He used to be fine. He was better than fine. He was great. He was my dad. Then about four years ago, he… started acting strange. Erratic, forgetful, saying all this weird shit. My mom took him to a bunch of doctors, and they put him on medication. But that just made it worse. He got more confused. Then he got angry. And then he got… physical. That was it. That was the last straw. They put him away. And she divorced him… without him even realizing it. That’s why she wants a whole new life. And it’s easy to just stash me away in boarding school. Like half of us are just stashed away there. And I get it. She never has to look at me. Because maybe when she looks at me, she… she sees him. Maybe she’s right. I can’t keep it together. I lie. I steal. I piss people off. I don’t have any friends, real friends. I’ll probably get kicked out of Barton too. And when I do, it’ll be my own fault. Get sent to Fork Union and maybe to youknowwhere. And nobody will care. The funny thing is… I wanted to see him so bad this whole time. But I also didn’t, you know? Because I’m afraid that’s what’s going to happen to me one day.
The Holdovers (2023) dir. Alexander Payne
