‘The Holdovers’ Review: A New Holiday Classic Is Born
Image via Focus Features
This review was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike by a member of SAG-AFTRA. This film would not exist without the labor of the actors currently on strike for fair wages and working conditions. No money was exchanged for this review.
As the leaves begin to fall, giving way to the call of winter’s chill, movie lovers everywhere are preparing to watch their favorite holiday classics. Most of these films hail from days past, moments captured in the warm, golden haze of yesteryear. Rare is it to know that a new holiday classic—one that perfectly plays upon the oddly familiar and homey aesthetics of the 1970s—is currently playing in theaters. Alexander Payne’s latest film, The Holdovers, feels like an old friend that has returned just in time for the holiday season, bringing with it a healthy dose of humor, lessons, and heart.
Set in New England at a boys’ boarding school, The Holdovers is about a small group of “holdovers”—students with nowhere to go for the holidays—and the staff left behind to ensure that nothing untoward happens to them while everyone else is enjoying the holidays with their family. A series of unfortunate events leads Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), the school’s strict and curmudgeonly Classics teacher, to be the sole member of the faculty left behind, alongside the school’s grieving cook, Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and kind-hearted janitor Danny (Naheem Garcia)—which ensures that the misfit band of boys left behind will have absolutely no fun.
Among those boys is Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a wicked-smart, but trouble-prone junior who has been left behind for the holidays, while his mother enjoys her honeymoon with her not-so-new husband. The Holdovers marks Sessa’s first on-screen role, and with it, he ensures that everyone will know his name. It would be easy to play Tully as a one-dimensional ball of teen angst, but Sessa carefully and thoughtfully unravels the role. Aided by the expert scene partners he has in Giamatti and Randolph, Sessa makes each and every emotion he feels palpable for the audience. It’s a joy—even as tragic as it is—to watch Tully and Hunham chip away at each other’s walls as they form an odd and natural sort of camaraderie, and discover why they are both so prone to lashing out and keeping everyone at an arm’s length.
The true beauty of The Holdovers lives within the “found family” that Tully, Hunham, and Mary become over the course of their forced proximity. What starts as an uncomfortable situation for a handful of uncomfortable people, becomes a beautiful example of compassion and understanding. The three fit together like puzzle pieces, each broken in similar, but vastly different ways, and the image printed on that puzzle is one that perfectly encapsulates the meaning of the holiday season. It’s the kind of heartwarming messaging that is rarely found in modern cinema—the sort of transformative goodwill that is only found in the holiday movies from days gone by.
‘The Holdovers’ Feels Like an Old Friend
Image via Focus Features
David Hemingson has a long history as a TV writer, lending his talents to short-lived series of all genres, like Whiskey Cavalier, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, and Angela Anaconda—to name, only a few—and a handful of made-for-TV movies. The Holdovers marks his first jump to the silver screen, and it is a rather impressive jump. His dialogue can often be as brisk as a winter breeze, but it’s a breeze that blows open the doors to a room he has readied with a crackling fire and the welcoming embrace of old friends. It feels familiar—as if we have sat down every November to witness the film’s events, watching with rapt attention—and yet it feels as new as the friendships forged across the film’s 133-minute runtime.
Much of this is owed to the fact that Hemingson knows how to handle characters. He plays with tropes between the characters, but he resists the urge to transform the characters into tropes themselves. It would’ve been easy to turn Mary Lamb into a caricature of the “magical negro” trope or to reduce her to the role of a “mammy” to Tully’s motherless existence—but The Holdovers allows her to exist as a fully formed character. She is a grieving mother, a hard worker, a sister, and a friend. Yes, she sometimes acts as a conscience for both Tully and Hunham, but it’s never in sacrifice to her own story arc. None of the characters in The Holdovers remain stagnant, even the secondary characters at the periphery of Tully’s story.
Together, Hemingson’s heartfelt script, Payne’s expert direction, and a cast of unbelievable talent craft a film that is unrivaled by any of the current slate of new releases and—perhaps—even the best films of the 21st century. It seizes a familiar sensation, one as fleeting as the first snowfall in autumn, and reminds audiences of the emotions that good storytelling can evoke.
Final Verdict: A
The Holdovers is in theaters today, following a limited release last month. Find your local showtimes and check out the trailer below:
