The Holdovers + Christmas Dinner
With a shot of Jim Beam, a three-gallon tub of ice cream, and a film worse than it seems
The Holdovers (2023) Film Flavor Review
Film Review: ★★★½
Food Review: ★★½
The Holdovers Review Part One: Film Review
The Holdovers certainly captures New England in all of its muddy drab:
The dirty, questionably-hued snow on the side of the road; the many icy stairs people with varying degrees of mobility are expected to climb; the patchwork of asphalt patches that try to pass for functioning roads; the mild anger and quick indifference that comes when a child suffers their first mid-winter mitten loss.
As depressing as the scene may be, seeing a slice of real New England life put to film is perversely satisfying to many who have spent time here. (I’m writing to you from Massachusetts, and was born and raised in New Hampshire.) Even so, my personal proximity to subject matter didn’t make me immune to The Holdovers’ inconsistent quality.
Director Alexander Payne’s inspiration for The Holdovers included the 1930s French film Merlusse (directed by famed foodie Marcel Pagnol, who also directed Film Flavor favorite The Baker’s Wife.) Both films feature real students playing pupils stuck at a boarding school over Christmas break chaperoned by professors with a lazy and/or missing eye. Given The Holdover’s star, newcomer Dominic Sessa, was plucked straight out of Massachusetts’ Deerfield Academy, the similarities are stark.
The Holdovers is a true slice of life, patently combining elements of Italian and British neorealism with 1970s New Hollywood. These influences are evident via the sheer amount of minutes in the film that are entirely insignificant in driving the plot but vital to character exposition. In this way, as Payne himself admits, The Holdovers invokes some key characteristics of Hal Ashby’s early ‘70s works like Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, and The Landlord.
Though Payne has had screenwriting credits for many of his directorial works, included his beloved Election and Sideways (another foodie x Paul Giamatti classic), David Hemingson is the sole credited writer of the The Holdovers, unfortunately to its detriment.
Revoltingly, The Holdovers joins the ranks of 2020s films participating in the vile practice of adding deeply mediocre farts into scripts and sound design (with this year’s new A24 Nicholas Cage venture Dream Scenario being another top offender.) Similar to other second-rate films of the past couple years — Joe Wright’s Cyrano and Zach Braff’s A Good Person come to mind — The Holdovers’ genuinely heartwarming plot is overshadowed by moments of carelessly written dialogue (I believe I’m not spoiling anything when I say the phrasing of “penis cancer” in this film’s third act should have been rethought.)
The lead actors, including the brilliant Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Dolemite Is My Name, Only Murders in the Building), do their darnedest with the material, but they are not magic workers. Even Payne’s signature slow zoom-outs and endearingly naive canted angles can’t distract from the film’s shortcomings. Despite Payne largely achieving his goal of making a film that truly felt like a comedy-drama shot in the ‘70s, The Holdovers will be forever tainted by the tinge of a distinctly-2023 form of negligent writing.
Still, in a December theatrical release season filled with The Hunger Games reboots and Trolls abominations, The Holdovers is not a film to miss. Watch it with your parents December 26th (even with the “R” rating, the film is generally free of sex or any content you’d have to explain to a pearl-clutching mom.) It’s currently playing in theaters, or $20 to rent at home, and is just entertaining enough to warrant the price.
Okay, I’m hungry. Bon appétit!
The Holdovers Review Part Two: Food Review
Shot: The Drinks
Professor Paul Hunham, (Paul Giamatti), is presented as a closeted alcoholic particularly addicted to Jim Beam bourbon. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily for some viewers, a bottle of the ol’ Jimmy won’t even set you back $20 at most wine stores today.
Within the first ten minutes, though, Paul puts on his glasses to inspect a bottle that reads “Grande Champagne Louis XIII Tres Vielle”, which is currently going for $3k a pop online. Both bottles become central to Hunham’s development in the film. I’m guessing most folks at home would only be able to notice a small difference between the two, so I’d stick with the Beam for your home-viewing party.
Chaser: The Ice Cream Binge
In true canon Christmas movie fashion, The Holdovers includes a quintessential “ice cream being eaten straight from the carton” sequence. Much to my delight, the film breathes new light into this niche genre by way of the industrial-sized multi-gallon ice cream bucket Barton Academy has in it’s freezer. The ice cream tub looks to be three-gallons, and will likely set you back well over $50 from your local homemade ice cream manufacturer, and likely far less if you’re a institution ordering in bulk. The choice is yours.
Bet: The Christmas Dinner
Let me start off by saying, in the imaginary world of The Holdovers, I believe Barton Academy’s kitchen queen Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) is a really good cook. In the film’s opening, before all the student’s leave for break, a feast of bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes, and more consumed by the student body and staff as if it’s what they eat every weekday. So when the “holdover” students complain about Mrs. Lamb’s cooking, I was, at first, shooketh. Luckily, Mary explains that she isn’t able to order any new groceries until January, and is simply only cook what is leftover in the school’s kitchen freezer.
Even though Mary is armed with this excuse, she still manages to whip up a real Christmas dinner — one that neither never-married Professor Hunman nor sole leftover student Angus have ever had. Mashed potatoes, roasted ham, green beans: all the trimmings. Paul even breaks out a bottle of Old Forester bourbon for the occasion. (Clearly his “fancy occasion” choice; a little Easter egg joke for all the whiskey fans out there.)
Angus mentions his mom usually just orders Christmas dinner from Delmonico’s, a Manhattan institution that appears to still be taking reservations for Christmas dinner, for those New Yorkers interested in a festive meal that has been publicly dissed by an Oscar Best Picture nominee.
There’s also some mouth-watering brownies briefly shown on screen, but alas, they don’t have a real moment to shine, spending most of their time covered by the dishcloth pictured above. (Show us the brownies! Say it with me: Show us the brownies…)
No Cap: The Cherries Jubilee
Later, as the film’s three leads dine in a white tablecloth Boston restaurant, a waitress offers dessert to the table. When our characters ask about a flaming dish they spot across the room, the Cherries Jubilee, the waitress denies access to it, claiming the dish contains alcohol.
After the professor throws a dash too much sass the waitress’s way, they take cherries and ice cream in a to-go container to the parking lot, poor none other than Jim Beam over it, and light it on fire. An old college try at a heartwarming bonding moment between three unlikely amigos, the scene’s dialogue again falls short. The concept is nevertheless sweet.
I’m pleased to announce I’ve got some BIG plans for Film Flavor in the coming weeks. Christmas movie recommendations (with accompanying snack suggestions), analyses of food-related holiday movie tropes, award-season coverage, the whole shebang. I couldn’t be more excited! If this sounds up your alley, please consider subscribing and sharing the flavor with your friends, family, and even foes: