The Holdovers

Late in 2023, director Alexander Payne (Sideways; Nebraska) unveiled a movie that is destined to become a seasonal staple. Set at the end of 1970 (and styled like a film from the period), this is the story of Paul (Paul Giamatti — and indeed, the role might have been written for him), a sour and surly classics teacher at a posh all-male boarding school in New England, an institution to which he has devoted most of his life. Paul draws the short straw and is assigned with baby sitting five “orphan” students through the Christmas holidays, most gallingly the intelligent but insolent Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa in a star-making performance). Both will learn a few things before the new year…

Nominated for five Academy Awards, the film won one, Best Supporting Actress, Da’Vine Joy Randolph as the school’s cook, Mary, the only other staff member staying through the holidays.

What you do walk away from this cracked Christmas-miracle tale with is an admiration for what Giamatti can do with such flawed people… and how richer we are for having him and Payne give such lost souls such a generous spotlight to grow.

David Fear, Rolling Stone