Academy Award Winner!

Nearly 20 years after Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti teamed up for Sideways, they’re reunited for The Holdovers. A charming and smart comedy/drama that is set in 1970 and actually looks like it was made in 1970. Giamatti’s Paul Hunham is a longtime professor at a New England prep school where he is despised by students and faculty alike. With stellar needle drops by the Chambers Brothers, Badfinger, Cat Stevens and some holiday classics setting the tone, the vast majority of students and faculty are happily fleeing town for the holiday break — but Paul has been tasked with acting as glorified babysitter for the handful of boys who have no place to go. Most of the remaining students are whisked via helicopter for a ski weekend, leaving Paul to look after just one student: Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a smart but troubled teenager. Giamatti is his usual brilliant self. Newcomer Dominic Sessa demonstrates a raw and real talent reminiscent of a young Dustin Hoffman or Richard Dreyfuss. The Holdovers is a richly satisfying film.—Slate