FILM
THE HOLDOVERS
GET READY FOR THE GRUMPIEST CHRISTMAS HERO SINCE EBENEZER
EDITED BY JOHN NUGENT
Joyous ice-skating? Pfft.
Growing pains for Angus.
Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), Paul (Paul Giamatti) and Angus (Dominic Sessa) get festive. Ish.
WATCH FIRST
Alexander Payne has cited the obscure 1935 French film Merlusse as inspiration for The Holdovers. It also features an ocularly challenged teacher looking after students over Christmas.
★★★★★
OUT 19 JANUARY / CERT 15 / 133 MINS
DIRECTOR Alexander Payne
CAST Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston
PLOT In 1970, rebellious pupil Angus (Sessa) and loathed classics teacher Mr Hunham (Giamatti) are forced to stay over at their prestigious boarding school for Christmas.
UNCORK YOUR FINEST bottle of wine (not Merlot) and rejoice. Because one of cinema’s greatest actor-director duos, Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne —who are to stories about born losers what De Niro and Scorsese are to ones about charismatic criminals —are back with a brand-new groove. In 2004’s Sideways, they untwisted a corkscrewing caper in Wine Country. For The Holdovers, they head to the early ’70s, and a snowbound (fictional) boarding school populated by ‘Barton Boys’, for a yarn that happily proves to possess the same magic.