The Holdovers

“Characters in The Holdovers have an assortment of disabilities—some of them normalized, but some that border on cliché.”

Title: The Holdovers (2023)
Director: Alexander Payne 👨🏼🇺🇸
Writer: David Hemingson 👨🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸

Technical: 4.75/5

In Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, acerbic boarding school teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is forced to supervise students who are staying on campus over winter break. As grumpy as he is about the prospect, he soon finds himself developing a bond with unhappy teen Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa). Accordingly, Payne’s film falls into genre beats carved by the likes of Dead Poets Society (1989), of teachers mentoring troubled kids, complete with a nostalgic 1970s setting and snowy New England backdrop.

While it’s true that The Holdovers doesn’t break any boundaries, it does stretch itself to the margins, exuberantly putting Paul in the hot seat of someone who’s just as damaged as his students. With delightful writing, incredible comedic timing—particularly from Barton boarding school’s cafeteria manager Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), who stays on campus for her own personal reasons—this dramedy strikes just the right note of warmth, elevated by a razor-sharp edge.

Gender: 3.75/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES

The Holdovers stabilizes an almost entirely male cast with a powerhouse of a supporting female character. Mary is the kind but no-nonsense mom who has just lost her son to the Vietnam War. She could have easily been turned into a two-dimensional “grieving mother” who exists to narratively support the bond between male leads, Paul and Angus. But because screenwriter David Hemingson devotes time to building Mary’s inner world, she’s so much more than that. Some of the film’s hardest hitting moments come as viewers traverse her journey, tapping at the cracks in her facade until it crumbles and we’re mourning what she’s lost along with her. And the audience becomes deeply invested in the new identity she begins to tentatively piece together by film’s end.

Randolph’s layered performance, ranging from comedic to heartbreaking and everything in between, is thankfully shared with other women in short but meaningful scenes. In particular, Mary’s loving rapport with little sister Peggy (Juanita Pearl) de-centers the men in Mary’s life, who’s previously seen engaging mostly with her son’s memory, or with Paul, Angus, and janitor Danny (Naheem Garcia).

In a smaller but equally positive role, Paul’s coworker Lydia Crane (Carrie Preston) plays a minor love interest. To the filmmakers’ credit, they avoid any easy answers about courtship and romance. Lydia begins the movie firmly seen through Paul’s gaze, and particularly in her moments of kindness that he interprets as more than strictly professional. But when viewers learn that Lydia has a life outside of what Paul can see, glimpsed when entering her home during her well-attended Christmas party, Payne releases Lydia from a male perspective as she blossoms into a more realized character.

Race: 4/5

Although the two main characters of the film are white, and the movie takes place in a predominantly white New England setting, characters of color have key roles and seldom feel tokenized. Mary, played by Philly-born Black American actor Randolph, has a thoughtful story arc that naturally folds in other Black characters, such as her sister and brother-in-law. She also enjoys an easy camaraderie with colleague Danny (Garcia, who’s Black and Cuban American). Though Mary’s scenes with other Black characters are brief, their warmth and shared senses of humor give Randolph multiple angles from which to surface Mary’s three-dimensional personality.

In smaller roles, The Holdovers still recognizes a diverse world. Korean international student Ye-Joon Park (Jim Kaplan) might’ve fallen into Asian stereotypes as a “foreign,” quiet, and sensitive boy who wears glasses and gets bullied. But writers make it clear that he has a life outside of how white kids see him; when Ye-Joon wakes up crying from a nightmare, he confesses to dorm-mate Angus that his brothers had also attended Barton, but that Ye-Joon simply wants to go home to Korea. The scene does exist to flatter a white character (Angus) as he comforts the younger teen, but in this case, Hemingson’s script does double work as it also humanizes Ye-Joon.

Bonus for Body Diversity: +0.50

The three leading characters in The Holdovers have a variety of body sizes and shapes, from Angus’ gawky thinness to Mary’s full figure to Paul’s baldness, round belly, and strabismus (or misaligned eyes). Each is given romantic prospects and past relationships, showing a range of what lovable, attractive people look like.

Bonus for Disability: +0.00

Main and supporting characters have an assortment of disabilities—some of them normalized, but some that border on cliché. On the negative end, a man at a mental hospital commits an act of violence. He “nearly brained the orderlies with a snow globe,” we’re told, which conflates mental illness with violence and stigmatizes a group of people who are over 10 times more likely to be victims of a violent crime than the general population. In a more neutral scene, a man who’s missing a hand is portrayed as threatening. If it were just the prosthetic hook meant to instill wariness in the viewer, that would fall straight into disabled villain tropes, but the camera does pan over other attributes: the man’s older age (as proven by a full mustache) and his military jacket, implying his status as a veteran. By adding multiple reasons for why Angus appears so nervous around his aggressor, it helps break up the otherwise clear link that’s so often made between a visible disability and “scariness.”

There are positive portrayals of disability, too. When it comes up casually in conversation, Paul discusses his various conditions with patience, vulnerability, and occasional humor. When Angus points out that Paul smells like fish, Paul explains that his body can’t break down a certain chemical. Later, Angus asks about Paul’s misaligned eyes; Paul responds with a jaunty, cryptic quip that leaves him with the upper hand. And both Paul and Angus have been prescribed medication for depression, lending the overall sense that The Holdovers does recognize how physical and cognitive disabilities are integrated into the everyday lives of everyday people.

Mediaversity Grade: B+ 4.33/5

With its humanistic approach to everyone, including Black and female supporting characters, The Holdovers is a feel-good movie that doesn’t need to tokenize Black people or objectify women to achieve its cozy-season goals.

Like The Holdovers? Try these other dramas set during winter holidays.

Grade: BLiNovember 4, 2023Great for: Body Diversity