The Holdovers (2023 | USA | 133 minutes | Alexander Payne)
Alexander Payne’s latest leans hard into 1970s nostalgia with a memory piece set at a New England boarding school. Working from a script by David Hemingson, the story is set during a chilly break when most residents have gone home for the holidays, three lonely souls find themselves abandoned on the drafty campus, each too prickly to have a clue how to keep each other warm.
Despite acting from behind a silly mustache, wandering eye, and ever-fussy demeanor Paul Giamatti transcends uptight caricature and finds pathos buried deep within an instructor whose entire life has been devoted to a teaching ancient history kids who openly despise him. As punishment for his strict grading policies as applied to an important donor’s son, he’s pitched to supervise the kids left behind by their parents over the long winter break. Like oh so many men, he thinks about the Roman Empire on a daily basis and takes inspiration from ancient society to ensure that his small band of young charges experience as little enjoyment as possible while under his watch.
Eigil Bryld’s soft cinematography of muted palettes and gentle washes gives a retro vibe as early days of their purgatory play out with monotony, cabin fever, indignities, minor conflicts, and a pervasively sad sense of abandonment. As one of the only other adults left on campus, Da’Vine Joy Randolph has a very nice turn as the school’s cook. While she takes care of the skeleton crew’s nutritional needs with a limited pantry, she’s also nursing the deep pain of her son’s recent death, preferring the relative safe isolation of the school’s kitchen rather than expose her still-raw emotional wounds with her own family. Her tremendous performance grounds the whole angst-ridden dramedy with compelling human presence.
Fortune eventually intervenes to put the focus on a core trio who navigate the holiday season on their own. As they find themselves awkward guests at townie parties or tourists flailing to make the best of a road trip to Boston, the film’s emotional repertoire deepens amid its droll humor. All of the “holdover” kids are brilliantly cast, but newcomer Dominic Sessa — cast from one of the boarding school drama departments where the project was filmed — who seizes the spotlight. Playing a kid one suspension away from military school whose mom left behind in favor of a honeymoon in St. Kitts, he’s the heart of the film who’s (naturally) the key to unlocking Giamatti’s prickly exterior. With this debut, he’s instantly earned himself a place in the upper echelons of the Alexander Payne sadboy canon.
The Holdovers had its International premiere at TIFF; it will be distributed by Focus Features later this year.
This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist. More information about the strikes can be found on the SAG-AFTRA Strike hubs. Donations to support striking workers can be made at the Entertainment Community Fund.