Directed By Alexander Payne; Written By David Hemingson; Starring Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston, Gillian Vigman, and Tate Donovan.
The Holdovers follows Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), a curmudgeonly history teacher at Barton Academy in the 1970s. During Christmas vacation, he supervises students who are unable to return home for the holidays. Among them are a particularly rebellious student, Angus (Dominic Sessa), who is mourning the death of his father.
For a movie set in the 1970s, The Holdovers very impressively maintains the feel of films from that era. Visually, the use of old school studio logos and opening/end credits is pretty clever. Eigil Bryld’s cinematography looking like it was shot on film (even though it was actually digital) is a nice tough. Not to mention that the soundtrack reminded me quite a bit of the type of songs used in The Graduate. Plus, I did find the ending to be kind of touching. Unfortunately, that’s where my more positive talking points end.
Despite some admirable performances from Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, I didn’t care for any of their characters. I don’t necessarily blame that on the actors, just the material they were given. I will say that I did relate to Sessa. Mainly because of how bored he was while being stuck at school was pretty much how I felt watching this movie. At multiple points throughout, everyone in the audience bursted into laughter except for me. While I could see why in some cases, I still didn’t find anything funny one bit.
Election is the only Alexander Payne film I actually enjoyed. Meanwhile, I found Sideways, The Descendants, and Nebraska to be fine, just a tad overrated in my opinion. To me, The Holdovers is much more in line with the latter three. I for the most part continue to struggle to connect to his work. Some other people also appear to feel emotionally distant from his aesthetic. If you’re an Alexander Payne fan, all the power to you. Although if you’re not, I doubt you’ll all of a sudden be won over with this movie.
Rating: 3/5
The Holdovers follows Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), a curmudgeonly history teacher at Barton Academy in the 1970s. During Christmas vacation, he supervises students who are unable to return home for the holidays. Among them are a particularly rebellious student, Angus (Dominic Sessa), who is mourning the death of his father.
For a movie set in the 1970s, The Holdovers very impressively maintains the feel of films from that era. Visually, the use of old school studio logos and opening/end credits is pretty clever. Eigil Bryld’s cinematography looking like it was shot on film (even though it was actually digital) is a nice tough. Not to mention that the soundtrack reminded me quite a bit of the type of songs used in The Graduate. Plus, I did find the ending to be kind of touching. Unfortunately, that’s where my more positive talking points end.
Despite some admirable performances from Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, I didn’t care for any of their characters. I don’t necessarily blame that on the actors, just the material they were given. I will say that I did relate to Sessa. Mainly because of how bored he was while being stuck at school was pretty much how I felt watching this movie. At multiple points throughout, everyone in the audience bursted into laughter except for me. While I could see why in some cases, I still didn’t find anything funny one bit.
Election is the only Alexander Payne film I actually enjoyed. Meanwhile, I found Sideways, The Descendants, and Nebraska to be fine, just a tad overrated in my opinion. To me, The Holdovers is much more in line with the latter three. I for the most part continue to struggle to connect to his work. Some other people also appear to feel emotionally distant from his aesthetic. If you’re an Alexander Payne fan, all the power to you. Although if you’re not, I doubt you’ll all of a sudden be won over with this movie.
Rating: 3/5