Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers is my favorite film of the year. I saw it at TIFF this year and was blown away. The story of a crusty teacher at a New England prep school in 1970, who’s stuck watching a bunch of his students over the Christmas holidays, seems legitimately fated to become a holiday classic. The film’s heart revolves around the friendship that grows between Giamatti’s Paul Hunham and a rebellious student named Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), whose mother has ditched him at school to go on vacation with her new, rich husband. Initially at each other’s throats, the two find a bit of common ground and, along with the school’s heartbroken cook, Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), whose son was just killed in Vietnam, they form an impromptu family over the holidays.
The movie has been a solid word-of-mouth hit in theatres but now seems primed to reach an even bigger audience on VOD/digital. In preparation for the movie’s home release, I got to sit down with the great Paul Giamatti and young Dominic Sessa. Neither guy was able to be there for the movie’s premiere on the festival circuit due to the SAG/AFTRA strike, and both seem excited to talk about the film finally. Sessa was a student at the school where the movie was shot, and this marks his first-ever acting job. Meanwhile, Giamatti discusses his work with Payne, the appeal of seventies-era films, such as those directed by Hal Ashby, and what it was like to see the reviews come in during TIFF when he wasn’t allowed to promote the film.
Both guys were a lot of fun to talk to and seemed legitimately thrilled to finally have the chance to talk about a movie that’s a labour of love for all involved. If you like your holiday movies bittersweet, in the Planes, Trains and Automobiles mode, then The Holdovers is a movie you must see.