The Holdovers

Director: Alexander Payne

29 February 2024

See

Him: Paul Giamatti and the same director as sideways team up again for this contemplative coming of age film about Barton, a boarding school for boys near Boston.  Giamatti plays Paul Hunham, an ancient civilisations teacher, cross eyed, dour and demanding of his students. Top of the class, but argumentative is Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) acerbic and abandoned by his family at campus over the Christmas break of 1970/71. The cook and recently bereaved mother of a former student who has died fighting in the Vietnam War is Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), together they make a click of the rag-tag loners, especially after the other ‘holdovers’ get taken on a skiing trip that Angus can’t join.

Think

Him: I was always bitter about Sideways beating Before Sunset in 2004 for the best original screenplay Oscar. But Payne and Giamatti together again are wonderful. Not only is the material original, but the screenplay is both smart and simple, set over two weeks. Giamatti is a cerebral performer, he handles dialogue heavy roles like no other actor I can think of can carry a show. 

Feel

Him: The coda, if there is one, seems to me to be how the trio keep on going despite their setback and being pariahs. It’s my favourite part of the film. Fiamatti running into another Harvard alumnus in Boston (and fellow Billions cast member) in one of those dreaded ‘how you been?’ moments we all avoid with somebody in our lives. But ‘it takes an outsider to know another outsider’, as Holly Gibney says in the HBO series The Outsider. And after going with Tully to visit his father, Hunham gives the right advice. And keeps Tully on the path. The way they part ways feels true. A handshake and an unspoken thank you.