The sixth day of Christmas-ish movies we’re watching The Holdovers.
The 2023 Alexander Payne film saw Paul Giamatti nominated for an Oscar and Da’Vine Joy Randolph won the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. It was also nominated for best screenplay and film.
The film, which happens over Christmas break at a well off private boarding school in New England follows Giamatti who draws the short straw to have to stay over with the kids whose parents didn’t pick them up… or send a helicopter.
From there, begins a not-so-heartwarming tale of a curmudgeonly professor and an underperforming student who go into the big city and shenanigans occur. Many people were comparing it to Dead Poets Society. I’m not so sure about that – there’s heartwarming moments but no one’s standing on a desk quoting poets. It’s more of a prep-school version of Michael Keaton’s The Dream Team (maybe it’s just me that made this connection).
The Holdovers is clearly a Christmas-ish movie just based on the fact that if it wasn’t for the Christmas holiday the school wouldn’t be closed and none of the shenanigans would happen. Beyond that there’s stories of created families, redemption and general come-togetherness.
Yesterday’s Christmas-ish film was Gremlins, you can read that one here.
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