Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers is currently streaming on pay-for-view where you can find this highly anticipated film that takes place at a Massachusetts prep school during Christmas break in December 1970.

Although the film received mostly glowing reviews from the critics, some objected to the film as not being indicative of a 70s movie, which is a ridiculous position to take.

It takes place at the end of 1970, not “the 70s” per se and is very true to the year which was really the end of the decade that began in 1961. Its sensibilities are quite true to the latter part of that decade (1967-1970). It is also one of the few films that doesn’t screw up real film release dates, which is one of my longstanding complaints about period films that feature its characters going to the movies. The film that two of its characters go to see in a theatre in Boston is Little Big Man, which opened wide on December 23, 1970.

If this were a film made in late 1969 or early 1970 as were most of the films released at the end of 1970, it would have been made at a time when films about schoolteachers were popular, following the 1969 releases of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the musical remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Star Paul Giamatti’s character is a teacher very much in the mold of Mr. Chipping (hard on the outside, soft on the inside).

Giamatti is selected to stay behind to monitor the “holdovers” or students who are unable to go home for the holidays. It starts out with four boys and ends up with just one played by newcomer Dominic Sessa. Also staying behind is lunchroom cook Da’Vine Joy Randolph whose son has recently been killed in Vietnam.

Another misreading of the film by at least one critic is that Randolph’s son volunteered to serve in the Army to further his education. That would not have been realistic in the time in which the film takes place. Although possible, higher education did not become a real selling point for the Army and other services until the end of the draft at the end of 1972. Her son, like so many others at the time, was drafted or “called” as she says, “called” and “called up” being euphemisms for “drafted.” He had said that a side benefit would allow him to go to college.

I think that the film resonates for a lot of people who were of draft age at the time, whether they were drafted or not because of that and the very real possibility that Sessa’s character could become a casualty of war thanks to the actions of his coldhearted mother and her new husband.

Very fine story telling with three strong lead performances, it’s one of the best films of the year though I’m not sure how many would consider it the year’s absolute best. Randolph is already receiving awards for her performance including the Best Supporting Actress award of the New York Film Critics. Both Giamatti and Sessa are also in contention for the year’s various other awards despite strong competition in both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

Todd Haynes’ May December is now streaming on Netflix where you can find the latest film from the acclaimed director of Far from Heaven, Carol, and the TV remake of Mildred Pierce.

While those productions featured unforgettable award-winning performances from Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, and Kate Winslet, respectively, this one with a cast led by Oscar winners Moore and Natalie Portman, is not so much a showcase for the two women as it for the film’s leading man.

While some critics have given high marks to both Portman and Moore, I find Portman’s portrayal of an actress studying the real-life woman (Moore) she will play in a film, poorly written. Moore fares better as a woman nearing 60 who when she was Portman’s age (36), was married and the mother of three, was convicted of seducing a 13-year-old boy, a classmate of her eldest son, and sent to prison where she gave birth to their child. She later married him and had two more children with him.

It is Charles Melton, New York Film Critics award winner for Best Supporting Actor as Moore’s now 36-year-old husband who is the film’s real asset.

A middle-aged manchild who never really grew up emotionally, he is mostly there to support the demanding Moore and their three kids, the younger two being twins about to graduate high school, nicely played by Elizabeth Yu and Gabriel Chung. Also of note is Cory Michael Smith as the oldest of Moore’s three children from her first marriage to D.W. Moffett, the one who had been Melton’s character’s classmate.

Melton’s epiphany after being seduced by Portman is stunningly played out in his release of a monarch butterfly from its cage the morning of the twins’ graduation. It suggests that with his children now out of the house, he, too, may be ready to leave the nest.

Universal has released 2003’s Love Actually on 4K UHD. The directing debut of Richard Curtis, the writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral is a fun-filled comedy set in London at Christmas time featuring an all-star cast led by Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Bill Nighy, Laura Linney, Alan Rickman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Keira Knightley, Andrew Lincoln, and Billy Bob Thornton. It was nominated for BAFTAs for Best British Film, Best Supporting Actor (Nighy), and Best Supporting Actress (Thompson). Nighy won for his hilarious portrayal of an over-the-hill singer making a comeback.

Extras include a look back at the film twenty years after its initial release.

Kino Lorber has released two once highly controversial films about Hollywood on Blu-ray.

Edward Dmytryk’s 1964 film, The Carpetbaggers, is a thinly veiled exposé of Howard Hughes’ film career featuring George Peppard, Alan Ladd (in his last film), Carroll Baker, Elizabeth Ashley, Robert Cummings, Martha Hyer, Lew Ayres, Martin Balsam, and many others. Based on Harold Robbins’ notorious novel, the much tamer film version was a huge hit at the time.

The release features two commentaries, one by Julie Kirgo, and one by David Del Valle.

Elia Kazan’s last film, 1976’s The Last Tycoon, based on F. Scott Fitzgerlad’s unfinished novel about a thinly disguised Irving Thalberg, features a miscast Robert De Niro supported by Ingrid Boulting, Robert Mitchum, Theresa Russell, Ray Milland, Lew Ayres, Jeanne Moreau, Tony Curtis, and briefly Jack Nicholson in a film that received mostly negative reviews but is interesting from a historical perspective.

Extras include a mostly scathing commentary by film historian Joseph McBride.

Happy viewing.