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The Holdovers poster

Movies that feel likeThe Holdovers (2023)

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.

If you loved The Holdovers, the closest films we have are Asteroid City (2023), Toni Erdmann (2016) and August: Osage County (2013). All three share The Holdovers' contemplative and witty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Drive My Car (2021).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Alexander Paynecontemplativewittyplayfulmelancholy
6 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · Hulu · Disney Plus

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If The Holdovers hit the spot, these will too

Asteroid City poster
Asteroid City
2023 · dir. Wes Anderson
🍅 76%★ 6.4comedy · dramaPeacock

Both keep coming back to the same thing: grief

In an American desert town circa 1955, the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.

Toni Erdmann poster
Toni Erdmann
2016 · dir. Maren Ade
🍅 93%★ 7.3comedy · drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then wit

Convinced that his daughter has forgotten how to laugh, a father shows up unannounced while she's living abroad and bombards her with outrageous jokes.

August: Osage County poster
August: Osage County
2013 · dir. John Wells
🍅 67%★ 7.2comedy · dramaPrime Video

Both land play and melancholy at once

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

An intense look at the lives of the strong-willed daughters of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional mother who raised them.

Captain Fantastic poster
Captain Fantastic
2016 · dir. Matt Ross
🍅 82%★ 7.8drama · comedy

Both are built on the same subject: mental illness

Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a father devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education is forced to leave his paradise and enter the world, beginning a journey that challenges his idea of what it means to be a parent.

Sunshine Cleaning poster
Sunshine Cleaning
2009 · dir. Christine Jeffs
🍅 74%★ 6.8comedy · dramaMax

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

A single mother and her slacker sister find an unexpected way to turn their lives around in this off-beat dramatic comedy. In order to raise the tuition to send her young son to private school the mom starts an unusual business – a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service.

Good Bye, Lenin! poster
Good Bye, Lenin!
2003 · dir. Wolfgang Becker
🍅 91%★ 7.7comedy · drama

Witty comedy, and it commits to that

The difference: 20 years apart, and the 2000s show

Alex Kerner's mother was in a coma while the Berlin wall fell. When she wakes up he must try to keep her from learning what happened (as she was an avid communist supporter) to avoid shocking her which could lead to another heart attack.

Patch Adams poster
Patch Adams
1998 · dir. Tom Shadyac
🍅 22%★ 6.9comedy · drama

Drama with a pulse of play, in both cases

The true story of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams, who in the 1970s found that humor is the best medicine, and was willing to do just anything to make his patients laugh—even if it meant risking his own career.

A Man Called Otto poster
A Man Called Otto
2022 · dir. Marc Forster
🍅 70%★ 7.5comedy · dramaHulu

Melancholy comedy in both cases

When a lively young family moves in next door, grumpy widower Otto Anderson meets his match in a quick-witted, pregnant woman named Marisol, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world upside down.

Saving Mr. Banks poster
Saving Mr. Banks
2013 · dir. John Lee Hancock
🍅 79%★ 7.5comedy · drama · historyDisney+

The same preoccupation in both: alcoholism

The difference: Sits closer to history than The Holdovers does

Author P.L. Travers looks back on her childhood while reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen.

Drive My Car poster
Drive My Car
2021 · dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
🍅 97%★ 7.5dramaRent or buy

One thread runs through both: grief

The difference: Takes it somewhere less witty than The Holdovers does

Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled.

Manchester by the Sea poster
Manchester by the Sea
2016 · dir. Kenneth Lonergan
🍅 96%★ 7.8dramaPrime Video

Common ground: melancholy

After his older brother passes away, Lee Chandler is forced to return home to care for his 16-year-old nephew. There he is compelled to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his family and the community where he was born and raised.

Demolition poster
Demolition
2016 · dir. Jean-Marc Vallée
🍅 53%★ 7comedy · dramaRent or buy

Drama built on stillness, twice over

An emotionally desperate investment banker finds hope through a woman he meets.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Holdovers’ defining feeling.