The Best Man Holiday

A group of friends who have known each other since college come together at Christmas fifteen years later. Old fights, old relationships and the book that caused those fights are all still in the room. There is also an unannounced reason for this reunion. The film is not interested in nostalgia. It is interested in accounts still open in middle age: most of these people have seen the peak of their careers and are starting to lose ground. It begins as comedy and turns in its second half into a heavy story of illness. The form is ensemble: a crowded house, parallel conversations, and emotional scenes carried by music. This is the sequel to The Best Man from 1999, and almost the entire cast returned: Taye Diggs, Morris Chestnut, Terrence Howard, Nia Long, Sanaa Lathan and Regina Hall. Malcolm D. Lee wrote and directed again. Its box office success prompted argument in America and was cited as one of the results that unsettled the assumption that films with Black casts appeal to a narrow audience. Who it is for: people who saw the first film and viewers who like friendship-group drama. Who it is not for: anyone who wants a consistent tone. The turn from comedy to tragedy is abrupt and the film pushes the emotional pressure all the way.