The Paul Giamatti-led movie The Holdovers — equal parts funny and tragic — stuns with its performances, tone and message.Paul Giamatti, left, stars with Dominic Sessa in director Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers. The film, about an irascible teacher forced to care for an irreverent student, could be the best release of 2023. It's a scene too pointed not to underpin the entire movie.
For Prof. Paul Hunham , who barely ever ventures out of this school he once attended, it could be about getting rid of the comforting but stifling elements of life holding us back. Soon, at the fictional Barton Academy, we meet Tully, played by Sessa, a newcomer so shockingly new he has no other acting credits and seeminglyIt says Sessa landed the role after being submitted alongside 11 other schoolmates.
One minute, he conceals a good grade. The next, he torpedoes his classmates' dreams of a homework-free vacation by talking back to Hunham. He provokes fights with the dorm bully only to protect a younger boy who wets his bed.