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This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Bound to become the next Christmas classic comes Alexander Payne’s latest film, The Holdovers. Taking his cues from the 1970’s films of Hal Ashby, one of his biggest filmmaking influences, what Alexander Payne brings us through this boarding school dramedy is a wholly compassionate and pleasant film all about the loneliness that fills up one’s heart during the holiday season – because of course, every great Christmas classic isn’t without the cold-hearted miser a la Ebenezer Scrooge or the Grinch. But even behind those miserable souls is someone who is capable of showing love, as we’re seeing once again in what may be Alexander Payne’s best film since Sideways, his previous collaboration with Paul Giamatti.

Paul Giamatti stars as Professor Paul Hunham, a tough-as-nails professor at Barton Academy, an elite boarding school for boys. He’s very much-disliked by his students, often giving them failing grades, and doesn’t think very highly of the standards by which the youth are being educated. The faculty also despises him, which results in him being placed on holdover duty, looking after the students who can’t go home for the holidays. For Paul, who rarely ever leaves the building, because he houses himself in a room above the rest, this doesn’t seem like it’s all too bad, but he’s left to look after a bunch of troublemakers, one of which happens to be the 15-year-old Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a student who nearly failed one of his classes. The two continually antagonize one another at first, but Paul slowly forms a bond with Angus – now letting his cold heart melt for once as he begins to care for him like a father would to a son.

Early in his career, Alexander Payne has defined his career through dark and edgy satires through films like Citizen Ruth and Election. But About Schmidt and Sideways showed that even behind that dark side of his filmmaking is a compassionate side, one that really gets down to the root of people’s loneliness. In The Holdovers, Payne takes his cues from Hal Ashby (even going as far as including a Cat Stevens needle drop in one of the film’s hardest-hitting moments, a la Harold and Maude) in order to replicate the feel of a 1970’s American dramedy, something that he nails beautifully with the aesthetic, even going on to give the film retro-style opening logos. The appearance of film grain in the imagery is also welcome, adding to the warmth which Payne embraces from start to finish.

Following Nebraska, this is the second film in Payne’s filmography which he did not write. Working off a script from television writer David Hemingson, whose credits include episodes of Pepper Ann and Angela Anaconda, every moment here is still observed with great care. It’s easy enough for a Christmas-set drama to take into account the very moments that turned people like Paul and Angus into the miserable souls that they are by the start of the holiday season. It doesn’t seem particularly unusual, but with how the dynamic between Paul and Angus is written, it only feels fitting that the two are put in the same room with one another, in order to open themselves up to one another. It’s a script that beautifully explores the root of people’s loneliness, but also what it does to otherwise gentle souls, especially around the holiday season, where the feeling of togetherness is embraced.

In a reunion from Sideways, Paul Giamatti plays the inverse of his character from Sideways – where he played a pretentious but vulnerable writer looking for what was missing in his life. It’s endearing enough watching him play a curmudgeonly role not only because he’s wonderful at it, but he brings so much humanity to an old miser to the point that you can’t help but find him at least lovable to some extent. Also excellent is Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays the school’s head chef, grieving the loss of her son in the Vietnam War. It’s a role that ends up giving her a whole lot to work with, especially in its layered portrait of grief. But the real star is none other than Dominic Sessa, the young actor making his screen debut in here – first for how he plays off Giamatti but also in how Sessa gives the role of a teenage brat so much humanity, to make you feel the angst as a result of everything he’d gone through.

And really, for a movie that’s set to become a holiday classic, what more can you ask for? I think Alexander Payne might have just made what could easily be his best movie in quite a long while with The Holdovers, but it’s also the most cozy film that he’s ever made. It’s a film that feels like it’s so warm on the inside, which is helped by the fact that Alexander Payne knows the right cues to pick from when drawing upon his own influences in its making. The end result is a film all about the loneliness of the holiday season but also the desire to find other people who you can connect with, even where it comes where you least expect it. After all, that feeling of being alone for the holidays is something that I think most viewers can relate with – especially when they end up as curmudgeonly as Angus or Paul.

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Watch the trailer right here.

All images via Focus Features.

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Directed by Alexander Payne
Screenplay by David Hemingson
Produced by Mark Johnson, Bill Block, David Hemingson
Starring Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston
Release Date: October 27, 2023
Running Time: 133 minutes