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Director Alexander Payne seems to have very little truck with modern cinema, at least in terms of his own filmmaking. He took a brief and tentative sojourn into this arena with Downsized, a contemporary parable full of special effects and on screen trickery that while it did have his stamp on it, was short on his usual style, and I get the impression he didn’t feel it suited him. This judgement is based on both that film, that never really found a consistent voice, and this one which has gone right back to the heavily character driven feel of his 2004 movie Sideways – and beyond. The film even has the opening trappings of the cinema from the time it is set, the early 70s.

Harking back to the movies of fifty plus years ago does mean there is much here that feels familiar. This of course can be a good thing but it can also come across as derivative and whether this was Payne’s intention or not I can give you at least one film from each of the decades between then and now that The Holdovers seems to lean on very heavily, id est Harold & Maude, Dead Poet’s Society, Good Will Hunting, Billy Elliott and The Edge of Seventeen.

There is very little here that is surprising then and it is not hard, some character’s familial relationships aside, to see where it is going from the start. For me this does hold the film off brilliance but it still take you on a nice journey with its central players.

Paul Giamatti plays a frustrated teacher at a private Massachusetts boarding school who is charged with watching over the boys who are left behind over the Winter break. Da’Vine Joy Randolph is the cook who has her own reasons for staying and Dominic Sessa takes the role of the trouble pupil who it is hard to get through to. All give excellent performances, particularly Randolph who by my mind has generated the one Oscar nomination this truly deserves, and they are supported by a tight script and neat story.

There are certainly some nice scenes and quirks in the telling of this narrative, including Giamatti’s wandering eye which I was convinced was switching from the right to the left until this was all but confirmed in the latter moments and it is touching in it’s predictable denouement. The believable humanity of those involved is also pretty well managed.

This is definitely the work of a director staying in his comfort zone and isn’t close to being the best thing he has done, for me that is still Nebraska, but you’ll have a nice time watching it and yes, it is good for being a little bit redolent in its approach.

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The Ripley Factor:

There is a very particular kind of protective maleness being examined here and this is what the movie does have over those other films it easily compares to. Billy Elliott touched on aspects of this but with none of the subtly and neither Robin Williams’ Dr. Maguire or his Mr. Keating were built on this premise. His stories were about potential and belief in others more than hiding behind hegemonic expectations.

As such Randolph’s Mary provides the perfect juxtaposition to this. Her character’s mix of natural compassion and forced resignation, a product of her female purpose arguably clashing with America’s posturing masculine war ethic, is not the focus of the film but undeniably improves it.