By Nicholas Vermaaten, Contributor

[Focus Features; 2023]

Rating: 9/10

In his most recent film, The Holdovers, Alexander Payne uses the backdrop of the 1970 Christmas season to create a cinematic experience that is equally dramatic as it is comedic. 

The Holdovers follows high school student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) as he is forced to spend his winter break in the halls of Barton Catholic Boarding School in the company of the school’s head chef, Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and his professor of antiquity, Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti). While the trio begins the film cold and cynical towards each other, as the Christmas break continues, their relationship turns to one of respect and admiration, leading to some of my favorite emotional scenes from 2023. 

Read more: Movie Review: Past Lives 

The Holdovers handles the transition between comedy and drama expertly, using jokes to accentuate moments of character growth in ways that, while not subtle, are intelligently and satisfyingly presented. An example I keep thinking back to involves Angus questioning which of Paul’s eyes one should look at when in conversation, only for this brief comedic aside to be brought up in the final act in a way that is both heartfelt, but also funny enough to make me audibly chuckle during both of my viewings.

As the Oscar nominations have shown, Joy Randolph and Giamatti’s performances are truly the highlight of this film. While it is difficult to choose a favorite between these two great performances, Giamatti’s take on the “crotchety intellectual” is portrayed so naturally, and with such perfect comedic timing, that you’d think he was a teacher in a previous life. 

Half of the film’s greatest lines are made funny purely by how Giamatti delivers them. Whether it be when he threatened Tully with detentions, explained his use of the “washing-my-hands-with-you” metaphor, or the way he says, “Yeah, f*ck that guy”, his line delivery is what really propels his performance into something great.

The cinematography, while not the year’s best, does portray the characters’ isolation from each other quite well. Even in scenes where the main trio is close to one another, the camera chooses to either capture individually or accentuate the physical space between The Holdovers characters. 

The film’s use of licensed music is also incredible. Putting aside my own undying love for Cat Stevens, the music selection is excellent, succinctly working to provide a melancholic feeling to the film, giving The Holdovers a feeling of nostalgic recollection. A track that really stood out is Labi Siffre’s “Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying”, whose lyrics seem to perfectly fit with the characters’ inability to open up with each other in the first half, only to emotionally engage in the second.

The Holdovers was a welcome surprise to an already excellent year for cinema.