Deadline declares “The Holdovers” as a Christmas instant-classic

The trailer looks really corny and sentimental.

R1 the movie is amazing.

Sentimental? Coming from someone who keeps making All Of Us Strangers threads. The irony.

R2 WTF I've never even seen that thread. Just because the trailer looks corny doesn't mean the movie is, ya moron.

Best movie I've seen all year. Loved it.

I liked it quite a lot, although it has a ton of plot holes in it.

SPOILERS

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Paul Giamatti's character is in his mid to late 50s, yet his college classmate's wife told him her husband had just received tenure at Harvard that year. It would have been unheard of back then to get tenure comparatively so late in life, especially at Harvard. (Most people in those days got tenure in their 20 or 30s, their early 40s at the very latest, and Harvard faculty were usually hired at very young ages back then when they were right out of graduate school.)

Why would Giamatti be ashamed to tell the classmate he taught classics at an extremely fancy boy's prep school? It's not a shameful profession now, nor especially would it have been in those days.

Also, it seemed also extremely unlikely even in 1970 that the waitress at the nice Boston restaurant would have denied Tully the chance to order Cherries Jubilee for its alcohol content (!) when he was in the company of two adults (especially since they seemed to be pretending Giamatti's character was his father). And when she refused to let Giamatti himself order the dish and share it with Tully it was absolutely ridiculous--that would never ever happen.

It also seemed very unlikely to me Giamatti's character would have been fired on the spot just on the say-so of the headmaster. He had been at the school for a long time by that point and was presumably no longer an adjunct. It's very hard to fire teachers who have been at fancy private schools for as long as he had been--it would have been a lengthier and more involved process, almost certainly involving the Board of Trustees.

All that being said, I still liked the movie. It was a very charming character study and was worth it for the acting.

OP Does it belong on the list along with Die Hard, Carol and Batman Returns?

It's coming to Peacock this Friday.

R5 I’ve never met someone in their 20s who got tenure. You’re full of shit. And does the movie state his age? Answer this for me.

R5 do you know what a plothole is? Because not a single thing you described is a plothole.

Is it gay? If not I don't care.

I watched this movie and wasn't all that impressed. It was ok.

It was good but very uncomfortable when teacher and student shared a hotel room.

They spent time establishing there would be a group of misfits holding over, which could have been interesting and funny, but then they suddenly sent all but one home. It's as if the writer(s) were too lazy to continue fleshing out the characters. It's at that point I knew the movie wasn't going to pay off.

R13 you definitely didn’t watch it with that comment.

I loved this movie and was so glad I saw it before reading Justin Chang’s review — he hated it.

Of course I watched it; it failed to move me. It didn't help that I found the kid charmless.

I’m R15. I sort of agree with R13, that helicopter really did seem like a writers’ cheat.

Make sure to watch it now.

It would have been better with Shelley Hack.

I may be an easy movie lay, but I enjoyed it.

If Paul Giamatti wins one of those Best Actor Oscars that's really for the totality of his work, I won't be mad.

I liked the film, but I don’t think it is in the Best Picture category. Giamatti does a great job with role.

The waitress in Boston refusing to give the kid or Giamatti the dessert made absolutely no sense because adults can be served liquor at dinner if a kid is present.

The movie sounds like a total bore.

[Quote] The waitress in Boston refusing to give the kid or Giamatti the dessert made absolutely no sense because adults can be served liquor at dinner if a kid is present.

R21 but they can't share it with a 'minor' as Giamatti indicated to the waitress

R9 I swear I was just going to say this. R5 has to relearn the meaning of the word plot hole. Here’s hoping you’re not a reader anywhere., r5, because…WOW.

And also The Holdovers was fantastic.

R24

I thought it was mediocre. The music was great though. I was scratching my head knowing he was a longtime teacher at a boarding school without a college degree. I feel like this movie wanted to be Good Will Hunting.

I have loved Da’Vine Joy Randolph since Selfie. Where she had a kid who sounds like Eddie Murphy laughing when he cried. Funny lady.

R26 once upon a time you could be a teacher without a degree, in numerous states.

I finally watched it. I enjoyed it, but something was missing from it and I can't put my finger on what. I don't think it will be in the 'Best Picture' nominations for the Oscars, though Giammatti may score a nom. Possibly Sessa as well - very convincing for an actor with his film debut. Cute guy who's only going to get better looking as he gets older.

The film, Randolph and Giamatti will undoubtedly be nominated

It’s been nominated as Best Picture at almost every critics circle awards and at the Globes, and is expected to get in at BAFTA.

It’s not missing Best Picture because r29 said so 😂

It’s a warm, inoffensive film for most folks. I wasn’t moved to tears, but I do hope it does well.

R32 yes, like CODA a couple of years ago. And that one gained momentum and won the Oscar.

It’s a far better movie than the trailers would lead you to believe (trailers were absolute shit).

To me, it felt like a Hal Ashby movie. I loved it.

I confess that I'm baffled by the glowing reviews I've read for this. I thought it was just okay. [italic]The Holdovers[/italic] was promoted as a comedy which I don't think did it any favors. (I laughed two or three times, but that was about it.) Another DLer described the film as a ABC TV movie from 1978. That pretty much sums it up.

I know this is nit-picky but Da'Vine Joy Randolph did not smoke cigarettes convincingly. If smoking coaches for non-smoking actors aren't a thing yet, they should be.

A couple of other minor gripes: hair/makeup on the actress playing the boy's bitchy mom at the end of the film was too contemporary and all wrong for 1970 - 1971. Also it was hard to make sense of the ages for Mary and her sister: Mary is old enough to have an adult son, but her sister Peggy is having her first child?

Giamatti was his usual superb self, but this movie was just too safe and predictable to merit anything more than modest praise.

[quote]It’s not missing Best Picture because [R29] said so

Do you understand what an opinion is ?

R36 it being safe is what is making it so beloved. It’s a safe and feel-good story. I loved it and didn’t expect to. The trailers actually made me not wanna watch it but I did when it came to VOD because of all the acclaim and am glad I did. It’s a film I can see myself rewatching.

R35 it is a comedy.

I was waiting for the big payoff at the end, but for me it never came.

I liked the bittersweetness of the end R39 and glad there was no hugging.

It ended on a true note. That’s real life. Not everything has a big payoff

R41 But this is a Hollywood movie - not real life, not a documentary. This is escapism for the audience - let's have a big payoff.

[quote]I was scratching my head knowing he was a longtime teacher at a boarding school without a college degree.

*SPOILERS*

That was explained. The old headmaster, with whom Giamatti's character was close, brought him onto the faculty after his expulsion from Harvard. He hired him adjunct, so that no one would have to know that he had no college degree. Only the two of them at the school knew that he was degree-less. Obviously it was much easier to do something like that in the pre-computer age.

Just saw it yesterday. Loved it. OK, the other kids were rather conveniently disposed lot but I still liked it.

“ But this is a Hollywood movie ”

Did The Last Detail have a Hollywood ending? Five Easy Pieces? MASH?

This movie was made in the spirit of 70s Hollywood - where endings were definitely more ambivalent.

Unlike Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon, The Holdovers is a film I would watch again. I suspect t will gain in popularity over time thanks to cable and streaming services. It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street became popular holiday films over time.

R38 Yes, and being safe and feel-good is why it is artistically tepid, rather than something that deserves lavish praise. It also doesn’t help that nearly every story beat is telegraphed from a thousand miles away. I didn’t hate it or anything, but once was enough for me.

Same, R11. I liked it enough. I wanted to like it more, though.

I just watched this last night. Overall, I liked it.

Who's the "character" in the OP's image, sitting directly in front of Paul Giammati. Did I miss this??

That is Alexander Payne, the director.

This has finally opened in the UK and I saw it this afternoon, but heating in the cinema was turned up so much I kept falling asleep for the first half.

I really enjoyed what I saw and Paul Giammatti and Dominic Sessa were great together. The scene in the off licence was great. And his eyes.

Looking at the wiki synopsis I missed the scene at the Christmas Eve party and Da'Vine Joy Randolph's FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION efforts. She was decent as Mary Lamb but didn't have much to do for the rest of the film.

[Quote] She was decent as Mary Lamb but didn't have much to do for the rest of the film.

How much of the film did you watch R51? Randolph was in the film from beginning to end.

R44 disposed? They went back home for Christmas. That isn’t disposed.

R52 that same poster was on another thread claiming she “disappears” halfway into the movie. Idk what movie he watched. Shes there from beginning to end.

R51 suffers from ADHD

R54, they are prob referring to the 20 minutes or so when she is visiting her sister while the other two hang out in Boston.

[quote]They went back home for Christmas. That isn’t disposed.

I think the poster was referencing the deus ex machina where one of the kid's rich father sends a helicopter to pick him up and goes ahead and takes all the other holdovers (save one) with him. I didn't mind it, but it was indeed a rather convenient plot contrivance.

R56 but we see her in that time. There’s a scene of her going into the dresser and finding the box with baby clothes etc. and then her sister comes in and they embrace each other. She wasn’t missing from those 20 minutes.

R57 because he was taking all those kids back to their homes, no? The one left behind was left behind because his family wouldn’t bring him back home because they were on their vacay or honeymoon or whatever. He wasn’t a priority. That’s why he’s stuck behind.

Also, he wasn’t friends with the other boys really.

[quote]he was taking all those kids back to their homes, no?

No, he was taking them all to go skiing with him. That's why one of them (the weed dealer) is all burnt to a crisp when he returns at the end of the film. He didn't realize the sun was so strong on the slopes.

They couldn't return home for various reasons (parents live in East Asia, parents are Mormon missionaries, etc), which is why they were holding over to begin with. Angus didn't go skiing with all the rest of them because they couldn't reach the parents to get permission for him to go.

[quote] How much of the film did you watch [R51]? Randolph was in the film from beginning to end.

I didn’t say she disappeared, I said she didn’t have much to do.

Whatever she did R61 was enough to get her an Oscar nomination and undoubtedly the Oscar. She's already been named Best Supporting Actress by the NY Film Critics Circle, The Los Angeles Films Critics Association, The National Board of Review, The National Society of Film Critics, The Critics Choice Award, The HFPA (Golden Globe) and others.

Hated Dominic Sessa. Such a cutesy, fake performance.

So dour and such an obvious ending. Take Alexander Payne has lost it.