Lost Holiday

As a artist in my late, late, late fifties...I'm sixty three, I thought this movie was not going to be my nor my wife's kind of movie. It was about younger people in their 20s, millennials if you will, that were still partying their lives away and not giving a damn about what happens on any given evening. Especially when it's the holiday season (in this case, Christmas/New Years) and everyone is back home from where ever they may be coming from, reacquainting themselves with their old friends (for better or worse) and tiptoeing around old lovers and the life partners they are now with. William Jackson Harper did a nice job keeping the tension just under the radar of his watchful wife played by Allie Gallerandi. So, if you want to see a typical "were too old to be partying like this' movie, the first act is totally this! My wife and I were both rolling our eyes at the antics of the characters, 'been there, done that, I don't need to watch a movie about it'. This attitude nearly made us miss the second act turn. We had to play catch up to figure out what was going on. Don't do what we did, just watch the movie and pay attention!

I'm not sure I want to say much more about the sequence of events from this point. Let's just say, it becomes a whole lot more interesting and is totally worth the time it takes to watch the movie.

Kate Lyn Sheil provides a strong female lead that has a vulnerability that draws you in, but also the strength to take control of a situation when it's called for. A nice solid support from Thomas Matthews as sidekick / comic relief, never lets the movie drag or get too over-the-top with gags. Since he co-wrote and co-directed this film along with his brother, Michael Matthews, I assume this was by design, so bravo to you both.

Shot on 16mm film, (yep, the kind you have to develop) it has a classic look of a sixties exploitation film and I think this could even become one of those cult like films you sit down and watch now and then for the performances and the retro look of the film.

I know it's going to be a streaming film and there are a lot of platforms that are going to carry it. Find it on your favorite and make an evening of it. Maybe take some 'shrooms, pop some corn and crack a beer.

LOST HOLIDAY is a French New Wave-style screwball detective story...imagine BAND OF OUTSIDERS meets THE THIN MAN...or maybe more on the nose: MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY for Millennials. (Sorry, that's probably too trite, I know.)

Kate Lyn Sheil gives yet another masterful performance as a completely original female character we've never seen on screen before (Nicole Holofcener should write something for KLS immediately). And she's match perfectly with the churlish Thomas Matthews...in a truly platonic, trope-defying relationship that lives in the chemistry of actual BFFs...again, something that wouldn't even occur to a lesser filmmaker.

The rest of the cast is a who's who of "that guys"...faces you might not expect to see in a low budget affair like LOST HOLIDAY (or in a movie at all: David Corn?!). Each bringing a fresh energy to the proceedings: William Jackson Harper as the love lost, Allie Gallerani as his impossibly perfect fiance, Ismenia Mendes as the entitled victim of circumstance...I really can't say enough for the performances co-directors Thomas and Michael Matthews get out of these folks.

Look, LOST HOLIDAY may not be your thing. There is certainly an anarchist spirit to the film-at least in the way the brothers Matthews insist on both honoring and subverting the genre...sometimes within the same scene-that can make an audience member feel like maybe they aren't in on the joke. But still...by doggedly holding on to this fresh and unusual vision, this isn't a film you won't want to miss.

It's funny, yet poignant. The acting, particularly the male and female leads, is terrific. The writing is taut and clever.

It was a solid movie from someone with no budget and film school actors. That's it. I could go on (especially about the comparisons to Chandler and the Thin Man) but really, what's the point?

It's worth a watch if you just really love movies (especially way off beat ones) and are really bored.

So the 10 & 9 star reviews have to be written by people involved with the movie (or they asked people to create positive reviews). Cause this "movie" (you can't really call it a movie) is entirely stupid and bad. It is extremely pretentious of these "filmmakers" and "actors" to expect anyone to actually like it.