For this Friday Movie Night, we’re watching two of the most critically-acclaimed films of the year. First up is the best-reviewed Pakistani film of any kind to date: Joyland (2022), a romance about a young man from a conservative family who gets into dance theatre and starts woogin’ for a trans actor. Romance and struggle ensue. Pretty much universal acclaim for this one since its Western premiere earlier this year, and really, how often does a Pakistani gay romance come along? Let’s watch. After that will be the first of our Christmas-themed films this month, with the highly-acclaimed new dramedy The Holdovers (2023), the latest film of Oscar darling Alexander Payne (Election [1999], Sideways [2004], Nebraska [2013]). Some students at a prep school are too poor to go home for Christmas break, so a curmudgeonly professor (played by Paul Giamatti) has to look after them. Hilarity and feel-good antics ensue. Will they learn to understand each toher? Who can say? Anyway, this is likely to be up for some awards, and has received extremely good reviews, so we’re checking it out.

We’ll start at 9PM EST on Hextube, right here: https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

• Joyland: https://letterboxd.com/film/joyland-2022/
• The Holdovers: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-holdovers/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• Joyland: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/885225
• The Holdovers: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/789816

CWs for Joyland:

• Alcohol abuse.
• Deaths of animals.
• Death of parent.
• Cheating.
• Someone wets themselves.
• Vomiting.
• Spitting.
• Hospital scene.
• Suicide.
• Flashing lights.
• Pregnancy.
• Death of pregnant person.
• Childbirth.
• Homophobia.
• Homophobic slurs.
• “Man in a dress” joke.
• Sex.
• Sad ending.
• Blood and gore.

CWs for The Holdovers:

• Child abandonment.
• Alcohol abuse.
• Dislocated shoulder.
• Death of child.
• Someone wets themselves.
• Mental institution scene.
• Hospital scene.
• Mental illness.
• Depression.
• Black character dies first.
• Sex jokes. No sex decpicted.
• Sad ending.

Links to movies:

• Joyland: https://vimeo.com/892786863
• The Holdovers: https://vimeo.com/892789373