The Holdovers (2024 in Spain)

Plot of The Holdovers: In the early seventies Christmas is coming up, and as usual a number of students have to stay in Barton College over the holidays. The Master assigned to the job of looking after them scams the headmaster with a story that his mother is ill, so the role is given to Paul Hunham, unpopular with the head because he refuses to give good grades to students purely because of parental influence. The unfortunate holdovers are regimented by Hunham, but  are saved when a parent arrives by helicopter and take all but Angus Tulley skiing. Only he, Hunham and the chef, whose son has been killed in Vietnam, are left, and after some problems, which have required Tulley to cover for Hunham, they start to get together and go on a trip to Boston, where Tulley supports Hunham in his fabrication about his career to an acquaintance. At the start of the next term Hunham should support Tulley who is in trouble, but will he?

Content: No sex or nudity but a lot of smoking and some drinking, an important component in the drama. We see Hunham giving his students a hard time, and then the headmaster trying to persuade him to give better grades to a son of one of the school’s benefactors. Once everyone has left for the hols Hunham gives the remaining boys a hard time. It is evident that he is really a lonely man who has failed to achieve much in life, having been a student at Barton himself. Tulley, left because he cannot contact his parent when the others are spirited away, is smart but rebellious. The chef, who is mourning her son, get drunk a bit.  At a Christmas party where they are invited by Lydia, a staff member Hunham thinks he and she have something going, but no such luck. Later in Boston there is a fun event in a restaurant, involving creative swearing. Indeed there is quite a bit of swearing.

A View: I notice that this film has been much liked by everybody who has seen it, and in our screening in Madrid there was laughter, quite unusual for a film. It has already won a lot of awards but, it seems, not made much money. I am a former public school boy (for you Americans, private school boy) and can say that usually, except for Harry Potter, film makers fail to create a boarding school atmosphere, but The Holdovers does it pretty well. I particularly liked the students being pissed off at having to do work on the last day of term. I remember it well. It is a fun film, so well worth a watch.

Fun Fact: One of the schools used in the film was Deerfield Academy, the college actually attended by Dominic Sesse (Angus Tulley).