The Holdovers is a heartwarming and uplifting film perfect for the holiday season. Check out the details in my parents guide movie review.
The Holdovers is releasing in theaters across the United States today, November 3, 2023. The film stars Paul Giamatti (Paul Hunham), Da’vine Joy Randolph (head cook Mary Lamb), newcomer Dominic Sessa (as Angus Tully), Carrie Preston (Miss Lydia Crane), Gillian Vigman (Judy Clotfelter), and Tate Donovan (Stanley Clotfelter). The film was written by David Hemingson and directed by two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne, who pays homage to the great directors before him like Robert Altman and Hal Ashby. Check out the details in my Parents Guide movie review.
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The Holdovers Parents Guide
In The Holdovers: A curmudgeonly history teacher at Barton Academy, a New England prep school remains on campus during Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school’s head cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.
The Holdovers Age Rating Parents Guide
Let’s take a look at what concerned parents need to know about the age ratings of the series before letting their younger children watch The Holdovers.
Language: The Holdovers the movie contains strong language, crude innuendo with lots of profanity used throughout. Lookout words include f*ck, p*&&y, d*ckhead, d*mn, and more.
Mature Content: The biggest lookout in the film, other than the stronger words, is the drug abuse, brief sexual content and brief nudity. Characters make sexual innuendos and other sexual references, and bare breasts are shown as characters look at a nude magazine. Characters are shown smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and becoming intoxicated, as well as underage characters drinking, and a bag of pot is shown.
Age Rating of the Movie The Holdovers: Focus features The Holdovers movie rating has an R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America – MPAA ratings – for language, some drug use content, and brief sexual material and the parental guidelines advisory recommends it for a mature audiences, an older audience, an adult audience, young people, young adults, older children, and teens aged 17 years and older. The suggestion of parental guidance or a legal guardian (adult guardian) for this restricted R category is highly suggested for young children, young kids, and younger viewers under 17 years of age in this R-rated motion picture for adult material. The minimum age recommendation is 17 years old. The film contains snippets of language but no sex scenes.
Overall Thoughts
The Holdovers is a heartwarming and humorous film about three people who find connection and healing during the holiday holidays. Paul Giamatti stars as Paul, the curmudgeonly teacher Mr. Hunham, a cynical and misanthropic professor who is forced to stay over Christmas break at the prep school where he teaches. He is joined by two other holdovers: Angus (Dominic Sessa), a troubled student who is struggling to cope with his mother’s recent death, and Trish (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), a cheerful and optimistic cafeteria worker.
Over the course of the film and their winter break, Paul, Angus, and Trish form an unlikely friendship as they bond over their shared experiences of loss and grief. Paul learns to soften his hard exterior and open his heart to others, while Angus and Trish learn to find hope and resilience in the face of adversity.
The Holdovers is beautifully written and led by director Alexander Payne. Payne creates a warm and inviting atmosphere that perfectly captures the feeling of the holiday season. The film does a great job of balancing comedy and drama. There are some genuinely funny moments, but the film also deals with serious topics such as grief and loss in a sensitive and thoughtful way.
The performances in The Holdovers are excellent, with Giamatti, Sessa, and Randolph giving particularly memorable turns. Giamatti particularly gives a nuanced and layered performance as Paul, a complex character who is both prickly and vulnerable, and Giamatti captures all of his contradictions perfectly. He is notably adept at delivering Paul’s barbed and acerbic wit, but he also shows great depth and emotion in the scenes where Paul is struggling to deal with his own grief and loss.
Sessa gives a breakout performance as Angus, a troubled student who is grappling with his mother’s recent death. Angus is a withdrawn and angry young man, but Sessa brings a great deal of humanity and complexity to the role. And Randolph gives a warm and radiant performance as Trish, a cheerful and optimistic cafeteria worker. Trish is a breath of fresh air in the film, and Randolph’s infectious energy brings a much-needed sense of joy and hope to the story. She also has great chemistry with Giamatti and Sessa, and the three actors create a believable and heartwarming friendship between their characters.
The Holdovers has a lot to say about the importance of human connection and resilience. It is a reminder that even in the darkest of times, there is always hope. Anyone looking for a heartwarming and uplifting film to watch this holiday season, this movie is for you!
