The format may be unsurprising but there is nothing unsurprising about just how good and enjoyable this is... this is the kind of bittersweet, character-dialogue driven piece they just don't do anymore.

| Jan 23, 2024

It is the genius of Paul Giamatti to make us, over the course of this great movie, not just re-evaluate and learn to respect this mess of a man but actually... to love him.

| Jan 22, 2024

There’s a bracingly astringent bleakness under its surface layer of melancholy humour; a biting, sharp edge that counters the occasional lurch towards sentimentality.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 21, 2024

The Holdovers emerges as a testament to Payne's unique storytelling ability, offering a grownup drama for intelligent audiences, inviting a nuanced exploration of the complexities of human relationships against the backdrop of cruel classist rigidity.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 19, 2024

Some may still baulk at the conventional structure. But conventions emerge for a reason. An absolute treasure. Merry Christmas to you all.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 18, 2024

Giamatti gives a wonderful performance here. He roots his character’s frustrations not in cruelty but in misguided desperation -- an eagerness to mould these boys into men better than himself.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 18, 2024

It is both melancholy and funny as these characters develop the capacity to engage emotionally and take off in new directions. It is affecting without ever being treacly or sentimental and the performances are tremendous.

| Jan 18, 2024

The film’s hit rate with zingers is quite something; Payne is also not above a Tabasco dash of slapstick.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 18, 2024

The benefit of the Yuletide setting is that Payne has gifted us a film intended to be watched every year. It feels like finding an unwatched classic under the tree on Christmas morning.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 16, 2024

Alexander Payne has balanced The Holdover’s acerbic wit with generosity. So few filmmakers are capable of managing tone the way Payne can.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 15, 2024

The final 45 minutes of this film are worth four stars. What happens hurts and warms the heart. The three leads are brilliant. Giamatti and Randolph each won a Golden Globe on January 8. Sessa is an actor to watch.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 13, 2024

[The Holdovers] makes no pretence about being anything other than a feel-good film but it’s laced with enough wit and sarcasm to keep you in touch with the fact that nobody here is perfect. Far from it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 11, 2024

The Holdovers might be the most perfect Giamatti-delivery vehicle we've gotten in a long time, one that understands that he's best when his talents for yelling are mixed with deep pathos.

| Dec 22, 2023

There are surprises to be found in The Holdovers, but they come from the characters, not the story — from the ways each of the three main figures reveals new depths and confounds expectations.

| Dec 9, 2023

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.

| Dec 9, 2023

Hunham’s hero Marcus Aurelius once wrote, “Give thyself leisure to learn some good thing.” Take his advice and see this film.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 8, 2023

Paul Giamatti is a grinchy teacher in Alexander Payne’s loveable answer to The Breakfast Club.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 1, 2023

This, for me, is foundational Alexander Payne... It's his best work since Sideways.

| Nov 29, 2023

I thought it was really terrific and... I think this will be a movie that you'll want to go back to and and revisit.

| Original Score: 8.3/10 | Nov 17, 2023

Paul Giamatti [is] so good in the subtlest ways.

| Original Score: 8.8/10 | Nov 17, 2023