(Credit: Netflix)

It’s more than alright to feel a bit un-jolly this time of year. Believe it or not, we’ve all been there. Although Christmas has always been the season of cheer, we understand that the pressure to be constantly happy can become somewhat exhausting. So, sometimes the best way to beat the blues is to watch something on Netflix that serves as a low-key escape.

While many films acknowledge that holidays can be messy, lonely, and melancholic, the only movie on Netflix to beat the Christmas blues you’re feeling is The Holdovers.

Directed by Alexander Payne, starring Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers is a 2023 comedy-drama that breaks away from the worn-out festive formula to explore the lesser-known side of holiday hijinks.

Set in 1970 at an all-male New England boarding school, The Holdovers follows the story of a strict, grumpy professor, Paul Hunham, at Barton Academy, infamously despised by students and fellow teachers for his over-the-top stern demeanour.

After failing a major donor’s son, costing the academy money and leading Princeton University to revoke their offer of admission, Hunham is forced to chaperone five students on the campus during the Christmas holiday break as punishment by the headmaster. The five musketeers include Angus Tully, a student, whose mother cancelled a last-minute family trip to Saint Kitts, instead opting to go on honeymoon with her new husband.

While with Hunham, students aren’t spared from study and exercise on the long-awaited break, the holidays actually turn around when a student’s wealthy father offers to take them on the family’s ski trip. What’s non-negotiable is their parents’ permission for the trip, which unfortunately leaves Angus behind as he’s unable to contact his parents for permission. As a result, he’s left all alone at Barton with Hunham and the cafeteria manager, Mary Lamb.

Although each has their own reasons to remain stuck within the academic four walls even during the Christmas break, despite their initial antagonism, they begin to find a rhythm and common ground in their isolation and pain. It doesn’t happen one fine morning, but over the period of shared meals and venting about their frustrations with school and life.

From the grief of loss to the overbearingness of a failed career, and not to forget, the family issues that puncture the bliss of holiday gatherings, The Holdovers sheds light on the side of Christmas that barely anyone talks about. So, just in case the holiday season has been giving you a hard time, tune into this comedy with a heart that could lighten you up.