From acclaimed director Alexander Payne, THE HOLDOVERS follows a
curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who
is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the
handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely
bond with one of them -- a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer
Dominic Sessa) -- and with the school's head cook, who has just lost a
son in Vietnam (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).
In Payne’s work, one individual’s foibles and failings can open
another’s perception; his humans lead not by example, but through their
flaws. This is one of the director’s greatest films.. -Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture
This exactly the type of theatrical film that we were told Hollywood
would not be making in the post-pandemic era: a non-franchise,
character-driven, middling-budget drama aimed at adults. Thank goodness,
at least in this case, the pundits were wrong. -Cary Darling, Houston Chronicle