If you’re still staying with the family for the holidays and looking for a movie to watch, try The Holdovers. It’s a better pick than Saltburn, that’s for sure.
The Holdovers has something for everyone: Paul Giamatti as a pretentious, alcoholic professor with a wonky eye; an Oscar-worthy performance from Da’Vine Joy Randolph; and the saddest Christmas tree since A Charlie Brown Christmas. The Obama-approved Alexander Payne film, which made $18 million at the box office, is available now on video-on-demand, but it’s coming to streaming soon. Specifically, December 29th on Peacock.
Here’s the official plot synopsis:
From director Alexander Payne, The Holdovers follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (Dominic Sessa) — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).
“He’s the perfect vessel of tone,” Payne told Uproxx about working with Giamatti for the first time since Sideways. “Because he can do dramatic things comically and comic things seriously, and he’s just so watchable and lovable. He’s just an excellent vessel of tone. You can read our interview here.
