Like LICORICE PIZZA, Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘70s coming-of-age pic two years back (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/12/licorice-pizza-2021.html), Alexander Payne’s ‘70s coming-of-age film (script David Hemingson) pushes period detail a tad too hard, likely because both filmmakers a decade or so young to have experienced the era as grown-ups. But both get a helluva lot right, and with more loving touch than denigration. HOLDOVERS, by far the more conventional film, pleasingly so, tells the old, old tale of antagonists forced to spend time together, warming up to each other as small personal revelations drop. You know exactly where it’s going, but Payne & Heminson bring just enough surprise ‘reveals’ to hold interest even when the film threatens to run over 2'. (Payne’s spoken of leaning on Hal Ashby’s THE LAST DETAIL/’73 for style & technique, but not able to recreate Ashby’s unique rhythmless rhythm, birthed in his days as an Oscar-winning editor.*) Set at one of those clubby New England Prep Schools for rich, difficult scions, Paul Giamatti works hard not to make too much of a meal of his prickly, often soused, openly loathed classics prof, and debuting Dominic Sessa keeps up with him as a troubled but bright kid on his last chance before being punished with a transfer to Military Academy. Along with the house cook (Da'Vine Joy Randolph, a grieving Black whose Prep-alumni son has recently died in Vietnam), they’re alone over the winter break after all the other stranded boys score a skiing vacation, thanks to an über-wealthy classmate. Tiny adventures lead to life-affirming changes, lessons learned, trust discovered. With warm & fuzzy feelings kept dry as Payne can manage in a Yuletide pic, it makes for first-rate middle-brow comfort food.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *In the NYTimes Magazine, Payne talks about what he lifted from Ashby and his exceptional THE LAST DETAIL/’73. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/magazine/the-out-of-fashion-film-trick-that-makes-the-holdovers-so-affecting.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-last-detail-1973.html
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: I have the back on any pair who walk out in the middle of LITTLE BIG MAN/’73. (Though my guess is Payne meant showing a film clip as a compliment.)
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: You expect lots of smoking (pipes, ciggies, weed) in a ‘70s pic, but Hoowee!, such a lot of drinking to go with it.
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