The Holdovers

Films

The Holdovers

Director: Alexander Payne

Running Time: 2h 13m

Rated: 15

Friday 7th March 2025, 7:30pm

A cantankerous unpopular classics teacher (Paul Giamatti) at a New England boarding school in the later 1970’s is forced to remain on campus over the Christmas holidays to babysit the handful of students who have nowhere to go.

He is a stubbornly unlovable man who has built a wall of books and barbed put-downs to hide behind but eventually he forms an unlikely bond with a bright abrasive student, and also with the school’s head cook who has recently lost a son in Vietnam.

It is touching and very funny at times, full of melancholy humour.

“Beautifully bittersweet” – Mark Kermode