The Holdovers

Paul Giamatti dominates the film in the lead role about a college schoolmaster, (Paul Hunham,) who gets the short straw by having to supervise boarding students over the Christmas break.
Directed by Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, The Descendants, Downsizing,) the film is set in the 1970’s with some nostalgic vignettes that mature viewers will truly appreciate.
The film’s ‘sell’ is as a comedy, but the narrative morphs into a more thoughtful drama focused on three central characters: Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa,) the one remaining student left for the holidays, Professor Hunham  (as mentioned,) and  the Cafeteria Manager, Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph,) whose graduate son has recently been killed in Vietnam.
All three, disparate, lonely characters are fighting their own demons and just  how they navigate the bleak Christmas period together is at the core of this film.
There’s a ton of charm here, with some great scriptwriting by David Hemingson, who gets an honourable mention for the snappy repartee. (Worth watching for this alone.) Here’s a few of tasters delivered by Professor Hunham: Student: “I can’t fail this class.”
Hunham: “Oh! Don’t sell yourself short…I truly believe you can.”
“You know for most people, life is like a henhouse ladder, shitty and short.”
And finally:
“The world doesn’t make sense any more. I mean it’s on fire. The rich don’t give a shit. Poor kids are cannon fodder. Integrity is a punch line. Trust is just the name on a bank.”
Particularly effective is the scene in  which, Randolph, as the grieving mother, hunches over a kitchen sink, drunk and bereft.
“He’s gone.”
No overblown over acting or overwriting here – masterfully done!
Yes. The film is predictable and slow-moving in places but in our prevailing hurly-burly is this a bad thing? This is a film that makes thoughtful comment on our modern world, on relationships and on this struggle, we call life. 
RATING: Four out of five Clicker-Clackers! (A 70’s toy)