Paul Hunham is a surly professor at the notable Barton Academy. Disliked by students and most of the staff alike, Paul becomes the unlikely choice to take charge of the “holdovers”—those students who find themselves staying at school instead of going home—for the holidays. With all of his fellow students gone, Angus Tully, finds himself spending the holiday break with Paul and the school’s cook, Mary Lamb. Here are a few movie mistakes to look for while watching “The Holdovers”.

· Paul Hunham is in Dr. Woodrup’s office where he’s being asked to watch the Holdovers for the Christmas break. Woodrup signs the paper and puts the pen on the desk, to his left. A moment later, the pen is on the desk mat, on Woodrup’s right. It cuts to a right side (behind Woodrup’s shoulder) view and the pen has been moved again. The scene cuts back to the front view of Woodrup when they mention Senator Osgood’s son and the pen is to the left. The pen continues to move back and forth during the rest of the scene.

· Paul brings out the plate of Christmas cookies Lydia gave to him and places them on the table for Mary and Angus. The snowflakes are toward the middle edges of the plate with the green tree near the bottom. When Paul picks up a mitten and starts to take a bite, the cookies have been rearranged. The green tree is toward the middle-left side of the plate while one snowflake cookie is near the bottom and the other is near the top next to the gingerbread cookie. Angus asks to the go the bathroom and the close-up of Paul shows the cookies are back in their original positions.

· Also during this scene, when Paul takes a bite of the mitten cookie, his fork is on his plate, in a vertical position, with the handle facing toward him. The handle faces toward the right a moment later when he says, “I’m trying”.

“The Holdovers” (2023) stars Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston, Andrew Garman, and Naheem Garcia. It runs 133 minutes and is rated R for language, some drug use and brief sexual material.

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Ready for some classic animation for the holidays? Check out my lists of Must See Rankin-Bass Holiday Shows and 31 Days of Christmas Movies.

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