Film review: hold out for The Holdovers (2023)
By Lucy Leness ’26, A&E Contributor
With The Holdovers (2023), director Alexander Payne delivers a well-timed reminder that family can arise from unexpected places. Set in the early 1970s, the comedic drama begins on the cusp of winter break at a snow-covered, all-boys, New England boarding school, Barton Academy. When the clamor of buses and station wagons has died away, all that remain are the Holdovers: those individuals who have remained on campus after every other student and faculty member has departed for the holidays. Barton’s hallowed halls brim with tradition and a substantial amount of entitlement, which is noted by Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti). Despite their lackluster performances, his Ancient Civilizations students are itching to escape Hunham’s grasp, including one Angus Tully (Dominic
Sessa). Angus, anxious to depart school and meet his family in St. Kitts, soon receives a phone call from his mother. He’ll be spending Christmas on campus while she jets off on her honeymoon with his new stepfather.
Angus joins the four other Holdovers under Hunham’s militant supervi-
sion. From his obnoxious dorm mate Teddy Kountze (Brady Hepner) to a gentle quarterback-turned-activist Jason Smith (Michael Provost), Angus’s sarcastic wit is joined by a myriad of other Barton characters. An un-
likely band stuck together for various reasons, the Holdovers seem to lay the perfect foundation for a classic, coming-of-age, Break-
fast-Club-esque story. Yet Angus is left behind once again, as the four other boys depart not long into the movie. Jason’s father descends to whisk the boys away to their family ski house, and Angus’s mother doesn’t answer the phone to grant her son permission to leave.
The exit of the greater ensemble only centers the development of the three that remain: Angus, ornery Mr. Hunham, and the cafeteria manager, Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who is mourning the loss of her son, a former Barton student who died in the Vietnam War. Randolph is stellar as Mary, powerfully communicating a character who is tender, firm, and caring even as she grapples with fierce grief. Both she and the seasoned
Paul Giamatti, who has collaborated with Payne previously on projects like Sideways (2004), seamlessly mesh with Sessa’s young talent. Sessa as Angus is sharply clever, blunt, and full of a passion and persistence that re-
flects Hunham’s own. Over the course of the two-week holiday break, both Angus and Mary challenge Hunham’s rigid exterior. The two act as his own ghosts of Christmas past, present and future as they imbue some much needed warmth into his lonely heart. Sessa’s performance grows even more impressive with the realization that The Holdovers is his debut in film. Town & Country notes that the movie was shot at various New En-
gland boarding schools, including Groton, St. Mark’s and Deerfield. After auditioning authentic students from these schools, producers stumbled across Sessa, who received the role of Angus six rounds of auditions later.
Uplifted by a smattering of ethereal Christmas melodies and gentle seventies hits (like Yusuf / Cat Stevens’ “The Wind”), The Holdovers underscores the rapid pace at which people can come together, if one is willing to delve past assumptions and first impressions. The movie is heartwarming without feeling overdone, and still provides a healthy holiday dosage of love, friendship and sincere affection.
