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).
Q-tips say: Yes, we did enjoy it. You can stream it now on Peacock.
The Holdovers” has a message that’s realistic, not cloying. It’s treats Christmas not as an excuse to be nice, but as a deeply felt reason to be nice. At its core, it’s about old feelings and new friends. The movie succeeds in every way possible.
Mrs. says: Life isn’t fair but we all need to know how to manage that.