COMM 380:  Media Criticism

Film as an art form allows for the expression of complex topics that many viewers face to be simplified when translated into the world of fiction, lessening the emotional blow in the containment of real-life issues to a screen. Hollywood knows their audience is seeking emotional escapism, playing to it as in the contemporary film culture, “...viewers are looking for an easy way to escape their increasingly mundane lives.” (Dixon & Foster, 2011, p. 41). However, in the desire for escapism, films too often end up falling into stereotypical portrayals of life- especially the idea of the nuclear family.

 

As proposed by Emanuel Levy (1991) in his analysis of the portrayal of family structures in film, “The mass media serve as a major source of information about a variety of social roles, including family roles… However, the media's images are not up-to-date: a culture lag between society's material conditions and cultural representations may prevail.” (p. 187). Because of this culture lag, viewers often are only shown these idealized portrayals of family, in turn shaping their understanding of life to an unrealistic standard as it creates a divide “...between the actuality of family life (divorce rates, single parent families, wife, and child abuse) and its ideological representations in images, values, and myths.” (p. 187). As described in chapter four of Critical Media Analysis: An Introduction for Media Professionals, “The role of your media experiences in the social construction of reality shapes your expectations…” (p. 49). Specifically, the social learning theory helps to understand how visual media like film shapes how “humans learn appropriate behavioral patterns primarily by looking at available behavioral models” (p. 55). When the behavioral models are hyperspecific to one specific kind of life, like the idea of the nuclear family, viewers are unprepared for reality. Aware of this pattern, the 2023 film The Holdovers avoids this pitfall by encouraging a variety of non-traditional family dynamics between characters. Even the more traditional family units are portrayed as complicated by loss, illness, and divorce- offering a balance of both addressing the traditional idea of a family unit and challenging it at the same time. 

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Perhaps the most clearly established non-traditional family dynamics lie in the search for a father figure for the main character, Angus. At the film's beginning, we see that he has a strained relationship with his mother and a negative view of his stepfather, Stanley. However, with the importance of the childhood photograph he has of his father, mother, and him- it is understood that he is likely grieving his biological father, whom he speaks fondly of. It is not until later in the film that we are told through Angus’s conversation that his father is dead, which it is not revealed until later that he lied to say his father is dead rather than admitting that he is living in a psychiatric facility. Time and time again, we see Angus struggle with this concept of the father-son bond, hating his stepfather for taking his mother’s attention away and both grieving and longing for his biological father, who is both physically and psychologically distanced from him. These nuclear concepts of fathers radically differ from how the average American father is portrayed in the media. Traditionally, viewers might assume a father figure to be a biological parent who acts as the breadwinner for a family and a guiding force of decision-making. Neither of these men falls into that role, with Thomas (Angus’s biological father) being forced completely out of societal interactions by his medical needs and Stanley (Angus’s stepfather) being removed from the picture almost entirely until the end of the film. Only as Angus gets closer to Professor Hunham does we see a positive example of the fatherly role fulfilled by an entirely separate role model. Professor Hunham provides Angus with moral guidance in treating Mary with respect surrounding her grief, reprimanding him when he is out of line yet making it up to him when his shortcomings show through- as seen with the trip to Boston. He even fulfills a monetary role as the fund for extra-curricular activities allows him, Angus, and Mary to go to Boston. This reversal of the fatherly role is quite purposeful, as the more traditional options for father figures fail Angus in some way- purposefully or not- and yet the reluctant Hunham rises to the occasion. 

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The maternal influences of the film fall heavily upon Mary, the cook at Barton Academy, who is grieving the loss of her son Curtis, who was drafted into and died in the Vietnam War. Her status as a mother is challenged in the absence of a son; even though we see repeatedly that she is a caring mother who loved her son, she is in a limbo of identity. She has all the love and care for her child, speaking fondly of him and keeping his keepsakes clean and safe, but she no longer has a place to express it. This removes her from the traditional image of a mother in the nuclear family, going even further because she was unmarried to the father of her child, and he passed away before Curtis was born. Both complicating factors, the pregnancy out of wedlock and the raising of her son as a single mother, push her even further from this traditional motherly role. However, throughout the film, we see her attitude change; the bitterness she once felt towards the boys who attended Barton shifts as she becomes closer to Angus, and they build a mutual respect. Although Angus presumably had a good relationship with his mother at one point, we see Mary taking a hands-on role in his life to teach him manners and get him to stand up for himself, which seems to be lacking from his biological mother. His biological mother abandons him at school at the last minute, a pattern which Angus states is repeated in his many school transfers, as yet another one of her attempts to desert him since their divorce. At the end of the film, we see this stark difference between mother figures on display as Mary sits next to Angus, holding his hand as he sits outside of the office where his mother and stepfather are in a meeting. Even though he is physically closest to his mother, we see him throughout the film; Angus seeks out the comfort and support from Mary, which he cannot receive from his mother. In that moment, both Mary and Angus are fulfilled by the exchange as falling into a mother-son dynamic that both are seeking. 

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The family dynamics are not limited to parental influence but also the interactions early in the movie between Angus and the other holdover boys in a brotherly fashion. In particular, Angus reaches out more than the other boys and takes on a brotherly role. We see him comfort Alex Ollerman, the Mormon boy when his glove is stolen by Kountze and thrown away into the river. He goes out of his way to support Ye-Joon Park, the Korean international student, when he wakes up in the middle of the night and discovers the boy crying. Angus goes out of his way to reach out to him, even if it is not always gentle, and ask if he is all right- offering support by admitting that he also has nightmares. When he finds out the embarrassing truth that the boy has soiled himself, he keeps him calm and tells him he will keep the secret from the other boys, who will mock and volunteer to take care of the sheets in the morning. Even the fight Angus and Kountz get into is reminiscent of quarreling brothers- stealing items from one another, offering jabs at their intelligence, and calling them names. We must see Angus as an only child building a rapport with the other holdovers as they offer him a part of the nuclear family unit that he has never had. Usually, portrayals of the ‘ideal family’ unit have more than one child, often at least one boy and one girl. As with the rest of its family portrayals, this film does not subscribe to this idea, allowing these boys of different ages, classes, and nationalities to come together as brothers and enjoy each other's company.

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More so than any direct challenge of the nuclear family model, the movie provides a sense of knowing- an acceptance of life’s complicated problems that, while we may not share the same experiences, we can relate to one another through. The film establishes that it is not only blood that makes a family, but as the chief film critic of The Observer suggests, “...it’s this shared experience of being let down by life, as much as the fact that they’re forced to spend the Christmas break together, that connects the characters in The Holdovers, helping them to tune into the unique frequencies of each other’s pain.” (Ide, 2024). They forge the relationships that they do, even if through complicated circumstances and sometimes quite begrudgingly, because of a shared understanding of pain. This film's positive focus on forging non-traditional family dynamics is a refreshing peak into what film could become. As established by Emanual Levy (1991), “…very few films have called the family as an institution into question, challenging its prevalent status as the mainstay of dominant middle-class culture. Films have depicted tormented, troubled or ineffectual families, without challenging the validity of the family as a center of stability of the social order.” (p. 200). 

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The Holdovers calls the family into question through its repeated portrayals of “traditional” family life as complicated and painful, yet showing that the bonds that we forge with others in the sharing of that pain create a non-traditional family unit that can serve just as well- if not better- than the nuclear family. And ultimately, it is far more accurate to reality to depict people outside the traditional family unit fulfilling the roles of family members- with screenwriter David Hemmingson detailing how his own single, working-class mother inspired the character of Mary, his tutor and mentor Earl Cahail served as inspiration for Professor Hunham, and his struggles with school and his fight to find a fulfilling family dynamic inspired Angus. He says, “These three find their way into everything I write.” (Hemingson, 2024).

 

 

Works Cited

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Dixon & Foster. (2011). Constructing an Audience. In 21st-Century Hollywood: Movies in the Era of Transformation (pp. 40–86). Rutgers University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hj9rm.5

Hemingson, D. (2023). The Real Inspiration Behind “The Holdovers.” Retrieved from https://time.com/6333666/the-holdovers-real-inspiration/ 

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Ide, W. (2024). The Holdovers Review – A Masterclass in Melancholy with Paul Giamatti and Da’vine Joy Randolph. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/21/the-holdovers-review-alexander-payne-paul-giamatti-da-vine-joy-randolph 

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Joslin, C. G. (2009). The Evolution of the American Family. Human Rights, 36(3), 2–24. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25762005

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The Holdovers. (2023). United States: Focus Features. Retrieved from https://digitalcampus-swankmp-net.mutex.gmu.edu/gmu277629/play/a7d6c5d71350ad96?referrer=lms 

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Levy E. (1991). The American Dream of Family in Film: From Decline to a Comeback. Journal of Comparative Family Studies. 1991;22(2):187-204.

 

Stocchetti, Matteo, and Kukkonen, Karin. Critical Media Analysis: An Introduction for Media Professionals. Frankfurt am Main, DEU: Peter Lang AG, 2010. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 14 May 2016.

 

Tallerico, B. (2023). The Holdovers. Retrieved from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-holdovers-movie-review-2023