In “The Holdovers” “The Flying Classroom” meets “Breakfast Club”, with great timing, polished dialogue, great actors and a unique Seventies flair. The JOURNAL cinema tip.
An old Universal logo, a crackling soundtrack, slightly yellowed colors, gentle singer-songwriter sounds: this must be the seventies! The approaching turn of the year from 1970 to ’71, to be precise. And at the private elite school in the snowy US state of Massachusetts there is a spirit of optimism: everyone wants to go home for the Christmas holidays. Those who stay behind, for various reasons, are the “holdovers”. A bunch of poor pigs in the cooled down rooms
Having to miss the holidays when the fridge is empty – which isn’t so easy when you can’t stand each other.
So the history teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), who is hated by his protégés, and the arrogant high school student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) sit together in mutual inferiority until they chase each other through the hallways, which also affects the grieving cook who also remains on site Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) doesn’t know how to prevent it. And as is often the case in such forced communities and corresponding films about them: tragedy and comedy – an inseparable team.
“The Holdovers” – somewhere between “The Flying Classroom” and “Breakfast Club”
Of course, the situation gradually brings all the stubborn characters together; if you sail together in the rocking boat, everything will be okay at some point. Or not. In the films of the American Alexander Payne, it is completely natural that something heartwarmingly positive can emerge from grief, that characters cross deep valleys, at the end of which there are personal new beginnings – and the watching audience takes part in it.
After a somewhat misguided foray into science fiction (“Downsizing”), Payne has returned to his special ability to make extraordinary films about (supposedly) average people and to bring out the best in them in a casual way. This time in a boarding school setting somewhere between “The Flying Classroom” and “Breakfast Club”, with great timing, polished dialogue, great actors and that unique Seventies flair that seems so authentic, as if it had not been staged at all. So the finest. “The Holdovers” is just a little late for Christmas.
Info
The Holdovers, Drama, R: Alexander Payne, USA 2023, Start: 25.1.
2024-02-21 11:16:45
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