Holidate (2020)
Directed by John Whitesell
Fed up with being single on holidays, two strangers agree to be each other's platonic plus-ones all year long, only to catch real feelings along the way.
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12 films that influenced Holidate
What critics say influenced Holidate
Notwithstanding the fact that this movie features a Dirty Dancing -inspired fantasy sequence nine years after Crazy, Stupid, Love made fun of the exact same fantasy in a much smarter way, there are simply too many out-loud verbalizations of the “stuff that always happens” in romantic comedies in Holidate that its script decides to effectively duplicate without adding a twist or really even an acknowledgment that it’s doing itself.
When Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey (who certainly look the part as rom-com leads) do get to go full rom-com, such as with a Dirty Dancing lift at New Year's Eve or the inevitable public declaration, they have plenty of chemistry to make the individual moments work.
“Holidate” nods more than a few times to some classics but also pulls off a slightly intergenerational treat with Sloane and Jack riffing on the Ryan Gosling version of Patrick Swayze’s “Dirty Dancing” scene from “Crazy Stupid Love.”
“Holidate” nods more than a few times to some classics but also pulls off a slightly intergenerational treat with Sloane and Jack riffing on the Ryan Gosling version of Patrick Swayze’s “Dirty Dancing” scene from “Crazy Stupid Love.”
“Human beings aren’t meant to be alone on holidays,” Jackson says urgently, with big Love Actually “at Christmas you tell the truth” energy.
Still, you're not doing yourself a huge favor by queuing up John Whitesell's Holidate (now playing on Netflix) and hoping for a Love Actually or Set It Up or even A Christmas Prince , which is unforgivably bad but somehow undeniably, unbelievably watchable.
Set in Chicago (but shot in Atlanta), the film achieves a generic cleanliness in the hands of director John Whitesell (“Deck the Halls,” two “Big Momma’s House” sequels).
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Holidate might not be on the same level of Home Alone , Elf, or National Lampoon’s Xmas Vacation but there’s enough here worthy of repeat viewings.
Though the film marks the official launch of an expansive Netflix holiday slate that also includes sequels to Vanessa Hudgens’ cheesy romance The Princess Switch and Kurt Russell’s family adventure The Christmas Chronicles , Holidate is more in line with the bawdy ethos of Office Christmas Party or A Bad Moms Christmas —at least until it fully embraces the rom-com hokiness it lampoons at the start.
Though the film marks the official launch of an expansive Netflix holiday slate that also includes sequels to Vanessa Hudgens’ cheesy romance The Princess Switch and Kurt Russell’s family adventure The Christmas Chronicles , Holidate is more in line with the bawdy ethos of Office Christmas Party or A Bad Moms Christmas —at least until it fully embraces the rom-com hokiness it lampoons at the start.
If you want a raunchy will-they-won’t-they rom-com in which two attractive people try to keep their relationship platonic, I’d suggest avoiding “Holidate” and watching Lesley Headland’s “Sleeping With Other People” instead.
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Set in Chicago (but shot in Atlanta), the film achieves a generic cleanliness in the hands of director John Whitesell (“Deck the Halls,” two “Big Momma’s House” sequels).
Director John Whitesell ( Big Momma’s House 2 , Deck The Halls ) utilizes a bright, slightly fished-eyed aesthetic that calls to mind mid-aughts single-camera comedies like Ugly Betty and Glee, or even Ryan Murphy’s early series Popular.
Holidate , directed by John Whitesell ( Big Momma’s House 2 ) and written by Tiffany Paulsen ( Nancy Drew ), stars Emma Roberts as Sloane, a 20-something-year-old who, while is an independent woman with a successful job, is constantly nagged on by her family and friends for being single.
Instead, Paulsen and director John Whitesell ( Malibu’s Most Wanted ) flirt with a lot of ideas at arm’s length in exactly the way that Sloane and Jackson initially do with each other.