At the expense of sounding corny, The Holdovers is a film that truly warms the heart and soul, like the cinematic equivalent of a self-soothing hug by a crackling fireplace. Directed by Alexander Payne (Nebraska, Sideways), Paul Giamatti returns to the big screen in top-tier form as a cranky and out-of-touch professor whose cold heart begins to melt after forging an unlikely connection with a student. The Holdovers is a beautifully told story about the human condition and how understanding an individual’s complexity can lead to an empathetic, life-changing awakening.

What one will notice immediately as the film opens is the visual homage to classic cinema of the 1970s. The desaturation and film stock quality make The Holdovers feel as if it is a treasure pulled from the archives of yesteryear. This throwback aesthetic carries on throughout the entirety of the film and is largely responsible for the overall tonal sense of comfort and warmth. The Holdovers doesn’t just take place in 1970, Alexander Payne wanted audiences to feel as if the film was made in the time period as well.

Paul Hunham (Giamatti) is an ancient history teacher at Barton Academy, the New England-set boarding school for the upper echelon of privileged society. Paul is a single man, never married, and fiercely devoted to educating his students despite his ill attempts to inspire. His strict style of teaching and less than generous “Christmas gift” to the students of homework over the holiday break makes Paul the most despised professor on campus. All Paul wants for Christmas is a break from his students but as fate would have it, he is stuck with supervisor duty. This means he is forced to stay on campus and oversee the handful of students who aren’t going home for the break, or the “holdovers”.

15-year-old Angus Tully (Sessa) is one of the unlucky boys whose mom and new stepfather refuse to release him from Barton Academy for the holidays. Angus’s frustration at the situation grows substantially when, comically, the four other boys who were initially holdovers manage to get released into the care of a friend’s wealthy dad. This leaves Angus stuck with Paul and the only other faculty resident on campus, Barton Academy’s head cook Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

Paul is a self-appointed loner who is forced into a parental role, Angus is a smart kid with bad behavior, and Mary is a caretaker who is navigating through the heartbreak of losing her only son. All three are tortured by their own thoughts and sense of hopelessness and, ironically, their lack of communication in expressing these feelings causes them to miss out on a chance for connection. Despite their many differences, Paul, Angus, and Mary are more alike than they even realize. Over the course of the two-week holiday break, the trio engages in comical misadventures, turbulent growing pains, and emotional catharsis–ultimately leading to the creation of an impromptu family unit that they all so desperately wanted.

The Holdovers feels like an instant classic, anchored by a knockout performance from Paul Giamatti. His pompous, pipe-smoking, historical text-spewing character is not only a riot to watch on screen but also mimics the classic tortoise archetype. He retreats into his shell when feeling threatened and is extremely vulnerable without his defensive armor. Paul’s armor in this case is his intelligence, which is constantly tested by the wilding, unruly, and hare-like Angus. Newcomer Dominic Sessa is a breath of fresh air, acting as if he was somehow plucked from the 70s as well. The authenticity in his performance is incredibly impressive and sets a high bar for any future projects. The consistently wonderful Da’Vine Joy Randolph delivers an awards-worthy rendition of a single grieving mother experiencing many emotions at once. She is undeniably phenomenal.

The world of The Holdovers feels so real and tangible, in large part due to the outstanding production design by Ryan Warren Smith which is artfully realized and captured by cinematographer Eigil Bryld. A sweeping and delicately pieced orchestral score by composer Mark Orton–which includes the standard guitar, piano, and strings along with the unexpected addition of a toy trumpet, sleigh bells, and a marxophone–perfectly compliments the abundance of synced songs. Music supervisor Matt Aberle must have had their hands full licensing tracks from Cat Stevens, The Allman Brothers Band, and Labi Siffre among others.

A film to experience with friends and loved ones this holiday season, The Holdovers promises to spread joy and put a smile on the faces of even the most curmudgeonly of people.