The Holdovers mashes up the Breakfast Club with Scarecrow or The Last Detail. In recreating the timeframe, Payne shoots the film to look like a 70’s film, including the old R rating title card and 70’s style credits. Hence, it bares a visual, not just narrative, resemblance to Scarecrow and The Last Detail (both 1973). Giamatti Randolph and the kid all do a very convincing job. Giamatti’s cranky old teacher feels like he was the uncle Giamatti never had in Sideways. The balance of sentimentality and comedy hits just the right note. Just as the film starts to feel too pat, it takes an unexpected direction. Without browbeating, it touches on a few of the issues impacting the times — the (Vietnam) war, race relations, an even more ingrained class structure; all while staying funny and engaging. Maybe you have to go back a few decades to find that balance.
Sloves' Rants
I confess that, going in, I felt some resistance to its stylized throwback vibe…yet in the end, I could not resist its charms. Stylization ceded way to the grit and grittiness of the interplay between the characters — and thank goodness I was saved from TWEE. Phew. Crisis averted!