"The Holdovers" on Peacock [View all]
Paul Giamatti (Billions) plays a stern, uptight boarding school teacher at an elite New England prep school who's charged with wrangling the "holdovers", students with no place to go for the holidays, when the school breaks for the last two weeks of 1970. It's his punishment for failing the idiot son of one of the school's benefactors. Among his companions is a troubled youth (Dominic Sessa) with family problems and the school's head cook (Da'Vine Joy Randolph of Only Murders in the Building) who is mourning the loss of her only son in the Vietnam War. Over the holiday, the three of them awkwardly connect with each other in sometimes comical ways, revealing truths about themselves and healing their wounds.
The movie is funny and poignant, but mostly well written and acted, with Sessa a standout in his professional debut. It's set at the ass end of 1970, when I was in high school, so it was also very nostalgic for me. Highly recommended!
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