When the winter break arrives in December 1970, Paul Hunham, a teacher at a prestigious New England boarding school, is forced to remain on campus to babysit a ragtag group of students who have nowhere else to go. Twenty years after Sideways, Alexander Payne reunites with Paul Giamatti for this perfect, bittersweet coming of age comedy-drama. Giamatti is delightful as the curmudgeonly Professor Hunham, while Da’Vine Joy Randolph steals scenes and hearts as the school’s stoic Head Cook, Mary. Brilliantly written and beautifully shot, Payne delivers a magnificently rich 1970s time capsule, a nostalgic, warm embrace of a film, and undoubtedly a new festive classic.
The Holdovers was suggested by our members Honor Wilson-Fletcher, Ann Jones, and Melanie Shaw.
