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From the Golden Globes to Italian cinemas: after winning two statuettes during the ceremony on 7 January, “The Holdovers” arrives in our cinemas, the new film by Alexander Payne which saw Paul Giamatti triumph as best leading actor in the comedy and musical group and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Best Supporting Actress.
Giamatti plays the role of a cantankerous and unloved teacher at a private high school in New England. It is Christmas 1970 and the man, without a family and a place where he spends the holidays, remains at school during the holidays as a supervisor of the students who have not yet been able to return to their homes. After a few days, only one student remains in the institute and it will not be easy for the two to coexist during the holiday period. Six years after the disappointing “Downsizing”, Alexander Payne returns behind the camera and reaches the very good levels of several of his previous films, such as “Election”, “About Schmidt” and “Nebraska”. If the starting subject may appear banal, given the classic situation of a teacher-student relationship who will end up exchanging roles and helping each other grow, the development of the script is instead full of particularly brilliant choices and small sequences capable of touching very deep chords: an example of this is the moment in which the head chef, Mary, gives her son’s newborn clothes to his sister who is about to give birth.
“The Holdovers” and the other films of the week
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“The Holdovers” is a film that is both simple and profound at the same time, a film capable of warming the heart without ever falling into the many rhetorical traps found along the way.
Very well written characters The great added value of the screenplay created by David Hemmings is in the characterization of the three main characters – the professor, the student and the school’s head chef – who are wonderfully written and who give life to a sort of anomalous family, as surreal as it is unforgettable , capable of helping each other in times of need. We laugh and are moved by this film which has, among its many strong points, also the excellent performance of a Paul Giamatti in a state of grace, but the whole cast is in very good shape , including the young Dominic Sessa.
After the two Golden Globes, “The Holdovers” also aims to have several Oscar nominations (they will be revealed on January 23) and to take home a few other statuettes.