My wife and I stumbled across "The Chair" docuseries on Tubi, and- as I'm a filmmaker, found it very interesting. I thought the concept of the show was interesting but was infuriated by the final episode in which this film was not deemed the better one.
"Hollidaysburg" is, at least at the time of my writing this, available for free on Amazon Prime. I watched the film with my wife, honestly not expecting much. But it was good. Like really good. There is no indication that this was made by a young, inexperienced crew or a first time director. My only comments were a few strange cuts made to the final edit, but otherwise it was a flawless film.
I loved the characters, the story, the humor- all seemed realistic and relatable. I think it's crazy that Anna, Victor and Philip didn't get a writing credit on this! I can't imagine, especially having watched the series, that this- at all resembles the original script from Drew. Aside from character names and motivations, probably.
Having seen a bit of how the sausage is made, it probably skewed my opinion a little, but all the jokes landed, all the beats were there and I felt for all the characters. It was, in the truest sense of the word- a "good" film. It was full of heart and laughs and felt like probably the truest coming-of-age story I've ever seen. We really enjoyed it and I would recommend this to everyone we know.
Congrats Anna and crew for making a much better film than Shane's crapfest. I never had more respect for Zacahry Quinto than when he walked away from the other film via principle. (You gotta watch "The Chair" on Starz or Tubi).
