The Holdovers

Alexander Payne returns to form with a film that feels like a warm blanket on a cold December night.

Paul Giamatti does what Paul Giamatti does best: plays a curmudgeon with a heart buried so deep you have to dig for it. But the real discovery here is Dominic Sessa as Angus. That kid can act.

The 1970s aesthetic isn't just window dressing-it serves the story's themes of being stuck in the past, of institutions that don't know how to change.

This is the kind of movie that used to get made all the time and now feels rare. Character-driven, paced like real life, content to let moments breathe.