Current:Home > Stocks'The Holdovers' movie review: Paul Giamatti stars in an instant holiday classic-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
'The Holdovers' movie review: Paul Giamatti stars in an instant holiday classic
View Date:2024-12-23 23:03:22
Alexander Payne has gone back to school with “The Holdovers,” an outstanding student-teacher dramedy that’s a bit “Dead Poets Society” but way more “Welcome Back, Kotter.”
The “Election” director is coming for Oscar season, and also people’s all-time Christmas movie lists. His new holiday-themed outing (★★★½ out of four; rated R; in select theaters Friday, nationwide Nov. 10) features a 1970s aesthetic, a clever script and great performances from Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and newcomer Dominic Sessa. And while “Holdovers” is plenty funny, Payne’s film – as with his “Sideways” – skillfully balances the humor with headier themes of personal loss, family strife and mental health.
In December 1970, the faculty and student body of New England’s Barton Academy are readying for a needed break. Well, most of them. Paul Hunham (Giamatti), the uptight and universally disliked teacher of ancient history who refers to his students as “reprobates” and hands out F-pluses with zest, has been chosen to stay at school for two weeks. He's tasked with overseeing a handful of boys over the holidays – the punishment for flunking a senator’s kid.
'Priscilla' review:Elvis Presley's ex-wife gets a stylish yet superficial movie treatment
Angus Tully (Sessa), Paul’s best student whose snarky attitude alienates him among his wealthy and entitled peers, was looking forward to a needed vacation but is instead abandoned by his family. His wild energy and anarchic streak butts up against Paul’s strict demeanor, leading to dryly hilarious banter, hallway shenanigans and a trip to the hospital.
Slowly, though, the two begin to tear down each other’s walls and bond, learning they have more in common than not. And over late-night game shows and a revelatory field trip to Boston, the pair also form a mini-family with head cook Mary Lamb (Randolph), whose Barton grad son recently died in Vietnam. Their friendship reveals significant truths and they all stand up for each other at important times.
Rather than merely recalling the era, Payne makes you actually feel like you’re watching in a theater in 1970, with pops and crackles in the soundtrack and the use of desaturated colors, fades and pans. (The modern price of a popcorn and soda will rip you back to present-day reality, sadly.) And given the period, the specter of war looms over the narrative: The troubled Angus worries about being kicked out of the academy because it would mean going to military school and being sent off to an uncertain fate.
As the brainy and devil-may-care Angus, 21-year-old Sessa is a revelation in his first screen role – he was plucked from one of the boarding schools where Payne filmed but already turns in an Oscar-ready performance sparking off Giamatti.
'Killers of the Flower Moon' review:Martin Scorsese crafts a gripping story of love, murder
The elder actor is a master of playing the film curmudgeon: As the wall-eyed, boozy professor, Giamatti makes a meal out of “snarling visigoth” and other high-minded insults in David Hemingson’s crackling screenplay but also reveals his character’s lovable, vulnerable side. The teacher is a needed compatriot for Mary, and Randolph shines in the comedic moments as well as the emotional bursts of a grieving mom missing her son at Christmas.
“The Holdovers” does have the makings of a retro holiday classic. Although the movie runs a bit long and the plot is flabbier in its latter half, Payne’s heart-tugging effort doles out lessons and personal growth for its players while gifting audiences with a satisfyingly cathartic and enjoyably human tale.
veryGood! (427)
Related
- Ariana Grande's Brunette Hair Transformation Is a Callback to Her Roots
- Pigeon Power: The Future of Air Pollution Monitoring in a Tiny Backpack?
- Julián Castro on Climate Change: Where the Candidate Stands
- How Ben Affleck Always Plays a Part In Jennifer Lopez's Work
- Whoopi Goldberg Shares Very Relatable Reason She's Remained on The View
- Supreme Court sides with Jack Daniels in trademark fight over poop-themed dog toy
- The Tigray Medical System Collapse
- ¿Cómo ha afectado su vida la ley de aborto estatal? Comparta su historia
- Sting Says Sean Diddy Combs Allegations Don't Taint His Song
- Don't Be Tardy Looking Back at Kim Zolciak and Kroy Biermann's Romance Before Breakup
Ranking
- John Krasinski Details Moment He Knew Wife Emily Blunt Was “the One”
- EPA Again Postpones Enbridge Fine for 2010 Kalamazoo River Spill
- Shonda Rhimes Teases the Future of Grey’s Anatomy
- EPA Again Postpones Enbridge Fine for 2010 Kalamazoo River Spill
- Are Ciara Ready and Russell Wilson Ready For Another Baby? She Says…
- Bachelor Nation's Brandon Jones and Serene Russell Break Up
- Health department medical detectives find 84% of U.S. maternal deaths are preventable
- Selling Sunset's Jason Oppenheim Teases Intense New Season, Plus the Items He Can't Live Without
Recommendation
-
Stop What You're Doing—Moo Deng Just Dropped Her First Single
-
Is Oklahoma’s New Earthquake-Reduction Plan Enough to Stop the Shaking?
-
Contaminated cough syrup from India linked to 70 child deaths. It's happened before
-
U.S. Pipeline Agency Pressed to Regulate Underground Gas Storage
-
Lions QB Jared Goff, despite 5 interceptions, dared to become cold-blooded
-
The Tigray Medical System Collapse
-
Book by mom of six puts onus on men to stop unwanted pregnancies
-
Concussion protocols are based on research of mostly men. What about women?