Movie Reviews
'The Holdovers': A predictable letdown of a film – review
Alexander Payne’s latest movie, The Holdovers, which opens throughout Israel on February 8, is getting major Oscar buzz and it’s the kind of character-driven, low-key drama of redemption and friendship that could provide a nice contrast to the overblown, overhyped movies like Barbie and Oppenheimer that got most of the attention this year.
If only it were better.
It’s one of those wintry movies about misfits bonding during the Christmas season, and while it has characters you care about more as it goes along, it takes its time and it’s so clear that the bonding is on the way that you may grow impatient with the slow pacing. It’s disappointing because Payne has often made enjoyable, memorable movies, especially his early features, Election and Citizen Ruth.
Why The Holdovers falls flat
Election brutally satirized a high-school student (Reese Witherspoon) determined to win a school election at all costs, while Citizen Ruth, featuring Laura Dern, subversively mined the politics of the political controversy around the abortion movement for comedy. Payne also made Sideways, the story of two middle-aged men who are disappointed with their lives and who take what they hope will be a cathartic journey through California wine country, which was a breakout role for Paul Giamatti, best known today for the TV series, Billions, who also stars in The Holdovers.
In The Holdovers, Giamatti – considered one of the frontrunners for the Best Actor Oscar – plays Paul Hunham, a very strict teacher at a New England boys’ prep school in 1970 who is universally disliked and disrespected by the students, the other teachers, and his boss. He revels in giving his students – most of whom he considers lazy, overprivileged idiots – failing grades, even if they are wealthy or politically connected. No one would ever consider Paul overprivileged. He was a scholarship student, went to Harvard, and came back to teach at his old prep school – and rarely leaves the campus. He has no family, no friends, and no relationships with women. Oh, and due to a medical condition, he smells bad. Before you can think what a lovable loser he is, he gets stuck looking after “the holdovers” – the kids who can’t go home for the holidays – over the Christmas break.
It goes without saying that he is an unrelenting jerk as he makes these sad students, who are missing their families (some live far away, some have parents who don’t want them around), spend their days studying and exercising, with no chance for any fun. It’s all about painting Paul – at the beginning – as what the late New Yorker critic Pauline Kael would have called “a parody of an anti-life monster,” a quote from her review of Terms of Endearment, in which she was describing Shirley MacLaine’s character, but which also applies here.
Eventually, all the students get a reprieve and are able to leave, except for Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa, who should have gotten an Oscar nod but didn’t). He is Paul’s brightest student and though he originally seemed like one of the entitled egomaniacs Paul loathes, at the last minute, his mother tells him that she and his new stepfather are going to the Caribbean for a vacation without him. This punctures Angus’s brash façade and while he rebels against Paul’s rules, it’s clear that he is acting out due to his feelings of abandonment.
There is a third character who is stuck at the school with them, Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who is virtually guaranteed an Oscar for this performance), the school cook who is mourning the recent loss of her only son in Vietnam. She is wise and noble throughout, with moments of heartbreaking vulnerability. Randolph, who has appeared in The Idol and Only Murders in the Building, plays this role so well you will only realize how cliched the character is after you leave the theater. Despite her pain, she manages to push Paul and Angus closer together, making them realize what is truly important in life.
Eventually, the long-foreshadowed bonding comes as the teacher and student reveal their secrets and admit who they really are, in a series of scenes that do become progressively more touching. Mary finds some comfort in her connection to the two of them and they all embrace the redemption that was hovering on the horizon from the movie’s opening moments.
The three leads work well together and you will root for them, although there is a predictability and heavy-handedness to the story that makes it less moving than it would otherwise be. There are some good actors in supporting roles who don’t have much to do, among them Carrie Preston of The Good Wife who plays a down-to-earth faculty member who moonlights as a waitress. The ’70s setting is used cleverly and the opening credits make it look like a film that was actually made 50-plus years ago, which is a fun way to start it off.
But for all its virtues, The Holdovers invites unfortunate comparisons to the ne plus ultra of teacher-student bonding movies, Wonder Boys with Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire, based on and very faithful to the great novel by Michael Chabon of the same title. While I really wanted to like The Holdovers and I did enjoy quite a bit of it, it was hard to banish memories from the much funnier and more moving Wonder Boys as The Holdovers limped along.
By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer
Posted: May 8th, 2026 / 08:34 PM
AFFECTION movie poster | ©2026 Brainstorm Media
Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jessica Rothe, Joseph Cross, Julianna Layne
Writer: BT Meza
Director: BT Meza
Distributor: Brainstorm Media
Release Date: May 8, 2026
AFFECTION is an odd title for this tale. While it is about a number of topics and emotions, fondness isn’t one of them. Obsession, definitely. Love, possibly. The kind of general warm fellow feelings associated with “affection”? No.
There have been a lot of movies lately in which characters – mostly women – are grappling with false identities and/or false memories imposed upon them, mostly by men.
Let us stipulate that the protagonist (Jessica Rothe) in AFFECTION is not an android or in an artificial reality. However, we can tell something is way off from the opening sequence. A car is stalled on a tree-bordered highway. Rothe’s character is lying face down on the asphalt beside it, possibly dead.
But then the young woman rises, dragging a broken ankle. She experiences a full-body seizure. Fighting to recover, she sees oncoming headlights and tries to run, only to be hit by a car.
The woman wakes up in a bed she doesn’t recognize, next to a man (Joseph Cross) she likewise is sure she’s never seen before. One big confrontation later, the man says his name is Bruce – and that the woman is his wife, Ellie.
Ellie insists that her name is Sarah Thompson, and she is married to someone else, with a son. When she sees her reflection in a mirror, she doesn’t relate to the face looking back at her.
Bruce counters that Ellie has a rare neurological condition that causes her to block out her waking life and believe her dreams are real. This is why they agreed, together, to move to this isolated house, without the kinds of interruptions that can hinder Ellie’s recovery.
The set-up is presented in a way where we share Ellie’s skepticism. But Ellie and Bruce’s little daughter Alice (Julianna Layne) immediately identifies Ellie as “Mommy!” Alice appears to be too young to be in on any kind of deception, so what is going on here?
AFFECTION eventually explains this via a helpful videotape, though it’s so convoluted that viewers watching on streaming may want to replay the sequence to make sure they understand the exposition.
Writer/director BT Meza musters a sense of menace and lurking weirdness, as well as making great use of his location.
We still have a lot of questions, many of which are still unanswered by the film’s end. It may not matter to the points AFFECTION is trying to make, but a better sense of exactly how all this started might help our investment.
As it is, despite a heroically versatile performance by Rothe, a credible and anguished turn by Cross and appealing work from Layne, we’re so busy trying to piece together what’s important and what’s not and how we’re supposed to feel about all of it that it can be hard to keep track of the action as it unfolds.
Agree or not, Meza’s arguments are lucid and illustrated clearly by AFFECTION’s events. However, the movie is structured in a way that becomes more frustrating as it goes. We comprehend it intellectually but can’t engage viscerally.
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — In this episode of 8News Reel Talk, digital producer Julia Broberg is joined by anchor Deanna Allbrittin and reporter Allison Williams to talk about “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
The hosts gave their reviews and assigned the following star ratings:
Deanna: ★★★★.5
Allison: ★★★.25
Julia: ★★
To watch more livestreams and digital video content, head to the WRIC+ Originals page. You can also watch full on-demand videos on your smart TV using the WRIC+ app.
Billie Eilish fans prepare yourself, the much talked about secret project has finally arrived on the big screens!
Billie Eilish has always been about intimacy over artifice, but her latest concert film takes that to a visceral new level. Co-directed by Eilish and James Cameron, Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) manages to bridge the gap between a massive stadium show and the quiet grit of life backstage.
The film starts 18 minutes out from the show and builds the tension until audiences are literally folded into a box with her. Being taken under the stage, passing fans who have no idea she’s inches away, sets a tone of total immersion. What makes this film different is the balance between the spectacle and the behind-the-scenes reality. We see the creative shorthand between Billie and James Cameron as they chase what she calls the “best kind of sensory overload”.
The film is very much fan focussed, with the sound mix being so specific that you can hear individual fans singing along in sync with the visuals.
There are so many standout moments, the handheld camera work during “Bad Guy” that gives a dizzying POV of the band, and the chilling minute of silence Billie requests from the crowd to record a vocal loop.
The film captures her unique stage presence. Influenced by rap culture, Billie refuses to have anyone else on stage, unlike many female artists that use back up dancers. Billie can hold the entire stadium in awe by herself which is incredible to witness, until Finneas joins her for a beautiful, emotional piano set.
Between the high-tech visuals and the “Puppy Room” (where she keeps rescue dogs for staff to decompress), the film feels incredibly personal. While the film doesn’t give us any new insights into Billie, Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) is an enjoyable experience that elevates the tradition concert film.
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