The Holdovers review ★★★★★
Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa star in the latest comedy-drama by Alexander Payne, examining those left behind at a prep school during the festive period
Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers (Photo: Seacia Pavao/Focus Features)
Director
Alexander Payne’s latest project is an in-between movie, where the story takes place in a somewhat purgatorial period. In this case, it's the universally experienced limbo
of the Christmas Holidays. But whereas many see their families, dress a tree and
sing Auld Lang Sine to temporarily anaesthetise their troubles, the
characters of The Holdovers are confined to Barton Academy – an elite prep
school in 70s New England.
In Bruges cinematographer Eigil Bryld pictures the grounds beautifully. They're blanketed in snow and exude a prestige, academic atmosphere, institutionally resembling a more modern Dead Poets Society. But the left-behind student Angus (Dominic Sessa in a remarkable film debut) is sick of the Barton sights, and would much rather spend the holidays with his mother and step-father.
And Angus’s history teacher Paul Hunham (a brilliantly pompous Paul Giamatti), despite living at Barton for decades, would much rather not babysit the kids he holds in contempt. The unfestive task is a punishment for giving a bad grade to a child of good donors; Paul may be ruthless, but he never gives anyone special treatment. He takes his job seriously and misanthropically, denying his abandoned students that relaxed transition of the winter solstice like an out-of-shape army general who quotes Cicero and insults everyone with unparalleled eloquence (‘reprobates’, ‘troglodyte’, ‘you hormonal vulgarian’).
(L-R) Dominic Sessa, Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Angus, Paul and Mary. Photo: Focus Features
Paul, Angus and the grieving cook Mary (an impassioned, considered performance by Da’Vine Joy Randolph) are soon left alone at Barton together. Mary is, initially, the only person at the school Paul can tolerate and sympathise with, following her son’s death in Vietnam. But Paul begins to see more in Angus and vice versa, their hostilities evolving to graze a surrogate father-son relationship. The Barton borders of the film expand to the local town and even as far as Boston, the trio making the most of Christmas without their families.
The Holdovers has semblances to the calmer, more poignant road movies of the New Hollywood era – Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The Last Detail (1973) spring to mind – as well as Richard Linklater’s more loquacious and character-led work. Screenwriter David Hemingson prioritises the people over the plot, the film possessing rich spontaneity without shoehorned thrills.
Paul isn't as stiff as his dictatorial façade; Angus isn’t as hopelessly transgressive as he pretends to be. As their relationship hits the road, liberating from the authoritarianism of Barton (which Paul relishes) to the broader horizons of the outside world, it grows into a genuine, arresting bond. They learn from each other: the defiant Angus sees merit in the education of history and the antiquated Paul rekindles the romance and youthfulness he had abandoned.
Photo: Focus Features
Dominic Sessa gives a respectable, often cantankerous performance as Angus, but you can never look away from Giamatti’s balance of comedy, intelligence and existential bitterness as Paul. You smile or laugh at every shrug and every pointed remark, but you’re also pained by every sunken expression that confirms another disappointment.
Randolph enters and exits, as if not to interrupt the development of the central white men. But she always threatens to steal their stage with her funny bluntness that inevitably breaks with Mary's bereavement. Although the Vietnam War is kept at a distance in this middle-class existence, the reality sometimes can't be ignored or avoided. Neither Payne nor Hemingson pushes enough into the underlying horror of the War, but that works for the film’s thick sense of abandonment. Paul and Angus avoid active service while thousands perish overseas, Mary's presence serving as a tragic reminder.
The Holdovers is a skilfully composed, hilarious and sometimes upsetting character movie showing the value of human connection for those who've been left behind.
The Holdovers will be in UK cinemas on Friday 19 January.
In Bruges cinematographer Eigil Bryld pictures the grounds beautifully. They're blanketed in snow and exude a prestige, academic atmosphere, institutionally resembling a more modern Dead Poets Society. But the left-behind student Angus (Dominic Sessa in a remarkable film debut) is sick of the Barton sights, and would much rather spend the holidays with his mother and step-father.
And Angus’s history teacher Paul Hunham (a brilliantly pompous Paul Giamatti), despite living at Barton for decades, would much rather not babysit the kids he holds in contempt. The unfestive task is a punishment for giving a bad grade to a child of good donors; Paul may be ruthless, but he never gives anyone special treatment. He takes his job seriously and misanthropically, denying his abandoned students that relaxed transition of the winter solstice like an out-of-shape army general who quotes Cicero and insults everyone with unparalleled eloquence (‘reprobates’, ‘troglodyte’, ‘you hormonal vulgarian’).
(L-R) Dominic Sessa, Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Angus, Paul and Mary. Photo: Focus Features
Paul, Angus and the grieving cook Mary (an impassioned, considered performance by Da’Vine Joy Randolph) are soon left alone at Barton together. Mary is, initially, the only person at the school Paul can tolerate and sympathise with, following her son’s death in Vietnam. But Paul begins to see more in Angus and vice versa, their hostilities evolving to graze a surrogate father-son relationship. The Barton borders of the film expand to the local town and even as far as Boston, the trio making the most of Christmas without their families.
The Holdovers has semblances to the calmer, more poignant road movies of the New Hollywood era – Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The Last Detail (1973) spring to mind – as well as Richard Linklater’s more loquacious and character-led work. Screenwriter David Hemingson prioritises the people over the plot, the film possessing rich spontaneity without shoehorned thrills.
Paul isn't as stiff as his dictatorial façade; Angus isn’t as hopelessly transgressive as he pretends to be. As their relationship hits the road, liberating from the authoritarianism of Barton (which Paul relishes) to the broader horizons of the outside world, it grows into a genuine, arresting bond. They learn from each other: the defiant Angus sees merit in the education of history and the antiquated Paul rekindles the romance and youthfulness he had abandoned.
Photo: Focus Features
Dominic Sessa gives a respectable, often cantankerous performance as Angus, but you can never look away from Giamatti’s balance of comedy, intelligence and existential bitterness as Paul. You smile or laugh at every shrug and every pointed remark, but you’re also pained by every sunken expression that confirms another disappointment.
Randolph enters and exits, as if not to interrupt the development of the central white men. But she always threatens to steal their stage with her funny bluntness that inevitably breaks with Mary's bereavement. Although the Vietnam War is kept at a distance in this middle-class existence, the reality sometimes can't be ignored or avoided. Neither Payne nor Hemingson pushes enough into the underlying horror of the War, but that works for the film’s thick sense of abandonment. Paul and Angus avoid active service while thousands perish overseas, Mary's presence serving as a tragic reminder.
The Holdovers is a skilfully composed, hilarious and sometimes upsetting character movie showing the value of human connection for those who've been left behind.
The Holdovers will be in UK cinemas on Friday 19 January.
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| What | The Holdovers review |
| When |
19 Jan 24 – 19 Jan 25, IN CINEMAS |
| Price | £determined by cinemas |
| Website | Click here for more information |