Starring Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, 'The Holdovers' is a surprisingly and lovely film from Alexander Payne.
This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.It’s been almost two decades since Alexander Payne teamed up with Paul Giamatti for Sideways, which earned Payne his first Best Picture nomination and an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Amongst the handful of students left behind is Angus Tilly , a promising student who can’t help but get in trouble. Staying at the school of her own accord is Mary Lamb , the school’s head cook, whose only son recently died in Vietnam. Together whether they like it or not, this small group tries to make the best of their holidays in the mostly empty school.
Also making this possible is a trifecta of fantastic performances that are hilarious, deeply moving, and tenderhearted. Giamatti is brilliant here as a teacher who has seen decades of kids who he claims are “born lucky,” and can skate by on their rich parents and good looks. As The Holdovers moves forward, we see how his bitter view of the world came to be, and we understand that he’s more than just a hardass who wants to keep his students under his thumb.
Payne and Hemington are able to take Paul’s love of history and utilize that as a way to explore these three who have had difficult pasts and need to learn from this for their present. In a trend that’s mostly consistent in Payne’s work, this is also a film about the ruts we get stuck in and the push it takes to get out of them—or the ruts we might not even realize we’re in.
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