Hello, friends!

We have two films sticking around this week, offering one last chance to see both: Full Circle and Anatomy of a Fall. Heart-pounding, moving, and worth every moment on the big screen, Full Circle ends its run here with a final showing on Monday, Nov. 13. And, I urge you: don’t miss out on the chance to see Anatomy of a Fall while it’s here; it’s one of the most brilliant films of the year, well deserving both as winner of the Palme d’Or and the Palm Dog (!), certainly in contention for my favorite film of 2023, and it’ll have you talking and thinking long after the credits roll. The final showing of Anatomy of a Fall is Thursday, Nov. 16.

And beginning its full run this week is what surely will be one of the most delightful, wittily wry, heart-warming, and rewatchable films of the year, The Holdovers, from director Alexander Payne (Sideways, Nebraska, The Descendents, Election), and starring the inimitable Paul Giamatti, the wonderful Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and terrific newcomer Dominic Sessa. Payne has reportedly been a bit grumpy about some calling his new film “cozy,” but like it or not, the film absolutely hits some cozy notes, with the distinctly nostalgic texture of its overall look, a wintry Christmas setting, and a story of cold and lonely hearts finding human connection in unexpected places. 

That’s not to say, however, the film is in any way saccharine. Much like the beloved Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life (playing here this December), which tackles deep despair and broken dreams even as it affirms hope, The Holdovers, likewise, doesn’t ignore the fact that Christmas can be one of the loneliest times of the year for many. While laced with humor -- and plenty of laugh out loud moments -- it does not pretend grief vanishes under the warmth of holiday festivities, nor that everyone always gets a happily ever after. The Holdovers is, instead, a very human kind of film, and the experience of it as its story unfolds is much like the experience of getting to know a real person with all their complicated layers, beautiful but sometimes ugly, too. One of the great joys of the film is, indeed, in each of the three central characters: Giamatti, who plays the curmudgeonly teacher; Randolph, who plays the acerbic school cook; and Sessa, who plays a student with nowhere to go at Christmas. With each character, the film offers a first impression; we think we know who they are, perhaps a stereotype we’ve seen in other films. But then, at the next turn, a new aspect of who each is, is revealed -- and then yet another turn of the story overturns and deepens what we thought we knew about each. As such, the film grows deeper and warmer as it goes along, not because everybody’s perfect or everybody’s problems are solved, but because we get to encounter real human beings, messy, complicated human beings, who find in one another a sweet and unexpected companionship on the often painful journey that is life.  

At the end of It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Potter never comes to justice; the money he stole remains his; George Bailey never gets to travel the world; he never recovers his hearing in his injured ear; his house will always be a ramshackle one. The joy of the end is a joy that comes from companionship and love amidst the pain, not in spite of it. And The Holdovers follows that tradition as a film that will, I think, burrow deep in our hearts exactly because of its clear-eyed honest view of life, understanding joy cannot really be true when it pretends pain doesn’t exist and understanding the warmest hug is from that friend who acknowledges the grief and simply says, “I’m here.”  The Holdovers is a film that says, “I’m here,” and the laughs and tears it offers an audience are the richer and more lasting for it.    

In addition to The Holdovers, we also have three special event screenings: Castle in the Sky, Days of Being Wild, and May December: 

Days of Being Wild represents a return of our beloved Cinema East series, back for its 2023-24 season. Curated by Jeff Purdue, WWU Librarian and Asian cinema aficionado extraordinaire, Cinema East is the Pickford’s longest running series, and we’re kicking off this season with three of the most beloved films from Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, Days of Being Wild this Tuesday, 7:45, and then a luscious double feature of In the Mood for Love and 2046 on December 5.  Jeff will be introducing all three films in person at the screenings, and he’s offered Cinema East devotees a wonderful written introduction to Days of Being Wild in his newsletter this week, excerpted here: 

“Days of Being Wild was the second feature directed by Wong Kar-wai, after the surprise success of his debut, As Tears Go By.  Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau, and Jacky Cheung all appeared in that earlier film and are on hand for this one as well.  They are joined by Carina Lau, Rebecca Pan, and Tony Leung . . .  But the focus is on Leslie Cheung, and he has never been more charismatic than in this film.  With the exception of Pan, these were all rising young stars.  Despite the cast, the film flopped on its release, although its reputation has soared ever since.  There was really nothing else like it in Hong Kong at the time, but it was a clear sign of things to come for future Wong films.  . . .   

“ . . .  the core of what Wong was trying to capture had to do with telling a story about young people in search of their identities, of missed connections, and of nostalgia for the Hong Kong of the early 1960s.  This was the first of his films to be set in that time period, a setting he would return to in In the Mood for Love and 2046 . . . .  As a result, Days of Being Wild is often seen as the first part of an informal trilogy with those films about early-60s Hong Kong.  But while 2046 is explicitly a sequel of In the Mood for Love, Days of Being Wild does not exactly occupy the same story world as the other films.  And yet, there are suggestive parallels, and in some cases explicit ones.  . . .  

“The result is very much like a dream, even in the (producer-mandated) action sequences.  Days of Being Wild is the film that revealed Wong’s art to himself.  Through the chaos of his self-imposed working methods, collaborating with trusted associates like William Chang (art direction and editing) and Christopher Doyle (cinematography), and relying on the star power and charisma of actors he would return to again and again, Wong made a film haunted by his own and Chang’s memories of a lost Hong Kong.  This sense of loss would permeate all of his films going forward whether set in the past or not.”

Finally, I am absolutely beside myself with happiness to say we have been given the opportunity to bring to Pickford screens Todd Haynes’s new film May December, starring Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, and Charles Melton. May December is getting only a very limited theatrical release, meaning it’s opening in only some theaters nationally. A “limited” theatrical release is typically reserved for bigger cities, so it’s a particular delight to have the film on our screens here in Bellingham. While I’ve not yet had the chance to see the film myself, I would put anything by the great Todd Haynes on screen, especially with such a cast, and his narrative films Carol, Far from Heaven, I’m Not There, Safe, as well as the 2021 doc, Velvet Underground, are, of course, well known and beloved by PFC audiences, but the film is also getting an extraordinarily rare nearly universal praise from critics. I think it’s safe to say May December might be my most anticipated film of 2023, an anticipation ratcheted up even further after my friend Brian Formo, currently the Editorial Producer for Letterboxd, and one of my most-trusted friends when it comes to movies, told me he thought May December is “the best movie of the year.”  And the chance to see it on the big screen, right here in Bellingham for a limited time makes it even more special.  Join us for a special early screening of the film this Thursday, November 16, or don’t miss it, when it begins its brief but glorious run starting on Friday, November 17. 

See you at the movies, friends! 

Melissa