This Movie IS For:
- People looking for a dose of holiday spirit with a side of Good Will Hunting nostalgia
- Fans of Paul Giamatti being Paul Giamatti
This Movie is NOT For:
- Those who believe holiday movies are for the end of November to December only
- Oscar fans who believe Best Picture nominees should be dark and depressing
Brief Review with Minor Spoilers:
Who doesn’t like watching a Christmas movie in early March while Seattle is hovering on the edge of the snow zone? The Holdovers is a by-the-numbers feel-good movie about a snarky student and a curmudgeonly professor stuck together over the holidays. On paper, it sounds like a story we’ve seen a hundred different times in films, done well on a few notable occasions with Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting, Dead Poets Society). In practice, The Holdovers is a familiar story but told in an engaging way that left me smiling and with a warm feeling in my heart.
A Brief Aside on Plagiarism: Throughout this review, I’m going to say elements of The Holdovers feel original and creative. However, it has recently come to light that this script MIGHT have been plagiarized. I reserve all my compliments for whoever crafted the original version of this story. Read about the accusations here.
Set in the early 1970s and shot with a film grain/aspect ratio to match, this movie embraces its time. It’s fuzzy, and the characters are over-the-top, but it still manages to feel relatable throughout. Despite this, I fell in love with the characters almost immediately and rooted for them throughout the predictable story. Sometimes you want a movie that’s going to take you by surprise, and other times you just want something comforting. The Holdovers is exactly that, a comfort film, but still maintains a dose of originality from layered characters built off of familiar archetypes.
Even with all of the sincerity and emotional weight the film brings to the table, it also manages to bring laughs. That’s rare for an Oscar nominee, and doubly rare for a heartfelt Christmas prep school movie. Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa play off each other beautifully and are a great comedic match. There’s a particular scene with a broken bone—if you know you know—that is a highlight and is only funny because of Sessa’s incredible delivery. Da’Vine Joy Randolph amplifies both characters in every scene she’s in, rapid-fire switching between moments of deep grief and pithy humor. It keeps the story grounded, but not depressing.
Now for another brief aside, there has never been a Christmas movie that has won Best Picture at the Oscars. Both It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street were nominated for the big prize, but neither took it home. The former was nominated for five Academy Awards and took home none of them. So, if It’s a Wonderful Life can’t win anything, I don’t see The Holdovers taking home any big prizes, especially in such a crowded field. Even so, I found this to be one of the more enjoyable Best Picture nominees this year. Yes, Oppenheimer was a spectacle to behold and kept me riveted for what might have been fifteen straight hours of Cillian Murphy chain-smoking, but The Holdovers made me feel good, and that’s an achievement too.
Overall, I’d recommend checking out The Holdovers. It’s got the right amount of cheese, some wonderful acting, and will leave you in high spirits—assuming the content isn’t plagiarized of course.
4.5/5 Stars – Paul Giamatti can be my stinky wall-eyed chaperone anytime
So far, here’s my ranking of the Oscar contenders I’ve watched:
