The Holdovers: One of the Best Films in Recent Years

Roger Ebert once said that "the movies are like a machine that generates empathy." This quote completely applies to The Holdovers. It's rare that a film has you totally interested in the characters and their journeys in the narrative. The main trio of Paul (Paul Giamatti), Angus (Dominic Sessa), and Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) craft believable characters. It's strange for me to call them characters because they feel like people you'd encounter in real life. Giamatti is excellent as always, but Randolph is even better. The conversations among the characters reveal so much about their lives and don't come across as trite at any point. I could speak much longer to the brilliance of the actors in this film, but I want to highlight other ways the filmmaking how The Holdovers is an excellent cinematic achievement.

The cinematography in The Holdovers makes the film look as if it actually was a movie from the 1970s (the story itself takes place in December 1970). To continue with my idea of how grounded the movie felt, I couldn't help but notice how real every location looked. After some research, I discovered that no sets or soundstages were used in the production. Every set is a real place and at the New England school where many scenes were filmed, there was an actual snowstorm which is the snow seen in the film. Even the weather was cooperative in making The Holdovers work so effectively. The "Marvelization" of cinema which has been occurring for years now has me grateful when movies aren't filled with green screen use. Believable characters and locales are a winning combination for The Holdovers.

It's difficult to call any film "perfect." I'd argue that The Holdovers comes as close to cinematic perfection as possible. Will some see the movie as being slow at times? Yes. Even in the "slow" times I still was fascinated by everything going on in the film. One of the people I watched The Holdovers with was my father. I'll leave you with the first thing my dad said after the film concluded: "They need to make more movies like this."


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