Paul Giametti

The Holdovers

20/01/24

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Great Christmas movies are such rare creatures – hard to get right at the best of times – so when one arrives at multiplexes in late January, I can only put it down to circumstances beyond the filmmaker’s control. Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers definitely belongs on Santa’s nice list, and better late than never, I guess. 

The action takes place at Christmas 1970 and tells the story of a grumpy educator, who finds himself thrown into the company of a headstrong young student, and gradually begins to discover the true meaning of the festive celebration. Anybody thinking that this sounds a little like Ebenezer Scrooge is on the right lines, though any similarities to Charles Dickens’ classic tale may be entirely unintentional.

The curmudgeon in question is Paul Hunham (Paul Giametti), a classics teacher at elite New England boarding school, Barton Academy. Paul has taught there for years and is plagued by problems, including an eye condition and a rare syndrome that makes him smell of rotting fish. Perhaps unsurprisingly, thanks to his acerbic manner and his refusal to ever back down on any given subject, he’s disliked by pupils and staff alike. He’s obstinate, even when the school’s head virtually begs him to give a more forgiving exam grade to a boy whose father is one of the school’s most generous patrons.

As the Christmas holidays loom and snow blankets the countryside, Paul is assigned the thankless task of looking after those few pupils who, for whatever reason, are unable to make it home to their families. At first, there are five boys in this invidious position, but, when a wealthy father with his own helicopter intervenes to ferry most of them away on a skiing holiday, there’s only one of them stuck with the prospect of seeing in the New Year with Paul.

He’s Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a boy plagued by depression ever since the break up of his parents’ marriage, and currently struggling to make it through each day. The ill-matched duo’s only other companion is Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randall), the school’s head cook. She’s mourning the recent death of her only son, a former student at Barton, obliged to join the American army, when Mary can’t provide the necessary money to secure her Black son a place at one of the prestigious Universities his white classmates take for granted.

A merry trio indeed.

From these distinctly unpromising beginnings, Payne spins a moving, endearing and sweetly sad story about human interaction. As Paul and Angus begin to learn about each other, so their respective defences are gradually breached. The film, already nominated for several awards, demonstrates what a brilliant performer Giametti is when given the right material, while Sessa and Joy Randall are right there with him. The era is convincingly evoked (down to a set of vintage pre-credit titles) and Eigild Bryld’s stark, snow-bound cinematography captures the story’s bleak setting perfectly. As a former boarding school boy, I find myself constantly reminded of the occasional ‘holdover’ experiences from my own childhood.

Whether this film has the power to make waves against this year’s impressive raft of Oscar contenders remains to be seen, but I suspect that The Holdovers will be the Christmas film of choice for a lot of movie fans in years to come. But maybe I’m putting too much emphasis on the festive setting: a film this good is welcome any time.

4.8 stars

Philip Caveney

Morgan

06/09/16

Morgan is a sci-fi thriller with a difference: this one passes the Bechdel test. And it’s really rather good.

Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a bioengineered life-form, an experiment in artificial intelligence. But her creators have become too emotionally attached, and are unable to treat her as anything less than human. When she attacks Dr Grieff (Jennifer Jason Leigh in a disappointingly small role), risk-management consultant Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) is sent in to sort things out. But the odds are stacked against her: Morgan might be dangerous and out of control, but the scientists are on her side.

Okay, so there are some issues. Let’s face it, credulity is stretched at times; it requires a gigantic leap of faith to believe that a being – however special – can jump into a car and drive it without ever having seen one before. And how does Morgan know, just by looking at him, that Dr Shapiro (Paul Giamatti) is married and has two kids? I’m happy to believe in the fi part of the sci, but it’s better when the ‘magic’ is explained convincingly. In addition, there’s a definite slump in the second half, when all the slice-and-dice stuff kicks in.

But overall, this is a lot of fun. Mara and Taylor-Joy are worthy adversaries, both wonderfully kick-ass and convincing in their roles. Paul Giamatti is as compelling as ever, and Rose Leslie (as Dr Menser) adds a quirky naivety to the tale. And the payoff is worth the wait.

Worth watching. So catch it while you can.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

 

 

Love and Mercy

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11/07/15

Music biopics can be perilously tricky affairs. Far too often, they come across merely as karaoke reruns of the original events and only a very few ever succeed (or even bother) to try and probe beneath the shiny surface. Happily, Love and Mercy belongs in the latter category. Bill Pohlad’s film offers two Brian Wilsons for the price of one.

In the 1960’s-set first strand, a bulked up Paul Dano does an uncanny job of portraying pop music’s most celebrated tortured genius, complete with the chubby bewildered features and the pudding basin haircut. The recreations of the band’s early concerts and TV appearances are uncannily accurate. After the Beachboys’ initial successes with their surfing songs, Brian suffers a debilitating panic attack on an airplane, and elects to stay in the studio and create music while the rest of the band head off to Japan on tour.

In the second, 1990’s-set strand, we meet another Brian Wilson, post nervous breakdown and in the clutches of bullying psychiatrist, Eugene Landy (Paul Giametti in a fright wig, looking strangely like Melvyn Bragg.) In these sequences, Brian is played by John Cusack, who is of course a very accomplished actor – but he  looks nothing like Wilson, or for that matter, Dano. The conclusion has to be that the director was trying to make a statement about his subject’s schizophrenic nature but I couldn’t help feeling that he’d have done better to stick with Dano throughout.

Once the two time frames are established the film cuts effortlessly back and forth, between two major stories. In the 60’s, Brian’s mounting confusion alienates him from his fellow band members and family – but here the film manages to nail the creative process of recording better than most other films I’ve seen. It’s wonderful to watch as a pop masterpiece like God Only Knows is assembled virtually note by note, before finally blossoming into the sublime finished product we know and love.

In the second storyline, a heavily sedated Brian, always accompanied by Landy and his henchmen, wanders into a car showroom to purchase a Cadillac and makes a connection with Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks.) The two of them start to date and Melinda quickly begins to realise that Brian is under Landy’s control, every bit as much as he suffered under the tyranny of his abusive father, Murray. But how can she extricate him from his self-inflicted woes? And does Brian even want to be rescued?

This is by no means a perfect film, but it’s intriguing and compelling enough to keep you hooked to the end and there’s some fabulous sounds to enjoy along the way. At the film’s conclusion we get the added bonus of the real Brian Wilson performing the wistful song from which the film takes its title. You don’t have to be a Beachboys fan, but it certainly helps.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney