MovieChat Forums > The Holdovers (2023) Discussion > A Review

A Review

posted 6 months ago by LDMcCoy (140)
4 replies | jump to latest

A new holiday-themed movie titled "The Holdovers" started playing over the weekend. I saw an early access showing of this movie the week of IndieMemphis and it might be my favorite movie of the year. Or at the very least my favorite screenplay. Paul Giamatti plays a tight-ass instructor at a 1970s New England boarding school charged with looking after a group of boys who don't have a place to go over the Christmas holiday.

This is another funny, moving, and insightful comedy from Alexander Payne who per usual finds humor the best tool to explore characters' inner sadness. While not particularly likable, it becomes evident that this professor isn't inherently a mean individual. Just one who has become so alone, so cold, that he wraps himself in a cocoon of isolation as a way out of showing warmth to everyone around him. Except for the school's cafeteria manager, played by Da'Vine Joy-Randolph, who is quietly working through griefs and pains of her own. "The Holdovers" is a near perfect examination of how human beings sometimes put up emotional shields when around others to mask their own hurting.

The dialogue is as smart as it is snappy and the characters multidimensional. Although Payne didn't write the movie himself, you could easily believe he did with how fully realized the characters are and how convincingly they talk. Made me think of "Sideways," which still remains my favorite movie from him. Giamatti and Randolph both give terrific performances as does newcomer Dominic Sessa as an emotionally troubled but intelligent youth who like his chaperoning teacher learns to find compassion for others even though he has been shown so little of it himself.

[–] PaladinNJ (20326) 6 months ago

it looks like it could be interesting.

[–] BrandNewPoster (6739) 4 months ago

I watched this today. It's an enjoyable film, well written and with good performances. 8/10 is my rating and I would rank it as the 10th best film of the year out of what I have seen.

[–] yatzo376 (7468) 4 months ago

Loved it, great 1970 vibe throughout!

[–] Jes' Sayin' (5990) 3 months ago

We liked it a great deal too.

Creates its own little believable, interesting world of the early 70s.

Reminded me of Goodbye Mr. Chips and The Breakfast Club, both great films to be associated with.

Giamatti's character could really be an older version of the guy from Sideways. I think the fact that he's named "Paul" means Payne wrote it for Giamatti.

Sadly, we don't get many films like this anymore.

At least there was a young person lead in a film that wasn't played by Chalamet! :) He has been pretty much monopolizing them lately. Was kind of wondering though, was it a condition of hiring that the actor be able to dislocate his shoulder?

The only thing that I wish this film had was something that was downright over the top. Not for the sake of having it, but because it lends a certain balance to the film. In Sideways, after things catch up with Miles' friend and he has to pass through the ostrich farm and he reports all that, it's hilarious! And then he tops it by insisting they fake a car accident! Way too much, but it really makes all the rest of the film so much better.