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"The Holdovers" & "The Killer"

From left: Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers (2023); Michael Fassbender in The Killer (2023).
The Holdovers, Miramax/CAA Media Finance/Focus Features, 2023. The Killer, Plan B Entertainment/Boom! Studios/Panic Pictures (II)/Netflix, 2023.
From left: Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers (2023); Michael Fassbender in The Killer (2023).

Movies can and do focus on a variety of things, from settings to themes—but it tends to be character that we movie fans love the most. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender, and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss a pair of films that revolve around unique characters: one an exacting prep-school teacher played by Paul Giamatti in the theatrical offering The Holdovers, the other a self-aware assassin played by Michael Fassbender in the Netflix streaming feature The Killer.

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  • In “The Holdovers,” Paul Giamatti plays a Scrooge-like prep-school teacher spending Christmas as a babysitter, Dan Webster says in his review.