This is What Happens When You See the Thanksgiving 2025 Movies During One Week in December

December 11, 2025

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Thank you to the movies! (CREDIT (Clockwise from left): Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features;
Walt Disney Animation Studios/Screenshot; A24)

Zootopia 2

Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Andy Samberg, Fortune Feimster, Idris Elba, Patrick Warburton, Shakira, Quinta Brunson, Danny Trejo, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Jenny Slate

Directors: Jared Bush and Byron Howard

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Rating: PG

Release Date: November 26, 2025 (Theaters)

Hamnet

Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, Jacobi Jupe, David Wilmot, Olivia Lynes, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Freya Hannan-Mills, Dainton Anderson, Elliot Baxter, Noah Jupe

Director: Chloé Zhao

Running Time: 126 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: November 26, 2025 (Theaters)

Eternity

Starring: Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, John Early, Olga Merediz, Betty Buckley, Barry Primus

Director: David Freyne

Running Time: 114 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: November 26, 2025 (Theaters)

And now, I’m going to discuss my reaction to three films that came out in time for Thanksgiving but that I didn’t get around to seeing until December. Nevertheless, I shall reveal what I am thankful for regarding each of them, because it’s important to practice gratitude throughout the year.

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Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti Reunite for ‘The Holdovers,’ Making a Few New Holiday Friends Along the Way

October 24, 2023

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Hold it! (CREDIT: Seacia Pavao / © 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC)

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston, Andrew Garman, Naheem Garcia, Michael Provost, Brady Hepner, Jim Kaplan, Ian Dolley, Gillian Vigman, Tate Donovan

Director: Alexander Payne

Running Time: 133 Minutes

Rating: R for Cranky Curmudgeonliness and Teenage Boys Being Teenage Boys

Release Date: October 27, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Merry Christmas! Why, it’s still merely October, you say? Well, having the holidays thrusted upon you a couple months early is surely a more bearable fate than that borne by Barton Academy prep school student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) and his hidebound history teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) in the early 1970s. Angus is stuck at school over the winter break because his mom (Gillian Vigman) and stepdad (Tate Donovan) are too busy jet-setting, while Paul pulls the short end of the faculty stick as the guardian for all the kids who don’t have anywhere else to go. This is a formula that’s promising an explosive clash of strong personalities, but maybe head of the cafeteria Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) can help to extinguish the eruptions.

What Made an Impression?: Not-So-Hidden Layers: If you’re 18 or younger, then Mr. Hunham will probably strike you as an absolute nightmare. I’m pretty sure everyone had at least one teacher who was so soul-crushingly set in his ways. But older viewers will likely be more willing to extend him if not affection, then certainly understanding. Right from the jump, he reveals that he’s more complicated than the stodgy traditionalist he’s presented as, and obviously a character played by Paul Giamatti and directed by Alexander Payne was always going to be plenty three-dimensional. The specifics of those dimensions mainly have to do with his frustration that’s directed at a world that appears to be falling apart as well as all the young, privileged kids who are blissfully unaware of their inoculation against all that.
Kindred Spirits: When Angus and Paul’s antagonism eventually begins to soften into something resembling mentorship, it’s because of that time-honored tradition of seeing themselves in each other. As it turns out, they’ve both been handicapped by some pretty bum deals in life, and they go about their days with simmering anger shaping pretty much every one of their actions. They’re the kind of people who secretly shoulder burdens all by themselves, only to generate a ton of sympathy when the truths are uncovered. They go through quite a rocky start, but it’s ultimately a blessing that they’ve found each other.
A True Three-Hander: I can imagine a version of The Holdovers that features just Angus and Paul as its only two characters, and that version probably would have been pretty satisfying. But the version we actually get is even more so, thanks to the straight-shooting performance of Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Mary is notably more emotionally open than everyone around her, which allows her to serve as the enzyme to get Paul to open up, at least a little bit. There’s a sweet early scene in which he joins her while she’s watching The Newlywed Game. He’s never watched it before, so he pinpoints the premise as a recipe for disaster, which she assures him is exactly the point. And ultimately this movie demonstrates that being open to even small new experiences like this one can start nudging us towards exactly where we need to go.

The Holdovers is Recommended If You Like: Rushmore, Armageddon Time, The Way Way Back

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 History Exams

‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ Shoots for the Stars!

December 19, 2022

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When You Wish Upon a Puss in Boots… (CREDIT: Dreamworks Animation)

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillén, John Mulaney, Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, Wagner Moura, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Anthony Mendez, Kevin McCann, Betsy Sodaro

Director: Joel Crawford

Running Time: 102 Minutes

Rating: PG for Cartoon Kitty Catastrophes

Release Date: December 21, 2022 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: A talking cat? A talking, swashbuckling cat?! Well, yes indeed. We’ve known this debonair furball for years at this point. Decades even. He lives in a fairy tale world where plenty of the animals are anthropomorphized, after all. Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) has had no trouble making a name for himself. But alas, he seems to be losing a bit of his mojo lately. And when you’re a feline, that means having only one of your reputed nine lives left to spare. But this being a fairy tale world and all, there exist methods for magical restoration. So when Puss hears about the existence of a Wishing Star, he naturally wants to get his claws on it. But he’s not the only one, as Jack Horner (John Mulaney), Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the three bears (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo), and Puss’ old flame Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) all have their own plans to procure the star’s powers. Also, Harvey Guillén voices a dog.

What Made an Impression?: If the only Shrek film you’ve seen previously was the first one, you could be forgiven for not realizing that Puss in Boots: The Last Wish takes place in the same universe. Sure, both of them are populated by fairy tale characters, but their modus operandi are totally different. Where the green ogre was irreverent, his feline colleague is more purely adventurous. The likes of Jack Horner, Goldi, and Pinocchio are thein window dressing in a sense, with their cultural histories mostly beside the point. The Last Wish‘s spacey climax on the Wishing Star feels like something out of an LSD trip, or a Super Mario video game, which is to say: not at all what I was expecting.

In that vein, The Last Wish actually reminded me of Halloween Ends, insofar as they’re both latter-day franchise entries with confoundingly unpredictable narrative left turns. In both cases, it’s plenty fascinating, and I suspect it will be easier to get away with this time around, since Puss doesn’t have to bear the weight of expectations that Michael Myers does. If his creators want to make his latest adventure more fantastical than any corner of the Shrek universe has ever been, then there’s really no reason not to. It certainly gives the voice cast something new to bite into, to the point that John Mulaney appears to be experiencing Heath Ledger-as-Joker-level glee in his revolution of a classic character. There’s room to color outside the lines here, and I can’t complain about that.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is Recommended If You Like: Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart, John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch

Grade: 3 out of 5 Swords

And You May Ask Yourself: What Awaits Us in ‘The Lost City’?

March 22, 2022

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The Lost City (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Patti Harrison, Oscar Nuñez, Brad Pitt, Raymond Lee, Bowen Yang

Directors: Aaron and Adam Nee

Running Time: 112 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for A Few Bursts of Violence and Strategically Shot Nudity

Release Date: March 25, 2022 (Limited)

Should The Lost City be discovered, or should it remain lost? That is the question. Or maybe it’s not really the question, but I’ll nevertheless go ahead and ask it because I’d like to have something to focus this review around. And by bringing up the topic of focus, I don’t mean to imply that this film lacks focus. Far from it, in fact! You heard it here first, folks: this is a movie with a straightforward plot that’s easy to follow. Sandra Bullock plays Loretta Sage, a novelist who gets kidnapped and taken to a legendary location from her latest book, while Channing Tatum plays the ditzy cover model who attempts to rescue her, and eventually they make their way out the other end. It’s globe-trotting, high-stakes fun that’s designed to be oohed, ahhed, and laughed at. And I imagine that pretty dang close to 100% of audiences will know exactly when to provide those gasps and chuckles.

So if I have one big criticism about The Lost City, it’s that it’s perhaps a little too straightforward. I hoped for some charming repartee between Bullock and Tatum, as well as a full course of comic relief supporting performances from the likes of Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Patti Harrison, and Bowen Yang. And that’s exactly what I got! But not much more. There’s one surprising development early on involving one of the biggest stars, but afterwards I was left with a sense of, “Yes, that was an adventure.” Here’s the deal: if you’re going to cast Daniel Radcliffe as an eccentric billionaire villain, things should probably get unabashedly weird. Instead, they only get kind of weird. Who knows, maybe I was just infected by the malaise that Loretta was giving off by resenting her career and audience.

But here’s what stuck with me in a welcome way, and why The Lost City might just be worth tracking down. A showcase scene involves Bullock peeling leeches off Tatum after a jungle river swim, which necessitates him dropping trou to make sure she checks every crack and crevice. They keep it PG-13, but this is a classic case of survival-minded lack of modesty that keeps things rolling along. And then there’s an unforgettable performance from Oscar Nuñez (aka Oscar from The Office) as a guy who has a plane and a goat. It makes sense in context, or at least part of it does. And the rest that remained nonsensical is where I derived most of my joy from. So I guess my answer is: I’d like to find this titular city while still feeling like I’m at a loss.

The Lost City is Recommended If You Like: Sandra Bullock unexpectedly witnessing her male co-stars in the buff

Grade: 3 out of 5 Cover Models