Nominated for five Oscars and seven BAFTAs, we're inviting you to get in the mood for Christmas with The Holdovers. A brilliant new holiday season classic.
As the students of New England prep school Barton Academy excitedly depart for the winter holidays, a ragtag bunch with nowhere to go are forced to stay behind. Making things worse, their appointed ‘babysitter’ is the cantankerous Professor Hunham (Paul Giamatti). Over the festive break, the grumpy professor forms an unexpected bond with smart-but-troubled student Angus (Dominic Sessa), and Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), the school’s cook, who is grieving the loss of her son.
Alexander Payne reunites with his Sideways star Paul Giamatti in a film that strikes the perfect balance between pathos and playfulness. The Holdovers is just the kind of warm-hearted and thoughtful work we have come to expect from one of contemporary cinema’s great humanist filmmakers.
"The most scintillating festive movie in years - Payne has gifted us a film intended to be watched every year. It feels like finding an unwatched classic under the tree on Christmas morning." - Lillian Crawford - Little White Lies
" Hollywood has a long history of stories of "makeshift families that learn something," but then why does The Holdovers feel so fresh? It's probably because it's been so long since one of these stories felt this true. Payne and his team recognize the clichés of this life lesson, but they embed them with truths that will always be timeless. Everyone has that unexpected friendship or even mentorship with someone who forever altered their direction in life. And everyone has that young person who has shocked them out of their stasis, either through revealing what they have become or failed to be. The Holdovers is a consistently smart, funny movie about people who are easy to root for and like the ones we know. Its greatest accomplishment is not how easy it is to see yourself in Paul, Angus, or Mary. It's that you will in all three." - Brian Tallerico - rogerebert.com
Director
Alexander Payne
Date of Release
2023
Running time
133 min
Rating
15
Country of origin
USA
Language
English