David R. Walker

Archive for the ‘Alexander Payne’ Category

The Holdovers

Director: Alexander Payne

Cast: Paul Giametti, Davine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston, Tate Donovan

Running Time: 2 hours and 13 minutes

Film Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Nebraska, The Descendants and Sideways director Alexander Payne delivers another Oscar gem in the thoroughly retro comedy drama The Holdovers set in a posh boy’s boarding school Barton in rural Massachusetts in December 1970.

Capturing the cinema aesthetic of the 1970’s, Alexander Payne skilfully crafts a decade appropriate feel for The Holdovers, paying tribute to such classic films as Milos Forman’s Oscar winning film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.

With bespoke production design, The Holdovers really scores on the acting front with a suitably witty performance by Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti (The Cinderella Man) as washed out ancient history teacher Paul Hunham who is tasked with the responsibility of looking after The Holdover kids, boys whose parents have not collected them for the December break.

Whilst initially there are 5 boys of various ages, soon there is only the awkward and clever Angus Tully superbly played by Dominic Sessa in his first breakout onscreen role. Dominic Sessa is brilliant and should have been nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar.

To round off the trio and offset the mock father son dynamic between Tully and Hunham is the no-nonsense chain smoking kitchen cook Mary Lamb in a career turning performance by Davine Joy Randolph who was perfectly cast opposite Giamatti and Sessa.

Randolph’s performance rightly earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations at the 2024 Academy Awards and she creates a fascinating character range of a tough woman who has to emotionally conceal the utter tragedy of her only son being killed in the Vietnam War. Mary Lamb has to contend with issues of class, privilege and racism at this prestigious boy’s school while forming an unlikely relationship with both the antiquated school teacher and the restless, irascible teenage boy during the Christmas of 1970 when momentous change was about to occur in America.

What keeps The Holdovers thoroughly entertaining is the erudite and suitably sarcastic original screenplay by David Hemingson and it’s this tightly woven dynamic between the three characters who grapple with being thrown together by circumstance but become stronger by assisting each other as they all experience an emotional revelation which releases them from their own individual trauma.

It is really Paul Giamatti who is a revelation as the grumpy ancient history teacher who has to constantly deal with these lazy, back chatting teenage boys who he collectively refers to as lazy and vulgar philistines. Giamatti’s performance is complimented by a wonderfully astute performance by Davine Joy Randolph who deserves some award recognition.

If you enjoy a retro American comedy drama set in the 1970’s, then The Holdovers is highly recommended viewing which gets a film rating of 8.5 out of 10. Phenomenal acting and a perfect script.