The Holdovers (2023) Part 1

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I really enjoyed this comedic film with a heart. I would characterize it as a "redemption" movie. - JW

Nobody likes teacher Paul Hunham (Giamatti) -- not his students, not his fellow faculty, not the headmaster, who all find his pomposity and rigidity exasperating. With no family and nowhere to go over Christmas holiday in 1970, Paul remains at school to supervise students unable to journey home. After a few days, only one student holdover remains -- a trouble-making 15-year-old named Angus, a good student whose bad behavior always threatens to get him expelled. Joining Paul and Angus is head cook Mary (Randolph)-an African American woman who caters to sons of privilege and whose own son was recently lost in Vietnam. These three very different shipwrecked people form an unlikely Christmas family sharing comic misadventures during two very snowy weeks in New England. The real journey is how they help one another understand that they are not beholden to their past-they can choose their own futures.

From IMDB:

Life Affirming...

Now here's a film with a life affirming theme, that should encourage most viewers to think of their dreams, and shovel away all their cloaks, inhibitions, and open fresh doors to their heart's intuitions; as a teacher whose life is as stale as dead fish, whose life is the opposite of happy and bliss, meets a boy who's ignored by all those he holds dear, and a friendship is formed that is warm and sincere; it's a subtle reflection of how we get trapped, by tradition and habits and past circumstance, where surroundings like prisons can temper our thinking, that distils our spirit to bottles for drinking; so embrace the chances when they come along, break out of that mould and sing your own song, open your eye to the paths unexplored, take a stand and stand tall and stop being ignored.