Jack and I loved this dramedy about a prickly teacher forced to supervise students who can't leave their New England boarding school for the 1970 Christmas break. Paul Giamatti is reliably wonderful as the angry professor, Da'Vine Joy Randolph as the laid-back school cook, and Dominic Sessa as the arrogant student Angus.
The also-reliable Alexander Payne, who last directed Giamatti in Sideways (2004), does not disappoint, working from a snappy script by David Hemingson.
The soundtrack on Apple Music has grayed out the songs by artists other than some instrumentals by the score's composer Mark Orton but I found this You Tube playlist that has most of them. However, both are missing the boys choir tracks that I found delightful.
Giamatti was last blogged for Private Life, Randolph for United States vs. Billie Holiday, Payne for Downsizing, and Orton for My Old Lady. This is Sessa's feature debut. Same for Hemingson, who has written and/or produced dozens of TV episodes.
Rated 96% by Rotten Tomatoes' critics and 91 by its audiences, this is on many lists of the best movies of 2023. We rented it (iTunes/Apple TV) at our first opportunity on December 1.
