Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti Reunite for ‘The Holdovers,’ Making a Few New Holiday Friends Along the Way

October 24, 2023

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Hold it! (CREDIT: Seacia Pavao / © 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC)

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston, Andrew Garman, Naheem Garcia, Michael Provost, Brady Hepner, Jim Kaplan, Ian Dolley, Gillian Vigman, Tate Donovan

Director: Alexander Payne

Running Time: 133 Minutes

Rating: R for Cranky Curmudgeonliness and Teenage Boys Being Teenage Boys

Release Date: October 27, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Merry Christmas! Why, it’s still merely October, you say? Well, having the holidays thrusted upon you a couple months early is surely a more bearable fate than that borne by Barton Academy prep school student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) and his hidebound history teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) in the early 1970s. Angus is stuck at school over the winter break because his mom (Gillian Vigman) and stepdad (Tate Donovan) are too busy jet-setting, while Paul pulls the short end of the faculty stick as the guardian for all the kids who don’t have anywhere else to go. This is a formula that’s promising an explosive clash of strong personalities, but maybe head of the cafeteria Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) can help to extinguish the eruptions.

What Made an Impression?: Not-So-Hidden Layers: If you’re 18 or younger, then Mr. Hunham will probably strike you as an absolute nightmare. I’m pretty sure everyone had at least one teacher who was so soul-crushingly set in his ways. But older viewers will likely be more willing to extend him if not affection, then certainly understanding. Right from the jump, he reveals that he’s more complicated than the stodgy traditionalist he’s presented as, and obviously a character played by Paul Giamatti and directed by Alexander Payne was always going to be plenty three-dimensional. The specifics of those dimensions mainly have to do with his frustration that’s directed at a world that appears to be falling apart as well as all the young, privileged kids who are blissfully unaware of their inoculation against all that.
Kindred Spirits: When Angus and Paul’s antagonism eventually begins to soften into something resembling mentorship, it’s because of that time-honored tradition of seeing themselves in each other. As it turns out, they’ve both been handicapped by some pretty bum deals in life, and they go about their days with simmering anger shaping pretty much every one of their actions. They’re the kind of people who secretly shoulder burdens all by themselves, only to generate a ton of sympathy when the truths are uncovered. They go through quite a rocky start, but it’s ultimately a blessing that they’ve found each other.
A True Three-Hander: I can imagine a version of The Holdovers that features just Angus and Paul as its only two characters, and that version probably would have been pretty satisfying. But the version we actually get is even more so, thanks to the straight-shooting performance of Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Mary is notably more emotionally open than everyone around her, which allows her to serve as the enzyme to get Paul to open up, at least a little bit. There’s a sweet early scene in which he joins her while she’s watching The Newlywed Game. He’s never watched it before, so he pinpoints the premise as a recipe for disaster, which she assures him is exactly the point. And ultimately this movie demonstrates that being open to even small new experiences like this one can start nudging us towards exactly where we need to go.

The Holdovers is Recommended If You Like: Rushmore, Armageddon Time, The Way Way Back

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 History Exams

How Much and in What Ways Does ‘Respect’ Respect Aretha Franklin? Let’s Find Out!

August 8, 2021

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Respect (CREDIT: Quantrell D. Colbert/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures)

Starring: Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Marc Maron, Audra McDonald, Tituss Burgess, Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Tate Donovan, Mary J. Blige, Gilbert Glenn Brown, Skye Dakota Turner

Director: Liesl Tommy

Running Time: 145 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Abusive Relationships and Racial Tension

Release Date: August 13, 2021 (Theaters)

Aretha Franklin biopic Respect keeps harping on the idea that the Queen of Soul didn’t start having hits until she focused on her own original efforts, and I kind of wish the movie had taken its own advice. Now, it obviously couldn’t be a completely thorough original. It is a biopic, after all. But Jennifer Hudson is talented enough to make me think that this movie isn’t really going to sing until she’s allowed to break free and offer her own unique interpretation. The most rousing moment of the whole film comes during the end credits when we get to see the real Aretha bring the house down at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors with a rendition of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” (President Obama was having a GREAT time.) To be fair, Hudson and the makers of Respect are more interested in exploring the behind-the-scenes of Franklin’s story, but it is telling that they never quite achieve something as triumphant as the real deal.

The challenge of so many music biopics is combining idiosyncrasy with reverence. Those two impulses don’t really mix, and oftentimes biopic makers are much more interested in the latter than the former anyway. The title of Respect indicates that that’s very much the case here. That’s especially clear in one scene when Aretha attempts to perform a song by family friend Dinah Washington (an intensely regal Mary J. Blige) while Dinah is in attendance. It absolutely does not go so well, thanks to Dinah’s insistence that you don’t play the Queen in front of the Queen. That deference marks the entire movie. Within that boundary, Hudson is able to successfully explore Franklin’s trauma and resilience, but she doesn’t have room to leave her own inimitable signature.

I found the portrayals of the main men in Aretha’s life much more compelling, perhaps because their public personas are much less set in stone and thus the actors don’t have to feel beholden to icons. I’m talking Forest Whitaker as her iron-willed minister father C.L., Marlon Wayans as her controlling and abusive manager-slash-husband Ted White, and Marc Maron as Jerry Wexler, the producer who’s actually committed to letting Aretha be Aretha. Respect gives us a full picture of all the big, often controlling personalities in Aretha’s life, and so it works in painting that picture and in that way it fulfills the promise of its title. If you’re in the mood for that sort of contextualization, you might be satisfied, but don’t expect the house to be brought down the way that Aretha so often did.

Respect is Recommended If You Like: Behind the Music, Deferential covers

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Chains of Fools

This Is a Movie Review: Transgender Rights and Family Drama Fuel the Ho-Hum ‘3 Generations’

May 3, 2017

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This review was originally published on News Cult in May 2017.

Starring: Elle Fanning, Naomi Watts, Susan Sarandon, Tate Donovan

Director: Gaby Dellal

Running Time: 92 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for The Facts of Life

Release Date: May 5, 2017 (Limited)

It is great when the stories of minority and discriminated groups are portrayed on the big screen, as they are granted greater visibility via the transportive power of cinema. But it is not so great when those stories are boring, because then the experience is less transportive. Teenage Ray (Elle Fanning) is a transgender male hoping to quickly start his gender reassignment treatment, and the reason this film is entitled “3 Generations” as opposed to something like “Ray’s Story” is because it is really about his relationship with his single mother Maggie (Naomi Watts) and grandmother Dolly (Susan Sarandon), whom he lives with together inManhattan. These are three talented ladies, and none of them phone it in, but ultimately 3 Generations feels like little more than spending a couple of hours with a family other than your own.

Teenage transgender transition stories offer the reliable dramatic hook of attempting to secure parental permission. Ray’s decision must be approved by both his mother and long-absentee father Craig (Tate Donovan). And therein lies the rub, as Maggie and Craig are not exactly on good terms, to put it mildly. It is enough to make you scream. Ray certainly does. Donovan is a captivating screen presence, and he has the necessary anti-chemistry with Watts, but again this mostly boils down to: families of transgender people can be just as dysfunctional as everyone else’s.

A constant source of tension for Ray is his grandmother’s difficulty accepting his identity. Dolly is far from conservative. She is a lesbian, but just because your sexuality is not mainstream does not mean you cannot also be closed-minded. There is an edge to Ray and Dolly’s interactions that is unavoidable, but also fascinating. A version of 3 Generations pared down to grandmother/grandson buddy comedy could be a winning formula. The obligations of familial love can be in a constant battle with the plague of misunderstanding/ I think that is the valiant thesis of this film, but it struggles to put its own spin on that age-old conundrum.

3 Generations is Recommended If You Like: The Kids Are All Right, Being an Elle Fanning Completist

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Fire Escapes