This gentle slice of life drama has been nominated for a slew of Oscars – and I’ll be rooting for Paul Giamatti to win Best Actor. This movie is a beautifully crafted piece of nostalgia that feels lifted right out of the late sixties/early seventies.

The Holdovers focuses on the stories of a teacher (Giamatti) at Barton boarding school who has missed the opportunity of living a full life, one of his traumatized students played by Dominic Sessa and a bereaved mother (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) who works at the school as head cook. The three of them are trapped in the school over Christmas one year and get to know each other as a result.

Unlike so many films which try to squeeze every bit of drama out of a story in order to manipulate the emotions of the audience, this film resists the temptation to do this at every turn, and instead delivers something which feels more real and personal. And it’s more affecting because of its subtlety.

The soundtrack, and songs featured in the film, is one of the main ways it transports you back in time effortlessly. In addition, Director Alexander Payne avoids stereotyping the period in any obvious way. It feels very genuinely America 1970 but roots you there as if it’s the present.

Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph have already picked up two well deserved Golden Globes for their performances.

The Holdovers is up against the likes of Chris Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon for the Oscars so is very much the underdog, but all the best to those involved anyway to have got so far with such an understated film.

Ailie Hunter
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