By John Corrado

★★★★ (out of 4)

The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.

Nearly twenty years after Sideways, director Alexander Payne reunites with star Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers, a wonderful coming of age Christmas movie that deftly balances humour and heartache and does a lovely job of transporting us back to the 1970s.

The film is set at the end of 1970 at Barton Academy, an elite boy’s boarding school in Massachusetts. While most of the students are going home to be with their families for the holidays, a few boys get left behind, with a teacher as their chaperone. As the one with the least connections outside the school, that duty falls upon Paul Hunham (Giamatti), a notoriously difficult history teacher known to fail most of his students.

Among the boys in his charge is Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a sharp, sarcastic kid who is known to be both troubled and a troublemaker. If he continues to not do well at the academy, he will get pulled out and sent to military school. Also staying behind at the school is the head cook Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who has recently lost her young adult son in Vietnam.

As Paul, Giamatti gives one of his finest performances. He is playing his usual curmudgeonly type, but as the film goes on, Paul also becomes a sympathetic figure. Newcomer Sessa is a complete natural, with the young actor breathing layers of depth into the character of Angus. Randolph also steals scenes with her rich supporting turn as a grieving mother, adding so much to the film through her interactions with the other characters.

The screenplay by David Hemingson centres around these broken people needing to learn from each other that they are worthy of love. Hemingson’s screenplay is masterful at organically revealing new information about its characters as the story develops, and as the bonds deepen between them over the course of the film, their growth feels earned. The humour is very funny, developing naturally out of character moments. But Payne also imbues the film with his signature undercurrent of pathos.

Payne has always made movies that carry a ‘70s sensibility, and with The Holdovers, he captures the look and feel of the era perfectly (right down to Kevin Tent’s editing, which uses classic deep dissolves to transition between scenes). The film further draws us in through its production design, with the snowy New England landscapes and interiors of the school being beautifully captured by cinematographer Eigil Bryld.

The film opens on a boy’s choir rehearsing “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” which beautifully sets the mood for everything that follows. It plays to a soundtrack of old school Christmas tunes, mixed in with Mark Orton’s tender score, which really adds to the warmly nostalgic feel of the entire movie. As the film builds to its deeply poignant ending, it leaves us with a very warm feeling inside. What a delightful and touching comfort movie.

Public Screenings: Monday, September 11th, 3:00 PM at Princess of Wales; Tuesday, September 12th, 12:00 PM at Princess of Wales; Saturday, September 16th, 6:00 PM at TIFF Bell Lightbox; Sunday, September 17th, 9:00 AM at TIFF Bell Lightbox