'The Holdovers' A Review

The Holdovers is a dramedy set in 1970 at an all boys prep school in New England. Paul(Paul Giamatti) is a curmudgeonly ancient history teacher who is co-oped into staying over the holiday break to supervise the boys who aren't going home, Mary(Da'Vine Joy Randolph) is the kitchen manager staying over to cook for them, and Angus(Dominic Sessa) is the one student left behind when the four other holdovers are swept away on a last minute ski trip. The three have little adventures, bond, connect, and learn something from each other.

Giamatti is great as this kind of proto Tuesdays With Morrie he's funny, relatively emotional, and has dimension. Randolph is excellent, as she always is, and its great to see her in a more dramatic role here(her breakout in the criminally short lived High Fidelity TV show and her turn as the detective in Only Murders In The Building probably being her two biggest roles to date) she brings a much needed reality and pathos to the film, which at times can veer into the cliché or twee. Sessa is compelling but clearly struggles to find emotional variance. He's young, he's got talent, but he's green and periodically it shows. Overall its a solid cast primarily focused on the core three.

Shot digitally with a celluloid effect the film endeavors to evoke the period not only in its production design(which is excellent) but in the camera filter. It works but can come across as a bit forced. We get it, its 1970. The script is a version of a type of movie that has fallen out of fashion- coming-of-age boys prep school- a la Scent Of A Woman, Dead Poets Society et al. So in that respect its actually kind of refreshing in that we haven't had a movie like this in probably 15-20 years. There is a large nostalgia element, not necessarily for the 70's as some of the socio-political tie ins of that period are only cursory and do not feel particularly authentic, but for a certain type of film. And its good- well made, well acted, entertaining, even maybe slightly inspiring. But it is without question a certain kind of story, which, given the wonderfully diverse tapestry we live in may not be particularly reflective of our current culture or have much, if anything, to say about what it has become.

An effective throwback which leaves an odd aftertaste.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Rent It.