A portmanteau of "holiday" and "date", this is a 2020 romcom about two people agreeing to be each other's holiday-only dates. Of course, Romance Ensues.
Sloane (Emma Roberts), a 30 year old single woman, is caught at a depressing (for her) Christmas dinner with all her siblings having partners and her mother pestering her about finding a boyfriend. At the same moment, Jackson (Luke Bracey) is stuck at the home of his Tinder date who introduces him to her pair of overbearing parents, and feeling pressured into a relationship he doesn't want, he runs away.
Sloane and Jackson run into each other shortly afterwards and after airing their grievances, they agree on an idea Sloane heard from her aunt: be each other's "holidate", only they agree to make it a standing arrangement for all holidays in the coming year.
Tropes:
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: In the beginning, Jackson's girlfriend throws him on her bed, undresses him and initiates a blowjob to his reluctance and discomfort. While the woman is portrated as clingy and unstable, the scene is entirely Played for Laughs.
- Friends with Benefits: The trope is discussed (in what might be a Shout-Out for the eponymous movie from 2011 which also features two people fed up with traditional dating who agree on that trope and eventually fall in love) but Sloane dismisses it, saying it never works and demanding that they only go as platonic dates and never have sex. This doesn't work out.
- Fingore: While playing with firecrackers on the 4th of July, Jackson blows off his finger. Faruq fixes it but Jackson complains he botched the job on purpose and that months after he can't "flip a proper bird".
- Potty Emergency: Sloane when going home after the Halloween party (while unknowingly having taken laxatives which her sister offered her, thinking they were chill pills). Being caught in a very tight dress, she has to ask Jackson to rip it while they're still in the elevator while strangers are looking. She doesn't make it.
- Romantic False Lead: Faruq. He gets introduced as the Easter Holidate of Susan's Sloane's aunt. Sloane's mother tries to push him on Sloane because unlike Jackson he's smart, great with kids and a doctor, but despite some initial interest for her, Faruq eventually ends up with Susan.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Sloane. Her first line is a bitter "Fucking holidays". She also specifically tries to get her brother's uptight fiancee to loosen up by yelling "Fuck".
- Suspiciously Specific Denial:
- Sloane when she wakes up after she and Jackson have had drunken sex.
Sloane: ... There's nothing dried on my leg... there's no wrapper on the floor...- Jackson whenever he has to hide his attraction to Sloane, such as telling her he doesn't find her attractive at the beginning and then denying that he wants to have sex with her. Problem is, she buys it.
- Second-Act Breakup: The two finally admit their attraction to each other, have sex and then each of them gets scared that the other wants to keep things casual.
- Twice Shy: An example which occurs after they have slept together: both Sloane and Jackson are vulnerable about admitting that they have feelings for each other, so each takes the other's hesitation to stay the morning after to mean that the other doesn't want to.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: Sloane manages to get Jackson to perform the lift scene from Dirty Dancing at a New Year Eve party. Unfortunately, Sloane's dress rips open exposing her breast to the entire club.
