A cranky history teacher at a remote prep school is forced to remain on campus over the holidays with a troubled student who has no place to go.
I have a confession: I have never seen an Alexander Payne movie, not before “The Holdovers.” Many of his films have received worldwide critical acclaim, titles such as “Election,” “About Schmidt,” and “Nebraska,” and he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for “Sideways” and “The Descendants.” He is most certainly a man of many talents. Why it’s taken me this long, I have no idea, but after his latest outing, I will most certainly be checking out his previous titles.
“The Holdovers” takes place during the winter of 1970 at Barton Academy, an all-boys prep school in Massachusetts. Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is a detested, no-nonsense teacher who enjoys lambasting and mocking his students because of their failing grades. When the university’s dean informs him that he has been chosen to take care of a handful of holdovers, students who have nowhere to go during the two-week winter break, he is less than happy.
However, the students’ numbers quickly dwindle when one of them, who hails from a wealthy family, calls his father to pick them up in his helicopter and take them to their snazzy winter retreat for the remainder of the holiday. All but one, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), receives permission from their families to go, but because Paul can’t get a hold of Angus’s family, the two must remain in the university together, much to each other’s chagrin.
Neither man hides that they dislike each other, but over the next two weeks, they gradually learn to respect one another, even becoming friends. But when an impromptu trip to Boston doesn’t go according to plan, the university learns of the excursion, and both men now face the harsh reality that their time at the institute could be over.
While “The Holdovers” takes place during the early ’70s, I am convinced director Alexander Payne constructed a time machine, took his cast and crew back in time, shot his movie, and then returned to our time, with everyone having signed confidential NDAs. Seriously, I never felt like I was watching a film that “takes place in 1970,” I felt like I was watching a movie that was recently unearthed from somebody’s basement. While Payne shot it digitally, he and his visual experts added realistic film grain, shudder, and other celluloid artifacts to make it legitimately look like it was shot on film.
Payne uses camera techniques from this era, most notably static wide shots, to tell his story. In today’s world of filmmaking, we are used to jarring camera angles and shots, especially in big action blockbusters, where chaotic camera movements can cause whiplash and nausea. Even drone shots, while they look cool, can sometimes take you out of a scene, but here, Payne harks back to a simpler time when static camera shots were the norm, and actors were given free rein to move around within the frame instead of the camera following them everywhere they go.
Today’s generation seems incapable of sitting through a film where there are no explosions or rapid camera movement, and while Payne uses the occasional tracking shot, he basically sets his camera up in glorious 1.85:1 aspect ratio and allows his actors to steal the show. And steal the show they do.
Paul Giamatti has to be one of the best actors of his generation. He initially comes across as a hardened, cynical teacher who, if given the opportunity, with pay, would abandon his students and live happily in solitary confinement in his teacher’s quarters, but this being a dramedy, we also learn about some of his own life experiences that bring to mind the old saying, “Never judge a book by its cover.” This goes for both men.
Director Payne allows Giamatti and newcomer Dominic Sessa to shine and one-up each other, utilizing verbal quips and physical humor. The story never feels rushed, and everything happens exactly when it is supposed to, not a second before. Hunham, so quick to pass judgment on others, learns of the heartbreaking situation young Tully finds himself in and why he had nowhere to go over the holidays, and this information allows him to see Tully in an entirely new light.
Giamatti gives a performance that is both charismatic and savage, sometimes synchronously, but we also witness a softer side to him that reminds you just how damn good he is. “The Holdovers” moves along briskly, and even after it crosses over the two-hour mark, you still want to see more. Director Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti have delivered, in this critic’s opinion, the very best film of 2023. Don’t miss it!
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