The Holdovers

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  • Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Tate Donavan, Gillian Vigman
  • Alexander Payne
  • January 19th 2024
Nobody likes teacher Paul Hunham (Giamatti) -- not his students, not his fellow faculty, not the headmaster, who all find his pomposity and rigidity exasperating. With no family and nowhere to go over Christmas holiday in 1970, Paul remains at school to supervise students unable to journey home. After a few days, only one student holdover remains -- a trouble-making 15-year-old named Angus, a good student whose bad behavior always threatens to get him expelled. Joining Paul and Angus is head cook Mary (Randolph)-an African American woman who caters to sons of privilege and whose own son was recently lost in Vietnam. These three very different shipwrecked people form an unlikely Christmas family sharing comic misadventures during two very snowy weeks in New England. The real journey is how they help one another understand that they are not beholden to their past-they can choose their own futures.
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Our Review

The Holdovers

Verdict: This delightful, hilarious and life-affirming film is destined to become a holiday classic

  • Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Tate Donavan, Gillian Vigman
  • January 19th 2024
  • Alexander Payne

Paul Giamatti plays a curmudgeonly teacher forced to stay at his boarding school over the festive holidays.

Alexander Payne’s latest movie, The Holdovers, was recently nominated for seven BAFTA Film Awards – and rightly so.

This delightful festive film (which should have come out at Christmas!) stars Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, a curmudgeonly history teacher at a private boarding school for boys.

Given he has no family or social life, Hunham is asked to stay at the school over the holidays and supervise the boys who are unable to go home.

After the rest of the boys make new arrangements, Hunham is stuck there with just rebellious student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) and the cafeteria manager Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

From that summary, it doesn’t sound like it’ll amount to much but don’t worry, you will be won over by this film before it’s finished. You cannot resist its charms and David Hemingson’s top-notch script.

The premise, the dialogue and the way the characters’ backstories are revealed...

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