My Cultural Diet

I really enjoyed this film’s aesthetic, which seeks to capture the look and feel of ’70s cinema, from the slight film grain to the typography and layout of the credits, as well as its ability to successfully conjure up a very specific time and place. That is, an elite New England boys boarding school in the middle of winter. Story-wise, The Holdovers’ Christmas-set tale about the unlikely friendship that emerges between a prickly professor (Paul Giamatti) and a smart-but-troubled student (Dominic Sessa) who are forced to remain on campus during the holiday break is… fine. Also quite predictable, as both characters learn some valuable life lessons even as they constantly piss each other off. To the film’s credit, their considerable faults never render them unlikable — each one has completely understandable fears and sorrows — so even when the film veers into melodrama, it never feels cheap or treacly. But there were also moments when the film’s attempts at dry humor, as well as its eclectic soundtrack, made me think I was watching a Wes Anderson movie — which I might’ve preferred, honestly.

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