“I don’t think I’ve ever had a real family Christmas like this before,” says Angus Tully, a flawed but promising student at Barton Preparatory School in Massachusetts. Ironically, Angus says this as a Holdover—a student with nowhere to go for winter break. In the scene, Angus is celebrating Christmas with a flawed family—Mary, the Barton cafeteria manager, and Paul Hunham, the history teacher with a checkered past.

Angus, Hunham, and Mary give the movie its title. Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers is the story of people who find each other when they have nowhere to go.

Angus is a complicated kid with an even more complicated story. He claims that his father is dead and that his mom, who has remarried, has abandoned him on campus for the two weeks of winter break. He and a few other students are set to be punished with more school during a vacation. When another student’s rich father helicopters onto campus, the boys get invited to go skiing. Only Angus’ parents can’t be reached. As the boys fly away, Angus is the only remaining holdover. Mr. Hunham can’t believe his bad luck.

“Do you think I want to be babysitting you? Oh, no, no, I was praying to the God I don’t even believe that your mother would pick up the phone.”

An unlikely and confusing pair, Angus and Mr. Hunham are brutally honest with each other. Adding to the complicated dynamic is Mary, a woman who only recently lost her son, who died in Vietnam. A Christmas movie including a mother named Mary who loses her son enhances the movie’s sadness.

Ultimately, Angus and Mr. Hunham go their separate ways, but not before earning each other’s trust and giving each other much-needed direction. Not quite a comedy or a drama, The Holdovers manages to be both.

Rating: ★★★★