The Holdovers Review: Alexander Payne Delivers a New Holiday Classic

A twin flame to the warmth exuded by Capra's classics, Alexander Payne's The Holdovers has the recipe to become a family favorite this holiday season.

Managing to transport audiences back to the ‘70s, shooting on cameras and equipment from the decade, Payne has engineered an authenticity that period films often lack. Directors often chase the contemporary when telling their period tales, but Payne was seeking "the warmth of nostalgia, the warmth of a lost time, maybe even some traces of memory", he told AP.

Succeeding in his mission and then some, Payne delivers one of the year's most warm, generous films.

Paul Giamatti stars as the curmudgeonly Paul Hunham, a prep school history teacher roped into staying on campus at Christmas with the children whose parents had seasonal plans that excluded them.

Angus Tully is one of the forgotten kids. Played by newcomer Dominic Sessa, Tully is the thorn in Hunham's side - an ill-tempered, brooding student who is almost the mirror image of him. Despite his fiery spirit, he is intelligent and observant but is one incident away from being shipped to military school by his mother and stepfather.

Da'Vine Randolph Joy completes the central ensemble as the school's cook. Mourning her son, she decides to stick around campus to avoid the impending loneliness the holidays often bring.

The Holdovers' charm lies firmly in David Hemingson's artful screenplay that has two hours and 13 minutes breezing by in quick-witted dialogue that Giamatti, Sessa and Randolph Joy ping pong effortlessly. Watching the three banter to the snowy backdrop of Massachusetts feels like the first sip of hot chocolate on a winter's morning. It's cosy, familiar and fresh all at once.

Alongside its awards-worthy dialogue is a heartfelt message about growing up and the stories we tell others about ourselves. On the surface, Tully looks like a kid who is cooler than the establishment, but beyond the bravado is a boy longing to be nurtured. Hunham's forgotten all about aspiration. He has resided to teaching at the same school he attended as a boy until Tully stumbles into his life, inviting him to believe that perhaps there's more than playing by the rule book.

Sessa and Giamatti have a compelling chemistry that invites you to root for them. In the wrong hands, The Holdovers could quickly become gimmicky, but the entire ensemble so lovingly cultivates the world Payne has built for them to play in that you surrender to the magic.

Although it's R-rated, families will love losing themselves in its timeless enchantment annually. It's smart, poignant, and feels like the perfect remedy for the cold winter nights that often feel neverending.