I wasn’t disappointed by any means on first watch by The Holdovers, on a first watch in-fact I noted and enjoyed all of the things that I am going to discuss right now, but after three watches now and writing this review Alexander Payne’s new film has had a solidifying quality that has shown to me that yes, this is already a future comfort film. But Payne’s 70’s set Christmas tale is not a comfort film that sacrifices pain, sacrifices complications or for that matter sacrifices the truths of any character for a more standard narrative arc.
This is the sort of film I do indeed love, three outsiders who for a series of reasons end up coming together in this case over a Christmas break – humour, sadness and reflection occurs and 2 hours are spent learning about ourselves as we view the characters learn about themselves. That sounded quite blunt but this is of course a film that plays with homage elements to the sort of Hal Ashby films that in style and quality this film most clearly emulates. Again, Ashby is one of my favourite filmmakers so I was primed to love this film, but Payne is also a filmmaker whom I love and although he has previously emulated Ashby in many ways, it is here with the debut feature script of David Hemingson that he manages to imbue the classic fractured characters and political adjacent storytelling that made those Ashby movies a series of classics. Hemingson’s script is brilliant and not only perfect Payne material on all fronts, but also more importantly a tight and efficient piece of writing that manages so many different tonalities and genres whilst never showing the seams or for that matter making the films run-time feel apparent, afterall on the surface perhaps this is not a film that one would expect to be close to 2 and a half hours. It’s a very strong piece of work and as already said is perfect Payne material and so the alchemy occurs as one would expect and we’re off to the races. None the least part too being the soundtrack which in the style of Harold and Maude (we even have a Cat Stevens track here) balances anachronistic music with period appropriate tracks, all perfectly offering up a sensibility of winter isolation and interior sadnesses and to be frank depressions that our cast of characters manage to find in one another a chance at change. A chance, at least.
The film’s trio
of lead performances is exactly the sort of trilogy of powerhouse turns that
this sort of film needs to work, each one beautifully complimenting the other
in tone, craft and a level of comfort that makes the whole film sing. It’s also
the sort of film where the casting reflects the characters. For to have Paul Giamatti
as a curmudgeonly professor who finally gets his moment in the spotlight is not
entirely unlike Giamatti getting the praise for this performance that he should
have received a hundred times over for his other turns. Or there is Dominic Sessa
who as a young student is easily reflective of this debut performance which
rightfully should launch him into major stardom. Or even for that matter having
DaVine Joy Randolph as the cook figure who all the characters know of in the peripheral
but now gets to shine herself, is an easy equation to her supporting roles of
the past few years. Yet in a sense I feel each of these truncations is critical
gibberish that removes much of the weight and power of these three performances,
that all manage with such tenderness, realism, humour and subtlety to make The
Holdovers the beautiful and deeply touching film that it so wonderfully is.
An incredibly strong return for Payne, with the word ‘return’ ringing wrong for
me as a Downsizing fan, but these sorts of more remote character studies
are without a doubt his greatest strengths.
A 9/10 that in a year of incredibly strong films that perhaps pushed the envelope a little bit more than this did, should not be relegated or unduly disrespected for being a near perfect version or for that matter homage to a bygone filmic era. Payne and Hemingson have worked together here to make an impeccably sturdy piece of writing and directing that has impact, sadness and humour in plentiful doses each and makes for a trio of beautiful and tender character studies. Giamatti, Sessa and Randolph as already mentioned offer up three of the best performances of the year and all work in such beautiful trigonometry with one another that cliches, tropes and somewhat obvious plotting falls to the way side as no matter what we see coming or don’t, we love these characters and performances so much that it doesn’t matter a lick – everything still packs a large punch.
P.S. So many films of recent have rather annoyingly for me used the traditional logos of the appropriate era that there film is set in, before then immediately cutting to a film that although set as a period piece, in fact still looks and feels like a movie made in 2023 (or whatever year it may be). Holdovers possible greatest strength in this regard is having an overall aesthetic in its filmmaking, editing and cinematography that makes the film genuinely of a piece with the decade it is depicting.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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