Best Pictures #96: 2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: The Holdovers

 by A.J.

Best Pictures #96: 2023 (96th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

The Holdovers

“Such are the vicissitudes of life.”

There are plenty of movies that deal with how the holidays can make people feel miserable. The Holdovers, director Alexander Payne’s latest movie, set over the Christmas break of 1970-71 at a prestigious New England boarding school, is different from those because it is about people who would rather not be miserable. Ancient civilizations teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) would rather spend his break reading mystery novels. Rebellious student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) would rather be in St. Kitts. Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school’s kitchen manager, would rather be with her son, who was recently killed in Vietnam. They end up more or less stuck together at the empty school and as the dreary days pass they slowly but surely open up and find unlikely comfort and joy. It’s a story we’ve seen before but rarely done so well. Payne’s previous collaboration with Giamatti resulted in Sideways (2003), probably Payne’s best film and one of Giamatti’s best performances. The results here are thankfully similar. 

David Hemingson’s original screenplay was written especially for Giamatti, who once again works wonders with a prickly character. As much as Paul resembles Giamatti’s character from Sideways (both are well educated misanthropes who end up on a road trip), he has much more in common with another notable Giamatti performance: John Adams. Both Paul and John Adams are well educated New England intellectuals who attended Harvard, are privileged but are conscious of the conditions the less privileged, are disdainful of the rich and undeserving elites they have to work with, are both hurt by and enjoy their isolation from their peers, and are aware that they are, to quote Adams, “obnoxious and disliked.” John Adams is an irritable personality but Giamatti makes him understandable and likable; he does the same for Paul. 

As punishment for failing the son of a rich politician, Paul is assigned to look after the students that are not able to go home for Christmas break: the holdovers. An amusing and welcome plot contrivance whisks the other boys away to a vacation with the father of one of the richer holdovers leaving only Angus behind, much to the equal dismay of Angus and Paul. Angus is played wonderfully by Dominic Sessa in his impressive screen debut. He is troubled and rebellious but far from a bad student or person. The revelation of Angus’s family troubles and how he deals with them feels free of dramatic contrivance. 

Da’Vine Joy Randolph has rightfully earned much praise and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance. We learn early on that her son attended the boarding school on a scholarship but because she could not afford to send him to college he was drafted and died in Vietnam. Randolph’s Mary is not a sad-sack or a worn down character. On the contrary, she comes across as the most put together of the trio, but melancholy looms over her and finally spills over at a Christmas Eve party in a subdued but emotional, and therefore instantly believable, scene.

Alexander Payne went out of his way to make The Holdovers look like it was made during the era in which it is set. As a fan of films of that period I must say he succeeded. Though the late 1960’s and early 1970’s are remembered as a time of vibrant colors, the films from that period look drab and devoid of color and The Holdovers captures that look. It opens with a period accurate Universal Studios logo, a trend and pet peeve of mine, but it delivers on that promise. The score genuinely sounds like an original score from an early 70’s movie, vaguely folkish and wistful. There is plenty of period music but none of the “needle drops” are obvious or feel like a compilation of the best-of-the-1970’s. The most notable music sequence is an extended ice skating scene from Paul and Angus’s “field trip” to Boston set to Cat Stevens’s poignant and magical "The Wind." Like many films of that New Hollywood era, the screenplay is very light on plot and is more or less an assemblage of scenes that show an understated journey of personal growth. The side effect of this is that there are a few scenes that are entertaining but ultimately superfluous. The Holdovers brought to mind the films of Hal Ashby, director of Harold and Maude (1971) and The Last Detail (1973), which was likely the intent of director Payne, and this is a good thing. However, Ashby, who began his career as an editor, would likely have made a slimmer but equally affecting film.

The Holdovers is streaming on Peacock Premium and available on DVD/Blu-Ray.

Classic Movie Picks: April 2021

by Lani

I used to scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule each month for upcoming films that I couldn’t miss and post the highlights here for your reading and viewing pleasure! It’s been a few...years, but who’s counting? (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

After a delayed start, it is finally award season in Hollywood, which means it's time for TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" programming. Each day in April features films which were Academy Award winners or nominees and the films are being shown from A to Z, ending with Best Foreign Language Film winner Z on May 1. Coincidentally this was the gimmick in 2017, which was the last time I blogged about 31 Days of Oscar. By the way, if you don't have cable, you can stream films on the TCM app, but they don't stay available for very long after the air date, or usually find the films to stream or rent through other platforms. Here are my top picks for the month:

4/3, 9:45 PM - Carol (2015) 

I was happy to see that TCM has included several movies from the 2000s in this year’s 31 Days line-up. The canon of classic films is not a fixed list; it should always be re-evaluated and refreshed as new art is made. Carol was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, but notably not Best Picture. Director Todd Haynes combines the lush elegance of a Douglas Sirk melodrama with contemporary storytelling in this romantic drama about a shopgirl and a housewife drawn to each other, but restricted by 1950s conventions. 

4/7, 10:15AM - Gaslight (1944)

“Gaslighting” has become a ubiquitous buzzword in the last few years. But how many people have actually seen the film that gave us that term? Technically, “gaslighting” means when someone lies to you so that you begin to doubt your own sanity and then you can be committed to an asylum and your tormentor can steal your aunt’s jewels. Ingrid Bergman won Best Actress for her performance as a woman driven mad. The film received seven nominations in total, including Best Picture, which it lost to Going My Way. Keep an eye out for a young Angela Lansbury in her first film role as Bergman’s maid, she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

4/10, 3PM - Hope and Glory (1987)

The title may sound generic, but this charming and warm story of British civilian life during WWII will stick with you. Told through the eyes of a young boy, the film is based on writer-director John Boorman’s own experiences during the London blitz. The film received five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but did not win any awards; in fact it lost in almost every category to that year’s big winner, The Last Emperor. 

4/18, 8PM - Nebraska (2013)

Omaha-born Alexander Payne is one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers. His films - including Election, About Schmidt, and Sideways - depict familiar, everyday people with biting dark humor. Nebraska is no exception as the story of a cantankerous elderly man and his adult son on a road trip to collect sweepstakes winnings. While several of Payne’s films have earned Oscar nominations, 2013’s Nebraska received the most with six. Surprisingly, it did not win in any category, though lead actor Bruce Dern and Phedon Papamichael’s black and white cinematography were certainly top contenders that year. 

4/23, 10:30PM - The Red Shoes (1948)

This film about a dancer torn between a devotion to her art and a desire for a conventional life was the 10th collaboration of the celebrated filmmaking team of director Michael Powell and producer Emeric Pressburger. It was nominated in Best picture and four additional categories, winning much-deserved awards for the art direction and the score. It is visually dazzling, particularly the ballet sequences starring real-life ballerina Moira Shearer. Anton Walbrook, a favorite character actor for Powell & Pressburger is also particularly good as Lermontov, the impresario who gives Shearer’s character her big break. 

4/28, 1:15AM - The Third Man (1949)

If you’ve never seen this one, set the DVR, get the app, whatever you need to do - just watch it. This atmospheric post-WWII noir follows an American investigating a friend’s suspicious death in Vienna. Though Orson Welles gets all the memorable lines, this is really a Joseph Cotten film. Cotten came to Hollywood with Welles as a member of Welles’ Mercury Theatre Company and after a large supporting role in 1941’s Citizen Kane, Cotten transitioned into a successful, decades-long movie career (including a role 1944’s Gaslight). The film received nominations for direction and editing, but the striking cinematography garnered the film’s only win.