For the last of our offbeat holiday selections this year, we're talking about an instant new classic for us, The Holdovers! This film bridges the no-man's-land time between Christmas and New Year's Day, when time stretches, everything seems a little foggy, and it's easy to forget what day it is. We're thrilled to welcome first-time guest, long-time friend, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sanjay Salomon to discuss this film, which has many personal connections to his own youth growing up in Western Mass, at Deerfield Academy (main filming location) no less! We also talk about Alexander Payne's vision of The Holdovers as a part of the 70s film catalogue that includes some of our other favorite movies like Hal Ashby's Harold & Maude and The Last Detail, the top notch performances from Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and first time film actor Dominic Sessa, Ryan Warren Smith's production design that captures the true spirit of a New England winter, and the amazing score from Mark Orton, which draws heavily on 70s influences like Cat Stevens and somehow perfectly evokes both the time and the place of The Holdovers. Pour yourself a tall drink of your choice and ring in the New Year with us!

It's the most wonderful time of the year again, and that means it's time for our holiday special episode! This Christmas season, we decided to revisit a nostalgic animated favorite from childhood, the Rankin-Bass Frosty the Snowman holiday special. We discuss the origins of the song that inspired the cartoon, Jimmy Durante's excellent voiceover, Frosty's place within the Rankin-Bass holiday lineup, and our reactions to rewatching this special after many years. Hop a train to the North Pole with us, and don't forget your magic hat!

This week, our holiday episode is about an obscure little offbeat Christmas film that means a lot to us personally, A Midwinter's Tale - or In the Bleak Midwinter, if you're outside the US. Kenneth Branagh wrote and directed (but uncharacteristically, did not act in) this film about Joe Harper, an out-of-work actor who decides that an independent Christmas production of Hamlet is just the thing to somehow pull him out of his depression and get back on track. Fortunately, the magic of Shakespeare and live performance do come around in the end to remind Joe what life is all about. We discuss the unique relationships formed when working in theater (especially broke indie theater), the high emotions that occur when a group of actors are trapped together for long periods of time, how rehearsal and character work often beget psychological introspection, and this film's place as an unsung Christmas classic that harkens back to better known holiday fare like It's A Wonderful Life. This episode is for the entertainers--the people who are often out there working through the holidays, often for little more than the love of performing, creating family when they can't be with their own. Come tread the boards with us!