Actor Paul Giamatti Deserves All the Awards — in All Categories. Not Just the Best Oscar for Lead Actor in 'The Holdovers.' It's Just That Simple

Giamatti, the two-time Oscar nominee, conjures up all the feels from audiences in the film. Disdain. Sympathy. Anger. Revulsion. Laughter.

Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham in 'The Holdovers'; photo courtesy of Focus Features.

There hasn't been one Paul Giamatti film that has left me disappointed. And the latest Alexander Payne-directed film is no exception. It's Paul Giamatti at his best. His brand of know-it-all, feigning righteousness, flawed, non-handsome yet alluring, often funny characters that make terrible decisions but somehow come out on top is on full display. In The Holdovers, it comes in the form of Paul Hunham, a New England classics prep school teacher who's a misanthrope tasked with babysitting a group of students with no place to go during Christmas break in 1970. Punishment or payback from the school headmaster for Mr. Hunham not passing a legacy student from an influential and powerful family.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb, Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, and Dominic Sessa as Angus Tully in 'The Holdovers'; photo courtesy of Focus Features.

When most of the group is rescued by a fellow student's well-to-do parent, whisking them off to a family winter escapade via helicopter on school grounds, all but one student is left behind. Angus Tully, a smart and troubled 17-year-old, played by Dominic Sessa (debut role), can't bear his fate and makes the situation unbearable for Mr. Hunham. Rounding out the crew of stragglers at the prep school is Mary Lamb, the head cook who serves as a buffer between teacher and student, played subdued and empathetically by Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Ghost on Broadway, Dolemite), who also received an Oscar nom for Best Supporting Actress in the film.

The Giamatti Effect

I first saw Paul Giamatti as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton on the screen. A nickname unaffectionally bestowed by Howard Stern in his autobiographical 1997 film Private Parts. In the film, Giamatti's character is the shock jock’s boss at WNBC radio station. He is as annoying as he is entertainingly comical, constantly harassing Stern to watch his language on air and to identify the station's call letters with more pizzaz. Pig Vomit epitomizes nightmarish, quirky, micromanaging bosses, and Giamatti plays him to insolent perfection. A role believed by critics to upstage Howard Stern's character in the film, with which I wholeheartedly agree. Giamatti's "W-NNN-B-C" is one of the most memorable lines from the movie that catapulted his acting career.

Howard Stern as himself and Paul Giamatti as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton in 'Private Parts'; photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

Other Giamatti Gems

Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti first collaborated on the critically acclaimed Sideways, where Giamatti plays a divorced middle-aged English professor (even though he was 36 at the time) and aspiring writer who takes a road trip through California's wine country with his actor-best friend (Thomas Haden Church, Wings, Twisted Metal) right before his wedding. Both characters are loathsome as they are loveable and engage in absurd, funny situations. It's the perfect pair of f@*k-ups you can't get enough of.

Next up: The Illusionist, where Giamatti plays Inspector Uhl, a curiously skeptical officer and music lover during turn-of-the-century Vienna, who is on the heels of arresting Eisenhem (Edward Norton, Fight Club, American History X), a master magician with abilities to bring back people from the dead and hypnotize audiences while pining for his childhood love, Duchess Sophie (Jessica Biel, Candy, The Sinner), who is out of his economic class. Giamatti brings so much depth to the role and is delightfully enigmatic as the inspector. You can’t imagine any other actor in the role.

3 Fun Facts About Paul Giamatti:

1. Giamatti wore a prosthetic eye to emphasize The Holdovers’ Paul Hunham character’s lazy eye defect.
2. Giamatti went to Yale for theatre, and his father, Dr. Bart Giamatti, was president at the Ivy League college before becoming the 7th baseball commissioner for MLB.
3. Paul Giamatti, Edward Norton, and Ron Livingston went to Yale, studied theater together, and remained good friends.

In theatres, you can watch Paul Giamatti's latest heartfelt dramedy, The Holdovers, written by David Hemingson (Whiskey Cavalier, Kitchen Confidential), or stream it on Amazon Prime.