Inspired by John Gray's recent recommendation, I went to "The Showroom" on Wednesday afternoon to watch "The Holdovers". Directed by Alexander Payne, it stars Paul Giamatti as boarding school classics teacher Paul Hunham, Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb, the school's head cook and Dominic Sessa as Angus Tully - one of five schoolboys who, for different reasons, have to stay over at the school through the Christmas break.
It was a really lovely film that held my attention throughout. There was no mind-drifting in the cinema darkness. I guess you could say that "The Holdovers" is quiet just like the wintry rural New England in which it is mostly set. There are no guns and no detectives, just three people with hidden stories that they struggle to contain and articulate.
I believed in all three characters and there was subtle humour too such as when Angus Tully has to visit hospital to get his dislocated shoulder put back in its socket. It served him right for bounding over a pummel horse in the gymnasium - only to find there was no safety matting on the other side.
A British film critic I have long admired is Mark Kermode. His approvals have often led me to great films that I might otherwise have overlooked. Here he is talking to Simon Mayo about "The Holdovers":-
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/hnupibC
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