Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like The Holdovers:
Rushmore
Even if decades have passed since Rushmore first hit movie theaters, Wes Anderson’s sophomore film still has characters and tonal inflections that he hasn’t quite matched since. Jason Schwartzman proves he’s a perfect match for Wes’ desired movie-making style.
Read our full review of Rushmore
Licorice Pizza
Licorice Pizza is a love letter to Paul Thomas Anderson’s childhood experience. The movie is overflowing with teenage emotional drama. One of 2021’s best films. Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman both give extraordinary first leading performances.
Read our full review of Licorice Pizza
The Fabelmans
The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s latest movie, effectively mines through his childhood to examine his love for film. A complex set of ideas mixed in a way only the master filmmaker could pull together.
Read our full review of The Fabelmans
Nebraska
In classic Alexander Payne fashion, the setup for Nebraska is equal parts funny, sad, and deeply personal. And the payoff is well worth the wait due to remarkably nuanced and layered performances from Bruce Dern and Will Forte as a complicated father-son duo.
The Daytrippers
Even if The Daytrippers struggles to evolve due to sluggish pacing and typical genre tropes, it’s still worth your time to see early Greg Mottola work his magic. Excellent direction, and a starry cast, manages to keep the movie afloat.
Read our review of The Daytrippers
About Schmidt
About Schmidt is a good film, one that sits comfortably in Alexander Payne’s filmography but doesn’t quite reach the heights of his later classics. For fans of Payne’s more nuanced works, it’s an important piece, but it doesn’t carry the same emotional punch or cultural impact as his more well-known projects.
Read our full review of About Schmidt
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. doesn’t take long to show you its worth – an easily digestible, refreshing throwback film certainly worth the price of admission. Abby Ryder Fortson and Rachel McAdams star, with the latter hopefully participating in next year’s awards season race.
Read our full review of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
No Hard Feelings
No Hard Feelings feels like a shot in the arm for studio comedies – a subgenre in desperate need of *something* to revive it. Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman both star, and carry with them completely different perspectives of maturing emotionally.
Read our full review of No Hard Feelings
Heathers
Winona Ryder‘s star power is at the center of Heathers, the 1989 teenage dramedy that became a cult hit and spawned many, many future imitators. It has just about everything, from crude high schooler humor to big, starry performances from the likes of Ryder and Christian Slater, to ONE DEAD, GAY SON (whom his dad loved very much)! It’s an eventful movie that packs a lot within 103 minutes, and director Michael Lehmann never takes the material too serious, often opting for a dose of absurdist situational comedy to intensify the plot in motion.
Read our full review of Heathers
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou may never be the most celebrated or critically lauded of Wes Anderson’s movies, but it’s undeniably one of his most distinctive. Over time, its stature has grown—not just as a quirky outlier, but as a poignant, unpredictable exploration of legacy, family, and self-reckoning. It’s a movie about a man who tries to film everything so he doesn’t have to feel anything, only to discover—too late—that the feelings are all that matter. For all its eccentricities, it sticks with you. That’s the mark of a great film, even a strange one.