his mother at the last minute that she is taking a honeymoon with his new stepfather instead and he has to stay back at school. 

Eventually, Angus is the only boy left at the school as the others manage to find other plans, so it's just him, Mr. Hunham, and Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph, in a truly wonderful performance), the school's cafeteria manager. This is a particularly hard Christmas for Mary, because her only son has just died in Vietnam - unlike the other rich kids who ordinarily attend this school, he didn't have the luxury of being able to just head straight to college after graduation. So you have this very odd trio trying to survive Christmas together, while they all feel extremely alone in very different ways. It's a beautiful story, compellingly told, and the ways in which these people find points of commonality and come together over the course of two weeks is truly a Christmas miracle. This is the perfect bittersweet holiday movie, a wonderful character study, and a simple cinematic pleasure that will warm the cockles of your heart on even the most blustery winter day.

The Marvels: Directed by Nia DaCosta who co-wrote the screenplay with Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik, this movie is sheer entertainment from start to finish (which is only 105 minutes, the shortest Marvel movie to date). Starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani as Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau (they're workshopping a superhero name), and Ms. Marvel respectively, this is a story about how these three disparate superheroes have their powers entangled, forcing them to become a dream team that have to fight together to help battle some aliens who seem determined to destroy multiple planets. The stakes are high, but the people who wrote this movie were higher. 

There are a LOT of goofy elements in this movie and your mileage may vary when it comes to cats that spew tentacles out of their mouths or a random musical interlude with some aliens who only speak in song. But none of that matters where you look at the central trio and the amazing choreography afoot as they have to learn to work together and use their powers in concert with each other. It's really clever and fun and visually spectacular. And of course, Ms. Marvel's family members also feature prominently throughout the movie, which meant there were lots of random lines in Hindi/Urdu that were not captioned and felt like they were thrown in just as a sly aside to me. Representation matters, people! This is a fun, zippy, entertaining ride on the Marvel train - I didn't remember any of the back story of these characters going into it, but you know what, that didn't matter. Just walk in and surrender to the power of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.