The Holiday
Tonight's HATM watch party movie
Guys, I love Christmas movies. Like, I love them. I even love Hallmark-style Christmas movies (ok, I have an unhealthy addiction to them but that’s for another post). So I thought maybe, just maybe, we’d get the holiday season kicked off a little early around here, because God knows we need it. And to quote from one of my favorite songs from the early 00s, I believe in a thing called love. So tonight’s HATM watch party is The Holiday (2006), starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, and an incredibly charming turn from Eli Wallach. If you’ve never seen it, here is the trailer:
We’ve picked up both a bunch of new followers since the move to Blue Sky a few months ago and the readership of this substack is up recently by about 150%. Guys, we are rolling. So I thought maybe a primer is in order for those of you who have never participated in a Historians At The Movies watch party before.
First things first: EVERYONE is invited. Yes, it’s called Historians At The Movies but that’s really because I made up this watch party on the fly six and a half years ago and needed a name and a hashtag. So #HATM was born back in 2018 and has been going every weekend since. It’s the longest running watch party on the internet and it’s filled with people from all walks of life. So if you like history or movies or people, come along.
How to play along:
First, follow me on Blue Sky. https://bsky.app/profile/herberthistory.bsky.social. You can also search for the hashtag #HATM.
HATM movies always start at 8pm eastern and are usually available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney+. Tonight’s movie is available on Amazon Prime. So you’ll wanna cue that up.
Around 7:45 eastern I’ll start a thread on Blue Sky, welcoming everyone to HATM and usually kick it off with a couple questions to get things started.
I’ll announce when to press play, but just hit play on the movie at exactly 8pm eastern. Then just skeet along with the movie, tagging your posts with #HATM so that everyone can find you and follow along.
And that’s pretty much it. At the end of the day, HATM is really just a bunch of friends around the world sharing a movie together. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry, sometimes we historicize. But we always do it as a community.
So if you want a night off or just to relax and enjoy a movie with friends, I hope you make it out tonight.
HATM Podcast
If you’re a new follower, did you know about the Historians At The Movies Podcast? Every Thursday we release a new episode. The basic idea is that historians use a movie as a platform to talk about the histories behind it. Sometimes they’re serious, sometimes they’re silly, but they’re always fun. This week’s film is actually a deep dive into the cultural zeitgeist of the 1980s via The Terminator with HATM standbys Craig Bruce Smith and Robert Greene II. Links are below and we’ve got a lot of cool episodes coming so make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.
Reckoning
Finally, on Tuesday we officially launch our new podcast, Reckoning with Jason Herbert. This is a different conversation show than we’ve done before and I am really excited to share it with you. More on that in a couple days.
Alright guys, that’s about it tonight. Hope you are enjoying your weekend and that you can make it out tonight. See ya soon.
JWH