Nothing sums up “The Holdovers” quite like this Letterboxd review: “A movie that is both hot chocolate for the soul and chicken soup for the lazy eye.”
Set at Barton Academy, a fictional Massachusetts boarding school, the film follows Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), a cranky and strict ancient civilizations teacher who is full of creative insults for his students — “snarling Visigoth” and “fetid layabout” are some of the highlights. As punishment for dishing out a failing grade to a donor’s son, Hunham has to watch over the titular “holdovers,” the students not returning home for the holiday break. The only other faculty member staying over the break is Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), a cafeteria worker grieving the loss of her son, Curtis.
One of the holdovers, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), is stuck at Barton for the entirety of the break after he is hit with heartbreaking news — and a convenient plot device. First, his mother breaks it to him that their planned St. Kitts vacation is now a honeymoon trip for her and her new spouse. A few days later, another holdover’s father arrives at Barton in a helicopter and whisks his son and the other students away from the empty school for a fancy ski trip — one that Angus cannot join because his mother is unreachable.
Hunham dislikes most of the people at Barton, especially the wealthy legacy kids who usually receive special treatment. The students reciprocate this feeling toward Hunham, mostly because he dishes out gibes as easily as he does failing grades, and mock him for his lazy eye and near-perpetual fish odor. If anything, “The Holdovers” is a coming-of-age story for Hunham, not for teenage Angus.
Mary, on the other hand, is thinking about much bigger things than spoiled students. This will be her first Christmas without her son, and the occasion only makes her grief deeper. She originally started working in the cafeteria so Curtis could receive a world-class education at Barton and subsequently get accepted to college, but the steep cost of college tuition proved to be too much for the working-class family. Curtis entered the military so that he could eventually attend college at a cheaper rate, but was killed in Vietnam soon after. Randolph gives a performance as subtle as it is powerful — one that speaks to the insurmountable grief of a mother losing her only child, as well as the racism and classism that derailed her life.
The trailer, complete with a deep-voiced narration and jaunty music, promised to transport viewers back to the 1970s, and the film makes good on that promise. Cinematographer Eigil Bryld used a specific camera lens to forward the “vintage picture look” of the film and post-production effects to add a grainy filter to complete the movie’s aesthetic. Even the logos for Focus Features and Miramax had a throwback, 1970s vibe to them, despite the designs being fake — neither company existed during the time in which the film is set.
There’s no shortage of stellar performances in “The Holdovers,” but Sessa — lucky enough to have his breakout role be in an Oscar-nominated movie — really stands out. Sessa, a newcomer who was scouted from Deerfield Academy, where portions of the film were shot, brings more to the table than his lack of an iPhone face. In playing Angus, a troublemaker who hides his fears under a thick layer of sarcasm, he brings a maturity not often seen from actors in their debut roles.
“The Holdovers” also balances its humorous and serious undertones in a fashion that makes viewers flip-flop between laughing and tearing up. While Hunham and Angus are having dinner, the latter confesses that — beyond his fear of failure — he fears ending up like his father. Minutes later, after Mary arrives, Hunham calls the restaurant they’re visiting a “fascist hash foundry” and, in a moment of perfect line delivery, Mary calls their waitress a “bitch” after she won’t serve them a dessert containing alcohol. In trying to recreate the dessert in the parking lot, the trio starts a small fire, effectively wrapping up a heart-wrenching moment with a bit of comedy.
On every level, this is a Christmas movie, but its timelessness and storylines are what make it stand out amongst other holiday films. “The Holdovers,” a movie about loneliness, invites the viewer in for a warm hug and doesn’t let go until the end.
