The Holdovers (2023) or, The New England Christmas Blues

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Three disparate characters around a sparse meal with a very far from straight Christmas tree in the background make up this humorous poster for Alexander Payne's The Holdovers

Paul Hunham is an aging bachelor and a teacher of classics and antic history at the Barton Academy boys' school in New England in 1970. This Christmas the sarcastic curmudgeon has been left with the duty of overseeing the long vacation for the handful of holdover students at the school who are forced to spend it there.

The Holdovers is written and co-produced by David Hemingson (The Adventures of Pete & Pete (1995-96)) and directed by Nebraskan master filmmaker Alexander Payne (The Passion of Martin (1991)), whose 9th feature it is.

Besides the acidic Hunham, played with zest and sense of character by Paul Giamatti (Jungle Cruise (2021)), the central two at the school are the troubled teen Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa in an impressive debut) and kitchen manager Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Guilty (2021)) in an assertive and powerful performance), who is grieving her recently lost teenage son's demise in Vietnam. Crusty humor and maudlin backstories join hand in hand. Swept in snowy New England exteriors and various locations comprising the picturesque Barton school, Payne also unleashes copious amounts of period-appropriate soft rock and pop songs. All contributing to the soft, pleasant blues-ey ride that is The Holdovers.

We may not be up there with Payne's best films (About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004), The Descendants (2011) and Nebraska (2013)), or maybe we are? Time will tell. There is a brittle warmth and sweet underlying humanity to this narrative of the discovery of a much-needed father figure (and more than a few kicks in the ass for the belligerent Hunham's mostly unchallenged self), which makes it a doozy and likely to become a holiday favorite. Many of Hemingson's lines are dynamite. After the expansive time with this little company of individuals, I only wish I knew what would become of Paul Hunham after this.

 

Related posts:
 
Alexander Payne: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   
Nebraska (2013) or, Father and Son

Top 10: Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
Top 10: The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
The Descendants (2011) - Payne and Clooney score with a Hawaiian story of heartbreak, loss and family  
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Hung - season 1 (2009) - Ray Drecker overcomes bad circumstances in mostly promising dramedy (executive producer/director) 

I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007) - James and Sandler marry in Dugan's crude, wrongfully maligned buddy-comedy (co-writer) 

Paris, Je t'Aime (2006) - Short film anthology playground set in Paris (co-director)

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
About Schmidt (2002) or, Dear Ndugu ...  
Election (1999) - Payne's high school politics dramedy 

 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Uncertain, projected 15 mil. $

Box office: 22.9 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[The Holdovers premiered 31 August (Telluride Film Festival, US) and runs 133 minutes. Payne conceived the film upon seeing Marcel Pagnol's Merlusse (1935) and asked Hemingson to write the screenplay. Shooting took place from January - ? in Massachusetts. Focus Features bought the distribution rights for 30 mil. $ at the Toronto International Film Festival, breaking a record for highest amount paid in such a case at the festival. The release was eventually scheduled in North America as simultaneously theatrical and as VoD. The film opened #17 to a 211k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #6 and in 1,601 theaters (different weekends) and has grossed 18.6 mil. $ to date. The film has 15 scheduled opening markets yet to come, beginning with Italy and Mexico tomorrow, January 18th. It has won 2/3 Golden Globe nominations, is nominated for 4 Independent Spirit awards, has won 4 National Board of Review awards and an AFI award, among many other honors. Payne does not have his next film announced yet. Giamatti returned in Billions (2016-23) and Coins (2023, TV-series) and is set to make his theatrical return in San Andreas 2; Sessa does not have his next gig announced yet; and Randolph returned in Only Murders in the Building (2021-23) and is set to return theatrically in Bride Hard and Shadow Force. The Holdovers is certified fresh at 96 % with a 8.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Holdovers?

Notes on a Scandal (2006) - Great performances in Eyre's layered drama-thriller

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+ Best Drama-Thriller of the Year + Best Erotic Movie of the Year + Best London Movie of the Year + Best UK Movie of the Year 

 

Gold and shadow-filled red is used on the stars' faces of this poster for Richard Eyre's Notes on a Scandal

A younger woman, Sheba, begins teaching at an ordinary London school, where she attracts a clingy friend in the aging spinster Barbara.

 

Notes on a Scandal is written by Patrick Marber (Asylum (2005)), adapting the same-titled 2003 novel by Zoë Heller (The Believers (2008)), and directed by great English filmmaker Richard Eyre (The Ploughman's Lunch (1983)).

Judi Dench (Four in the Morning (1965)) is formidable as the dried-up, scheming, selfish older woman, and Cate Blanchett (The Aviator (2004)) is just as perfect as the younger Sheba, who lets her life take a free-fall. Their acting in the same dramatic minefield issued by Sheba's affair with an underage student is the film's great attraction. Bill Nighy (Guest House Paradiso (1999)) is also outstanding as Sheba's cuckolded husband, and Eyre gets seductive scenes out of the young Andrew Simpson (Road Games (2015)).

Notes on a Scandal is an intriguing, a bit literary but nevertheless excellent film about the gossipy and self-serving in us all.

 

Related posts:

 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 49.8 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.32 times its cost)

[Notes on a Scandal was released 25 December (USA) and runs 91 minutes. Shooting took place from August - October 2005 in England, including in London. The film opened #66 to a 6k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it peaked at #13 and in 682 theaters (different weeks), grossing 17.5 mil. $ (35.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.5 mil. $ (23.1 %) and Australia with 4.9 mil. $ (9.8 %). The film was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Actress (Dench) to Helen Mirren in The Queen, Supporting Actress (Blanchett) to Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls, Adapted Screenplay to William Monahan for The Departed, and Score (Philip Glass (Elena (2011)) to Gustavo Santaolalla for Babel. It was also nominated for 3 BAFTAs, won 2/4 British Independent Film awards, was nominated for a David di Donatello award, 3 Golden Globes and won a National Board of Review award, among many other honors. Eyre returned with The Other Man (2008). Dench returned in Quantum of Solace (2008); and Blanchett in Hot Fuzz (2007) for an uncredited cameo and as a starring actor in I'm Not There (2007). Notes on a Scandal is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Notes on a Scandal?

Monsieur Lazhar (2011) - Fellag shines in Falardeau's heavy, societally critical drama

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A class of children and a happy teacher on the poster for Philippe Falardeau's Monsieur Lazhar

A 7th grade teacher hangs herself in her classroom, and an Algerian refugee gets hired to replace her, but he faces a hard time being himself in the midst of the school's handling of the aftermath and grief as well as in his own tragic life story.

 

Monsieur Lazhar is written and directed by great Quebecker filmmaker Philippe Falardeau (The Left-Hand Side of the Fridge (2000)), adapting the one-character play Bashir Lazhar (2002) by Évelyne de la Chenelière (L'Imposture (2009)).

Mohamed Fellag (The Rabbi's Cat/Le Chat du Rabbin (2011)) gives a very good performance in the title role as the new teacher, to which he brings humanity and dignity.

It is a scorching, unsympathetic image of Canada that the film implicitly draws; female-dictated, conflict-averse, marked by fear of intimacy, hysterically overprotective, exaggerated in its focus on specialists for every possible challenging instance in life, - coupled with habitual rudeness, anxiousness and, which is almost worst since we are here dealing with a school, contempt for classical edification. There are nuances, but because it is so thoroughly an uphill struggle to work in this environment for Lazhar, together with the suicide, - and Lazhar's own story of how his wife and daughters were murdered in an arson attack in Algeria, - the film becomes immensely heavy to sit through.

At the same time it seems like a plot-dictated adult perspective on children that the child students in the story are almost only concerned with the teacher's suicide, which their entire lives seem to circle somewhat unnaturally around. There is a lack of spunk in these Canadian kids.

Monsieur Lazhar is an ambitious and promising societally critical drama, if not the bull's eye that some deem it to be.

 

Related posts:

Philippe Falardeau:  2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date   
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Good Lie (2014) - Under-appreciated true story gem 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 9 mil. $

= Uncertain, - but likely a box office success

[Monsieur Lazhar premiered 8 August (Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland) and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in Montreal. The film opened #33 to a 112k $ first weekend in 19 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #21 and in 81 theaters (different weeks), grossing 2 mil. $ (22.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 1.6 mil. $ (17.8 %) and Australia with 1.3 mil. $ (14.4 %). If made on a realistic 3 mil. $, the film would rank as a box office success. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, lost to Asghar Farhadi's A Separation (Iran). The film won an award in Toronto, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. Falardeau returned with The Good Life (2014). Fellag returned in In Turmoil/Dans la Tourmente (2011). Monsieur Lazhar is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.16/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Monsieur Lazhar?

School of Rock (2003) - Best school movie ever!

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+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Breakthrough Performance of the Year: Jack Black + Best Music Movie of the Year

Jack Black in a wide split as the rocking teacher with the cool students on this Rolling Stone magazine-styled poster for Richard Linklater's School of Rock

Dewey Finn is on the verge of getting kicked out of his friend's apartment, because he doesn't make any money, so he assumes his friend's name and takes a substitute teacher job at a private school, where he starts teaching rock.

School of Rock is written by Mike White (Orange County (2002)) and directed by Richard Linklater (The Newton Boys (1998)).
Jack Black's (Cradle Will Rock (1999)) comical and musical genius is used to its fullest in White's brilliant script, which Linklater stages with his usual rock-steady hand. The child actors all as one act their little butts off, - musically as well, - and Joan Cusack (Where the Heart Is (2000)) is wonderful as the inhibiting (but good at the bottom) school inspector.
School of Rock is hilarious, touching and the biggest spreader of joy cinematically for years. It is also a pure-hearted, unique rock movie. The energy is undeniable. Dead Poets Society (1989) go home! - School of Rock rules!

Related posts:

Richard Linklater: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]  
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   
2014 in films - according to Film Excess 
Boyhood (2014) or, Colored Mirror
Before Midnight (2013) - Linklater, Hawke and Delpy's Before trilogy comes to a tender, incisive and chilling end 
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Bernie (2011) - Linklater, Black and Hollandsworth's incredible true-crime dramedy
A Scanner Darkly (2006) - Dick and Linklater's drug-infested vision of the future  

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Dazed and Confused (1993) - Linklater's stoner youth nostalgia is a blast

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 131.2 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.74 times its cost)
[School of Rock premiered 9 September (Toronto International Film Festival, Ontario) and runs 109 minutes. Shooting took place in New York, New Jersey and in Los Angeles, California from December 2002 - ?. The film opened #1 to a 19.6 mil. $ in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#4) and grossed 81.2 mil. $ (61.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 19.2 mil. $ (14.6 %) and Australia with 6.2 mil. $ (4.7 %). It became the highest-grossing music-themed comedy of all time until overtaken by Pitch Perfect 2 (2015). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, a Grammy and other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. Sequel plans fell through, but a same-titled stage adaptation premiered on Broadway in 2015, and a same-titled TV-series adaptation ran 3 seasons from 2016-18. Linklater returned with Before Sunset (2004). Black returned in 5 TV credits and a music video before his next theatrical performance, in Envy (2004). School of Rock is certified fresh at 91 % with a 7.74/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of School of Rock?

Ticket to Romance/En enkelt til Korsør (2008) - Fredholm's middle-of-the-road Danish province swan song

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'A One-way to Korsør' (a small town in Zealand, Denmark) - '... and return to romance' reads the title and tagline translated directly from Danish on this stuffed poster for Gert Fredholm's Ticket to Romance

Rasmus, a newly graduated PhD with insight into Romanticism takes a job as a Danish teacher in an adult education center in a small province town, where he is enriched by meeting some new people, including a woman with a particular wish.

Ticket to Romance is written by Mikael Olsen and Gert Duve Skovlund (One Hand Clapping/At Klappe med Een Hånd (2001), both) and directed by Gert Fredholm (The Missing Clerk/Den Forsvundne Fuldmægtig (1971)). The film sloshes problematically around in the waters between comedy and drama without having enough laughs or unrest to convincingly be either one.
It undeniably takes us to Korsør in Southwest Zealand, but we are often simply constricted to Rasmus' classroom or a taxi, which are not elevated into cinematic places here. Furthermore, the title - both the English and the original Danish one, - is nonsensical, since Rasmus both arrive and depart from Korsør in a moving van, which, as is common knowledge, doesn't require tickets, neither one-ways or returns.
Carsten Bjørnlund (ID:A (2011)) does alright as the sometimes annoyingly withheld but lingually gifted Rasmus; Lærke Winther (3 Things/3 Ting (2017)) is sweet as his romantic interest, and Bjarne Henriksen (Where Have All the Good Men Gone/Hundeliv (2016)) is great in a supporting part as one of the students.
Fredholm focuses on the human relations and manages to give the film a core concerning a lesbian couple's ambition of having a child. But Ticket to Romance remains a Danish film that, in more than ways than one, is tiny.

Watch a trailer for the film here (no English subtitles unfortunately)

Cost: Reportedly 16.5 mil. DKK (approximately 2.49 mil. $)
Box office: Likely around 2 mil. DKK (approximately 0.31 mil. $)
= Box office disaster (0.12 times the cost)
[Ticket to Romance was released 19 September (Denmark) and runs 100 minutes. Financing was brought together from a 6 mil. DKK grant from the Danish Film Institute, from DR, Slagelse Kommune, Korsør Erhvervsforening and Zentropa. The film was only released in Denmark, where 27,790 paid admission to see it, coming to about 2 mil. DKK at the box office. Bjørnlund was nominated for the Best Actor Robert award (Denmark's Oscar) for his performance. Fredholm retired from filmmaking after the film's poor audience reception. Bjørnlund returned in Sommer (2008, TV-series), The Killing/Forbrydelsen (2009, TV-series) and Pagten (2009, TV-series) and theatrically in Nothing's All Bad/Smukke Mennesker (2010). 267 IMDb users have given Ticket to Romance a 5.8/10 critical average rating.]

What do you think of Ticket to Romance?

Bad Teacher (2011) - Diaz and fine co-stars make Kasdan's weak-premised romcom float

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Cameron Diaz's naughty school teacher look's sex appeal is a major selling point for Jake Kasdan's Bad Teacher

A morally questionable woman is forced to continue her life as a teacher in a middle school, when her relationship to a rich jerk falls apart, so she can afford the breast operation she wants.

The premise's drive (getting those breast implants) unsurprisingly doesn't result in comedy gold, as it is simply too arbitrary. But Bad Teacher is saved primarily by Cameron Diaz (The Holiday (2006)), who is wonderful in the lead and just as endearing as Jason Segel (Sex Tape (2014)), although their romance here doesn't make one's heart race out of control.
Justin Timberlake (Runner Runner (2013)) is convincing as a preppy fool/substitute teacher, and several wacky comedic actors amuse in side parts: Lucy Punch (Someone Marry Barry (2014)) is energetic; Phyllis Smith (The Office (2005-13)) is delightful; Thomas Lennon (Bob's Burgers (2012-16)) is funny, and John Michael Higgins (Tween Fest (2016), TV-series) as the dolphin-obsessed school leader is fantastic. They all help make Bad Teacher go down much better than it otherwise might have.
The film is written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (Hello Ladies (2013-14), both) and directed by great Michigander filmmaker Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)).

Related post:

Jake Kasdan, with Diaz and Segel: Sex Tape (2014) - Sex comedy fun with beloved stars Diaz & Segel

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 216.1 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[Bad Teacher premiered 17 June (the UK and Ireland) and runs 97 minutes. Columbia Pictures bought Stupnitsky and Eisenberg's spec script in 2008. Filming took place in California, including Los Angeles, and in Illinois around March 2010. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Cars 2, to a solid 31.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained in the top 5 for two more weeks (#3, #5) and grossed 100.2 mil. $ (46.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 18.7 mil. $ (8.7 %) and Russia with 13.4 mil. $ (6.2 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2 star review, translating to a notch harder than this review. Kasdan directed for TV-series Ben and Kate (2012) and New Girl (2011-13) before returning with the less successful but slightly better next pairing of Diaz and Segel, Sex Tape (2014). Bad Teacher is rotten at 44 % with a 5.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bad Teacher?

The Class/Entre les Murs (2008) - Intense, grueling French film sets the teacher's role up for debate

♥♥♥♥

+ Best French Movie of the Year

Eclectic poster for Laurent Cantet's The Class

QUICK REVIEW:

In The Class, we follow a well-meaning, yielding teacher in a Parisian suburban school, who tries to teach a class of teenagers but encounters opposition.

This is a deeply engaging film, which clearly wants to inspire debate and doesn't draw its own conclusions for the audience. 
It is a very personal work for co-writer/lead actor François Bégaudeau (Jacques (2008), writer-actor), as the film is based on his semi-autobiographical novel. He co-wrote the script with Robin Campillo (Eastern Boys (2013) writer-director) and director Laurent Cantet (Human Ressources/Ressources Humaine (1999), writer-director).
The film contains some laudably achieved situations that ring 100 % true. The Class is also a very French, cerebral film without music or any relationships outside of its school setting, [in line with its original title, which translates to Within the Walls.] It is an intense investigation of the teacher role and the challenges that a teacher faces in a multi-cultural classroom.
The frustrating elements of The Class will probably make some viewers leave it prematurely. It is dispiriting and could be described as a quasi 'teacher's horror' film, as the protagonist teacher only SPOILER gets into deeper and deeper trouble with his class as the film progresses.

Related posts:

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]   

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch the trailer with English subtitles here

Cost: 2.5 mil. €
Box office: 13.2 mil. €
= Big hit
[The Class was the first French film since Maurice Pialat's Under the Sun of Satan/Sous le Soleil de Satan (1987) to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the most prestigious film festival in the world and the most important film prize around besides the Oscars. The film was also Oscar-nominated as Best Foreign Film but lost to the Japanese Departures/Okuribito (2008). The Class enjoyed a very impressive US run (considering that the film is very serious, very French, without stars, sex or violence), which earned it 3.7 mil. $ (28 % of the total gross.)]

What do you think of The Class?

The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004) - The inspiring-teacher masterpiece

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+ Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Family Movie of the Year + Best French Movie of the Year + Best Mega-Hit of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year

The rustic, original poster for Christophe Barratier's The Chorus

QUICK REVIEW:

Our hero arrives to a wretched boys school with uncouth kids and unappealing teachers. As an assisting teacher there, he questions the punitive methods of the place and starts a chorus.

The Chorus is a glorious film from beginning to end, which is narratively as well as visually elegant, as it relays its story in an increasingly pleasing aesthetic, while the lives of the boys and their institution also improves. The result of deft cinematography by Jean-Jacques Bouhon (The World of Hemmingway (2012)), Dominique Gentil (Kandisha (2008)) and Carlo Varini (The Big Blue/Le Grand Bleu (1988)).
The film features wonderful acting performances, especially from the protagonist played by Gérard Jugnot (Paris 36/Faubourg 36 (2008)), whose shoulders carry the film and do so with compassionate splendor. The boys, headed by striking wunderkind Jean-Baptiste Maunier (Hellphone (2007)), were found from laborious auditioning (out of reportedly 2,000 heads), and they really are movingly good.
It is refreshing that so much actually succeeds for the teacher hero. - We have seen quite a few inspiring-teacher school films like this before The Chorus, - and also some good ones, - but this film transcends the lot because of its extra dimension; the beauty which can, and here is, expressed in singing. With music by Bruno Coulais (Song of the Sea (2014)).
This touching masterpiece is co-written by director Christophe Barratier (Paris 36) and Philippe Lopes-Curval (War of the Buttons/La Nouvelle Guerre des Boutons (2011)), based on the story A Cage of Nightingales/La Cage aux Rossignols, which was the basis of a popular French film with the same title from 1945.

Related posts:

Top 10: Best French movies

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date

Watch the US trailer for the film here

Cost: 5.5 mil. €
Box office: 71 mil. €
= Huge hit
[The Chorus was Oscar-nominated as Best Foreign Film and for Best Song. It made 3.6 mil. $ (just 4 % of its total gross) in North America, 2 mil. $ (2 %) in the UK and a stunning 48.7 mil. $ (59 % of the total gross) in its native France, where 8.5 mil. people paid admission. It was also a big hit in Spain, where it made 7.2 mil. €.]

What do you think of The Chorus?
Is this the best inspiring-teacher movie ever made?