19 years after filmmaker Alexander Payne and actor Paul Giamatti teamed up on Sideways, one of the finest films of the 21st century, the duo have reunited on The Holdovers, a 1970s period dramedy that had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival’s Werner Herzog Theatre on Thursday afternoon — and might well bag Giamatti the best actor Oscar nom of which he was robbed for his prior collaboration with Payne.
Giamatti plays a pompous and sadistic teacher — reminiscent of the one in 1973’s The Paper Chase that brought an Oscar to John Houseman, a similarly great character actor — at the New England all-boys boarding school he once attended. He lands the undesirable assignment of overseeing preppy students who can’t go home for the holidays and can’t stand him, and winds up spending most of his time with one particularly smart but rebellious juvenile (talented newcomer Dominic Sessa) and a grieving cafeteria lady (Da’Vine Joy Randolph in her most impressive performance yet). Naturally, each winds up revealing a great deal about how they came to be the way they are.
Drawn from an original screenplay by David Hemingson that, along with the film’s locations and production design, evokes memories of 1992’s Scent of a Woman and 1989’s Dead Poets Society, the film was sold to Focus Features during last year’s Toronto International Film Festival — without actually playing at the fest — for $30 million, the largest deal in TIFF’s history. I’m not sure if, upon its release on Oct. 27, it will commercially justify such a large spend.
But I am confident that the film, Payne’s direction, Hemingson’s script, Randolph’s supporting turn and especially Giamatti’s vanity-free leading performance will get serious awards consideration. And I must say that I, as a Sideways devotee, couldn’t help but smile upon seeing Giamatti playing another — albeit very different — pretentious snob who lacks confidence around women and who even, in one scene, swishes and spits booze. Cheers to that.
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