The Holdovers

Hunham’s hero Marcus Aurelius once wrote, “Give thyself leisure to learn some good thing.” Take his advice and see this film.

The Holdovers is a wonderful revelation from an excellent director who proves he’s still able to take us by surprise.

If The Holdovers is about anything, it’s about the hard, hard work of small acts of kindness.

Add a bit of road movie misadventure, a la Payne’s Sideways, and you have a Christmas movie with spirit and wit, with a minimum of mawkish sentiment.

The frame is filled with observed but uncommented-upon details . . . The film seems to exist in a real world populated by fully dimensional people.

The vibes are immaculate from the start and only grow more so as the characters gradually start to become as detailed as the world that “The Holdovers” constructs around them.

The Holdovers is a flat, phony, painfully diagrammatic movie masquerading as a compassionate, humane one.

Película redonda por donde se mire. Toma el viejo tópico del profesor y el mal alumno, pero le da una vuelta de tuerca interesante.

A Warm Refuge for the Lonely: The Unexpected Connection in The Holdovers250114 (3.0)"To me, the world is a harsh and incomprehensible place. I’m sure the world feels the same about me. In that sense, we are alike." It is right to be lonely, yet within that solitude dwells a boiling heat. This story is cruelly hopeful and irresponsible, yet undeniably warm. Set at Barton Academy, a prestigious boarding school in 1970, Paul Hunham is the "one-eyed dinosaur" teacher everyone avoids. A graduation-year alumni himself, he is forced to supervise the "holdovers"—students with nowhere to go for Christmas. Among them is Angus Tully, a brilliant but rebellious boy whose mother abandoned him during the break to go on a honeymoon with her new husband. Angus hides a deep wound; he constantly searches for an old photo of his original family, unable to move past the childhood he **** group includes Mary, the cafeteria manager mourning her son Curtis, a Barton grad who died in Vietnam because he lacked the money for college. As the snowy holidays pass, the friction between the rigid Paul and the cynical Angus begins to wear down. We learn that Paul’s eye condition and body odor made him a lifelong loner, and that his academic career was ruined by a wealthy roommate who plagiarized his work. The emotional turning point occurs during an unauthorized trip to Boston, where Angus visits his father, Tom, who is actually alive but suffering from severe dementia and schizophrenia in a mental hospital. Paul realizes they share the same struggle against a world that has treated them unfairly. In a final act of sacrifice, Paul takes the blame for the trip to save Angus from expulsion, losing his job but finally finding the courage to step out of the "well" of Barton Academy. His parting words, "Do your best. You can do it," carry the weight of a hard-won, genuine bond.

#TheShortHandCritic: #TheHoldovers is not your normal Christmas movie. Neither was #Carol but at least that was a brilliant film. Here, we have a unique premise. Students are left at a school during Christmas break, and a lonely teacher and cafeteria worker are left to care for them. What it tries to say is something meaningful—when we look back is it the softer moments after our burnout that push us the most on our life journey? Was it worth it or should we have moved on sooner or stayed?Unfortunately, the film doesn’t go the distance with this theme—perhaps for fear of becoming too melodramatic. Yet more drama is what we need. The bleak cold wintery feeling is set up nicely with vintage 1970s browns in the set dressing and overall direction of the picture. There’s just not enough substance in the situations involving the characters. This is particularly true for #DaVineJoyRandolph’s character. She doesn’t have enough to do and this lack of usage is a blaring mistake. Are the performances great? Yes. Particularly #PaulGiamatti who has us to almost tears near the end. The general absence of sentimentality works in the films favor at times, not in others. It’s not funny enough, it’s not sweet enough, it’s not dramatic enough. There’s just not enough of enough. This doesn’t mean it should have went over the top. Better films that’s tone feels similar are #HaroldAndMaude and #AlmostFamous. Still, it’s a well-intentioned film and worth a watch when and if the mood strikes. For now “The Holdovers” doesn’t seem as if it will be as easy to remember as it could have been. However, if time is surprisingly good to it (which can happen) another half a star can be added. Needless to say, this past year has not been the most excellent for film. Where’s the substance? Where’s the real raw heartbeat? How very telling for our time. ️️1/2 (Out of 4 Because 5 Stars Are For Restaurants & Hotels Only.) #FilmReview #ShortHandCritic

the performances were excellent (after all, paul giamatti is in it) but i found it too predictable and formulaic. SPOILER ALERT - the crusty nasty teacher becomes buddies with the troubled rebellious student - saw that coming. the protagonist tells off his oppressive boss in the end - saw that coming. but i'll give it credit for things i predicted that didn't happen. SPOILER ALERT AGAIN - he didn't end up in a relationship with the pretty school employee, and the chef didn't end up with the maintenance guy. still, overall, the movie is worth seeing.

Movies like this are what happens when lazy, cynical filmmakers formulate their product to satisfy the tastes of lazy, undiscerning viewers. The brief, forced bursts of smarty-pants dialogue and the awkward, manufactured feel-good plot points do nothing to redeem this manipulative exercise. I'm embarrassed for everyone involved.