There’s a double-layered sense of self-reflective nostalgia baked into Alexander Payne’s misfit holiday movie “The Holdovers.” Set in 1970, there’s nostalgia for the time period, which is textured and rendered with care and conviction on-screen. But the film itself, a warm, spicy brew of humor, poignancy and irascible charm, also inspires the odd desire to be rewatching it while you’re watching it, a kind of nostalgia for the present moment. That funny feeling is reflected in the plot too, in which a trio of near strangers form an unlikely but indelible bond over Christmas break at a Massachusetts boarding school.

“The Holdovers” crackles and pops with film grain, like a roaring fire might. Right away, Payne places us in a vintage setting, with 1970s-style production logos aiding his time travel mission, allowing us to settle into the era, like sinking into a brocade sofa with a few fingers of Canadian Club in a coffee cup.

There is a certain warmth to “The Holdovers,” though the environs are chilly. We find ourselves on the snowy campus of Barton, a tony all-boys private school, over the holidays, where the administration has shut off the heat, leaving the few stragglers with nowhere to go to bunk in the infirmary. There is also a warmth to the sentiment of “The Holdovers,” though the characters are irascible and cranky, none-to-pleased to be stuck there.

In the witty and wondrous script by David Hemingson, our players are Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti) an ancient civilizations teacher known as “Walleye” for well, his walleye, and reviled for his gleefully sadistic grading and creative insults. He’s been tricked by another teacher into supervising the holdovers, but he doesn’t have much else to do or anywhere else to be anyway. The group of boys includes the brilliant but troublesome Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa); their meals are provided by Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the cafeteria manager who is grieving the loss of her only son who died in Vietnam. There are a few other students around, but they are soon dispatched in a helicopter for skiing at Haystack, and our unlikely trio ultimately embark on a surprising emotional journey in which they learn and grow from each other in their own gruffly sentimental ways.

Payne shows us these characters within Barton first and then expands our understanding of who they are, outside of Barton. There are a few other folks around, Danny (Naheem Garcia), the custodian who has a friendship with Mary, and Lydia (Carrie Preston), a charming administrative assistant who takes them in for Christmas Eve, but the focus is on these three, because they are all profoundly lonely people grieving someone, or something: a child, a family, one’s own potential, lives dashed out before they even got started.

That desire to preserve some shred of possibility is what rallies Mr. Hunham and Mary to Angus’ cause. He’s rebellious and a jerk, but he’s brilliant, and has the capacity to change and grow. And in believing in his future, they liberate themselves from their own emotional prisons, moving forward in their lives where they’ve been stuck grinding their gears.

Payne affords this story the time and patience that it deserves, as Hemingson’s script slowly peels back the layers of character, pushing past their walls, guarded by sharp barbs, to reveal their sorrow, and their joy. This isn’t a story of found family that stays together, but merely a snapshot of a moment in time, in which an unexpected experience with other people leads to growth and change, even if it’s just learning to be decent to one another.

This funny, sad, poignant, sharp-edged character piece is a grouch with a heart of gold, with emotions that are deeply felt and utterly earned, embodied by three unforgettable performances. Giamatti and Payne have been a match made in grumpy heaven since “Sideways,” and Sessa, in his first film role, holds the screen in a challenging part opposite two titans. But it’s Randolph who is divine, holding the fragile Mary together with a sense of inner strength and a sliver of hope.

Payne and cinematographer Eigil Bryld weave a period-specific spell using vintage lenses on digital cameras, layering the grain in postproduction, while the production design by Ryan Warren Smith is note perfect, down to the haze of cigarette smoke. Choral renditions of Christmas carols and ‘70s folk favorites lend themselves to the time and the season. “The Holdovers” is an instant addition to the holiday movie canon, and it’s not hard to let it wiggle its way into your heart, providing an especially potent tonic for feeling sad, lonely or out-of-sorts around the holiday time.

‘The Holdovers’

4 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language, some drug use and brief sexual material)

Running time: 2:13

How to watch: In theaters Friday

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WHITE EARTH, Minn. — While farmers on and near the White Earth Band of Chippewa Reservation — or White Earth Nation — believe state, rather than tribal, officials control the issue of irrigation permits, the band itself believes it retained the right to control natural resources like water through its treaties with the U.S. government.

On May 5, 2023, the White Earth Reservation Business Committee — the governing body for the White Earth Band of Chippewa’s reservation — passed a new water resolution and ordinance that required farmers who wish to irrigate on the reservation or within a five-mile zone around it to apply for a tribal permit, in addition to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources permit.

Vehicles from the White Earth Division of Natural Resources in Mahnomen, Minn., on Aug. 30, 2023. Under an ordinance enacted May 5, 2023, by the White Earth Reservation Business Committee, farmers wanting to irrigate within White Earth Nation or in a 5-mile perimeter outside the reservation need to have a permit from the White Earth Division of Natural Resources. (Mikkel Pates / Forum News Service)

The reservation covers 829,440 acres, or about 1,300 square miles, in northwestern Minnesota. The reservation includes all of Mahnomen County and parts of Becker and Clearwater counties, and is the largest of seven Chippewa reservations in the state.

According to a history page on the White Earth Nation website, the largest American Indian group in Minnesota calls itself Anishinaabe, or “original people.” Europeans called them “Ojibwe,” which became “Chippewa.” The “White Earth” descriptor comes from a layer of white clay underlying the western half of the reservation, including prime farmland.

The White Earth Reservation was established on March 19, 1867, by the U.S. government and the Mississippi Band of Chippewa Indians. Subsequently, the reservation got smaller. In 1889, Congress passed the Nelson Act, relocating tribal members to the White Earth Reservation. Tribes would contend that the vote counted adult Chippewa males, instead of the proper tribal councils. White people — who had a vested interest — supervised the vote counts.

Federal lawsuits in 1905 and 1908 gave tribes the right to water rights to fulfill purposes of the reservation “now and into the future.” In 1906, Congress passed a law that enabled tribal family heads to receive 80-acre allotments and each child to receive 40-acre parcels. Lands not taken up for allotments became “surplus,” and could be sold to non-tribal members. Some allotments went to tribal members. Most went to farmers of European extraction.

The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe on June 18, 1934, established a Reservation Business Committee to govern it. The tribe later established the White Earth Natural Resources Department and an agricultural division.

In 1986, the White Earth Land Settlement Act required transferring 10,000 acres of state/county land to a tribal-owned land trust, in exchange for cleared titles on 100,000 acres of privately owned land, as well as $6.5 million, which was used to start the Shooting Star Casino, a 390-room hotel.

In 1986, the White Earth Land Settlement Act required transferring 10,000 acres of state/county land to a tribal-owned land trust, in exchange for cleared titles on 100,000 acres of privately-owned land, as well as $6.5 million, which was used to start the Shooting Star Casino, a 390-room hotel, seen Aug. 30, 2023, in Mahnomen, Minn. (Mikkel Pates / Forum News Service)

Today, 51% of the reservation land is privately owned, in a category called “fee patents,” which account for much of the farmland. “Fee patent” means that a tribal member received an initial allotment of property on the reservation and the property changed hands. Another 49% is owned by governments — 17% county; 15% federal; 10% tribe; and state, 7%.

In 2020, the White Earth Band of Chippewa had 17,519 enrolled members, according to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Fewer than 10,000 people live on the reservation land and on off-reservation trust land, according to U.S. Census data, mostly in a group of small communities. Mahnomen is the largest town. The tribe employs nearly one in five people.

The poverty rate on White Earth Reservation is about 24%, and the unemployment rate is 9.2%, according to the Census Bureau. The 2020, U.S. Census counted 44.7% of the reservation as Native American, which some tribal officials say is understated. Whites made up 43.2% of the census.

Private landowners pay county taxes. The tribe pays property taxes until it gets land into a trust, which involves federal approval.

The region of White Earth Nation receives an average of about 22 inches of rain in a year, but farms there irrigate for supplemental moisture on certain soils.

The tribe cites its water permit authority to 1908 and 1963 cases that allow them to preserve “customary ways of life, including hunting, fishing and gathering” as well as adopting “new ways of life.”

According to a notice of the ordinance enacted on May 5, 2023, the White Earth Department of Natural Resources, “working with relevant scientific and community experts,” has identified “threats” to the band’s “health and welfare, spiritual subsistence, water rights and other treaty rights and treaty-protected natural resources” from the “individual and cumulative operation of high-capacity wells and high-capacity surface water pumps on the White Earth Reservation and in the five-mile buffer area immediately surrounding the White Earth Reservation.”

Reservation Business Committee Chairman Michael Fairbanks said the tribe has been “diminished to such a small piece of land” and said the tribe has established a “jurisdictional area” to protect. Asked whether he expects this water authority will ever extend farther than the 5-mile border around the reservation, Fairbanks alludes to the 1855 Treaty Authority, when the reservation area was far bigger, extending to the Red River, north of Moorhead.

Jamie Konopacky, now White Earth Band’s outside counsel on environmental issues and formerly an in-house attorney for the band, answered this way: “There is no intention to expand the geographic scope of this ordinance.” It isn’t clear whether future ordinances would be different.

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Lonnie St. Arnold has been deer hunting up by Brimson, Minn., since 1986, through thick and thin, and lately it’s been nothing but thin.

In an area with among the fewest deer harvested per square mile anywhere in Minnesota, and a region that has been socked with the snowiest string of winters in more than a half-century, St. Arnold and his partners in the Stone Lake Whitetail Club have seen plenty of lean years for deer.

But maybe nothing as bad as this year.

“We were up to Brimson last week (for) some four-wheeling, bird hunting and checking deer sign,” St. Arnold, of Cloquet, reported recently. “We didn’t see a track, deer (pellets), rubs, scrapes … nothing. Don’t think I’ve ever seen it that bad.”

He isn’t alone. Across much of the Arrowhead region, people who have been out in the woods say this may be as few or fewer deer than after the harsh winters of the mid-1990s, or maybe even back to the 1970s, when deer numbers were so low that, in 1971, the DNR canceled the season entirely.

Craig Sterle’s family has been deer hunting north of Duluth for decades. But it’s becoming an effort in futility of late. Sterle notes they have had wolves in their hunting area for 45 years, and had snowy winters before, but still had deer in the past. The problem now, he noted, may be habitat.

“The family has been hunting the Marshall Truck Trail for just shy of a century. Over the years, the hunting has been up and down, much like anywhere else. But we’ve bottomed out recently. There hasn’t been a deer taken in about six years,” said Sterle, of Barnum. “Not that our hunting skills have eroded. There just are no deer. Literally, there are no deer.”

More deer south, and it’s not even close

If there was any sage advice to offer Minnesota deer hunters these days it would be simple: Go south.

Decades ago “up north” is where nearly everyone went deer hunting in Minnesota. Now, all of the top 10-highest deer management areas, based on deer harvested per square mile, are in the southern half of the state — some as high as 7.58 deer harvested per square mile.

Meanwhile, nine out of the 10 worst areas are in Minnesota’s Arrowhead, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, two North Shore units and the Brimson-to-Babbitt-area unit — the four worst in the state and all under 0.15 deer harvested per square mile.

The News Tribune analyzed data from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources that clearly shows how Minnesota’s best deer hunting has moved south into agricultural areas where winters are milder, predators are less numerous and nutritious food is plentiful.

An empty buck pole, like this one during the 2022 deer hunting season, has been a more common sight in northeastern Minnesota deer camps in recent years, with fewer deer on the landscape and far fewer deer being shot. (Steve Kuchera / Forum News Service)

The best you can do in the 100-numbered permit areas that cover all of northeastern Minnesota is area 157, west of Hinckley, which ranks 15th highest in the state — out of 130 deer permit areas — at 5.5 deer harvested per square mile.

It becomes very clear where the deep-snow winter dividing line has been over the past decade of heavy snow winters. While areas just 30 miles north of Duluth have among the lowest harvest rates in the state, areas just 30 miles south rank in the top 50-highest harvest.

Area 183, for example, which covers most of Carlton County, ranks 38th highest in the state with 2.86 deer harvested per square mile, while area 159, east of Hinckley, is 33rd best at 3.39 deer per square mile.

Duluth had a record 140 inches of snow last winter, while Two Harbors and Finland were over 150 inches. But not too far south, the Twin Cities saw 89 inches, St. Cloud 88 inches and Rochester just 64 inches of snow — all areas with far more deer.

Perhaps more damaging to deer, areas from Duluth north had 24 inches of snow on the ground from Dec. 15 to April 10, and as much as 3 feet on the ground in March, making it nearly impossible for deer to move freely in the woods. St. Cloud, by comparison, had less than 15 inches of snow on the ground most of the winter and never had more than 18 inches.

“The numbers are pretty clear, and not good, for much of that northeastern area,” said Todd Froberg, big-game program coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “But, and I know some people don’t want to hear this, if you scout around, are willing to move your deer stand, you can still find good pockets of deer in places up north. Obviously, if you have ties to a deer camp and don’t want to hunt somewhere else, that’s not what you want to hear.”

The DNR calls it “site fidelity,” when hunters don’t want to move. But, until the northeastern herd rebounds, there isn’t much choice. Unless you don’t mind getting skunked.

“A lot of people want to blame wolves, and, of course, they impact the deer herd, but we had as many wolves and high deer numbers 20 years ago. What we didn’t have was this decade-long string of the snowiest winters. Deer just don’t do well with back-to-back-to-back harsh winters,” Froberg said. “It’s just really hard on them, on production and survival.”

It’s too soon to say whether the trend toward snowier winters is part of a permanent shift pushed by climate change. The DNR, and many hunters, are hoping for a string of low-snow winters as occurred in the late 1990s that led to all-time record-high deer numbers and deer harvests in the northeast in the 2000s.

“They can rebuild quickly,” Froberg said. “If they get the chance.”

Froberg and others are concerned that the lack of deer in northeastern Minnesota will cause even more hunters to simply drop out, a trend that’s already occurring even in places with lots of deer.

“We are already seeing hunter numbers slip as the baby boomers get older and quit. … But now we’re hearing from guys up there that they can’t keep their kids interested in deer hunting when they never see a deer,” Froberg said. “That’s a problem.”

Fewer doe permits, fewer deer shot

The DNR already knows there will be fewer deer shot in the northeast again this year, and that’s the way they want it. Antlerless or doe permits were cut yet again in many areas, and many areas remain bucks-only hunting, as the DNR uses its primary tool — keeping more does alive — to rebuild the herd.

Doe permits available across the 100-numbered deer management areas are down 43% from last year, from 7,625 to 4,325. Kelly Straka, DNR wildlife section leader, has urged all hunters to double-check what deer management area they hunt in to see if restrictions have changed, including requiring doe permits in areas where hunters recently have had the option to shoot any deer.

Statewide, deer numbers are generally expanding in many central and southeastern areas, holding their own in the west and decreasing in the northeast. Some 38 units of 130 statewide saw reduced doe or antlerless permits issued with 80 units the same as in 2022 and 12 units in the central part of the state with more doe permits available.

If you want to shoot a deer in Minnesota head to an area with agricultural crops and your odds will increase exponentially compared to hunting in the deep woods of Northeastern Minnesota. (Matt Gade / Forum News Service)

Because the actual harvest varies widely depending on the weather during the season, many hunters could still bag their bucks if conditions are good, and that might partially make up for fewer doe permits being issued.

But in far-northern Minnesota, there are simply fewer deer out there to be seen or shot.

“I think in your part of the state we need multiple years of mild winters, paired with lower bag limits, for deer populations to recover,” said Barb Keller, big game program specialist for the DNR, earlier this year.

Much of northeastern Minnesota will be bucks-only this year with other areas offering reduced antlerless or doe permits by lottery. The exceptions are the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, where hunters can shoot either a doe or buck, and in the immediate Duluth area, where hunters can again take up to three deer to help reduce the urban and suburban deer population.

Many northern deer management areas saw their available doe permits cut in half or more. In management area 171 south of Grand Rapids, for example, the number of doe permits was cut from 1,500 last year to 250 this year, with doe permits cut from 2,000 to 500 in area 172.

The goal of issuing fewer antlerless permits, DNR officials note, is to leave more does on the landscape to help rebuild the herd for future years.

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Chicago Bears undrafted rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent will try to earn his second win in as many starts Sunday, but this one will be on a bigger stage than his first.

The Bears, winners of two of their last three games, take on the Los Angeles Chargers on “Sunday Night Football” at SoFi Stadium. As kickoff approaches, here’s our snapshot look at the game.

Player in the spotlight

Tyson Bagent

For the second straight week, the undrafted rookie from Division II Shepherd takes the reins in place of quarterback Justin Fields, who is out with a right thumb injury.

And this time, Bagent is going against the worst-ranked passing defense in the league.

The Chargers have allowed 310 passing yards per game and 8.1 passing yards per play, though it should be noted that their slate of six opponents thus far has included three of the best passing offenses in the league in the Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings.

Still, a major topic during the week was whether the Bears can get more big plays from Bagent, who completed 21 of 29 passes for 162 yards, a touchdown, no interceptions and a 97.2 passer rating in his debut start.

Getsy praised Bagent’s poise, his ability to run a clean operation and his management of the run game in his first start. But he was asked about getting the vertical passing game going against this defense.

“The Chiefs do that to pretty much everybody,” offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said of explosive plays. “You’ve got to take that out of the picture there. On top of it, you have one of the best pass rushes in the National Football League. You have to take all of that into account as far as where our best matchups (are). Where do we have the best opportunity to go find success?”

Bagent said he will be confident in whatever the Bears ask him to do.

“I think I have a strong arm,” he said. “I’m confident to make any play that’s called.”

Pressing question

Can the Bears defense prove it’s for real?

The Bears defense has made clear progress over the last three games.

The Bears didn’t allow more than 50 rushing yards in any of the games against the Washington Commanders, Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders. They’ve totaled six takeaways in a three-week span. And they’ve given up 44 total points to the three opposing offenses.

However, two of those teams had major absences. The Vikings were playing without wide receiver Justin Jefferson and the Raiders were playing without quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

If the Bears defense wants to prove it can perform against better offenses, the Chargers and quarterback Justin Herbert are a good test. Herbert has completed 67% of his passes for 1,592 yards, 10 touchdowns, four interceptions and a 97.1 passer rating. The Chargers offense ranks eighth with 364.2 yards per game.

Herbert threw for a season-high 405 yards against the Vikings in Week 3, but his production has been down the last three games since fracturing his middle finger on his left, non-throwing hand, with no passer rating better than 84.

Still, the Bears know he is a major challenge.

“He’s got one of the strongest arms in the league,” linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi said. “He can make all the throws, in cuts, balls on the sideline. He can make every throw there is. And also, he’s athletic. … He scrambles really effectively and he’s accurate.”

Keep an eye on …

Khalil Mack

The Bears face their old friend for the first time since general manager Ryan Poles traded him to the Chargers in the 2022 offseason.

Mack leads the Chargers with seven sacks this season, but six of them came in an Oct. 1 victory over the Raiders. He also had two forced fumbles that game.

Bears safety Eddie Jackson, who has remained close with Mack since he left the Bears, thinks the edge rusher is going to be geared up for this game, especially given how he played against his former Raiders team.

“He’s ready, man,” Jackson said. “I don’t know if Mack is circling no games on the schedule, but I think Oakland Raiders and here … I don’t want to speak for him, but I think it’s going to be a little personal.”

The Chargers pass rush also includes edge rusher Joey Bosa, who has three sacks, and defensive lineman Morgan Fox, who has five.

It could be a big challenge for the offensive line.

Right tackle Darnell Wright was on the injury report all week with shoulder and toe issues, but he practiced in full Friday and said he is “good to go” for the game. Eberflus said the Bears will not activate left tackle Braxton Jones from injured reserve yet as he works his way back from his neck injury, meaning Larry Borom is likely to again start at left tackle.

Borom called Mack “a handful” and Wright said he will present a different challenge than what he has faced so far this year.

“He’s a really good player, really strong. He has a high motor,” Wright said. “Just the type of explosive player he is (makes him different). He’s speed, power, strong guy, but he’s also a little bit faster than you expect. His leverage is a little bit different because he’s not as tall.”

Safety questions

The Bears listed both of their starting safeties — Jackson and Jaquan Brisker — as questionable for the game.

Jackson has been battling a foot injury since Week 2 but practiced in full Friday. He said “we’re going to see” when asked if he will be good to play.

Jackson said he had multiple tests done on his foot, the same one that he injured last year, and “everything’s intact, everything’s stable.” He described the issue as “wear and tear” and “scar tissue” from the previous injury and said it’s something he has to fight through.

He played 14 snaps against the Vikings but could tell his foot wasn’t ready. He said it has been tough to not contribute to the defense as they try to turn it around from a tough start.

“You get those moments being out of football for so long,” Jackson said. “It’s like you want to go, you want to go push it. It just wasn’t there yet, just needed more time or rest for it to recover.”

Brisker missed practice all week with an illness, though he returned to Halas Hall on Friday. Eberflus said if he’s feeling healthy the Bears would feel comfortable playing him.

“We’ll see what capacity that may be based on how he’s feeling,” Eberflus said. “But we’re going to give him every chance we can to get to the game for sure.”

Injury report

Fields, right guard Nate Davis (ankle) and cornerback Terell Smith (mononucleosis) have been ruled out for the game.

Jackson, Brisker and offensive lineman Dan Feeney (knee) are questionable.

Wright and rookie running back Roschon Johnson (concussion) have been cleared to play, though Eberflus said they were still working through what role Johnson will have.

For the Chargers, tight end Gerald Everett (hip), wide receivers Joshua Palmer (knee) and Jalen Guyton (knee), safety Alohi Gilman (heel), defensive back Deane Leonard (hamstring) and defensive lineman Otito Ogbonnia (knee) are questionable.

Predictions

Brad Biggs (3-4)

It will be interesting to see how Tyson Bagent performs in his second start now that an opponent has some film on him, and perhaps the Chargers plan to make the short passing game more difficult. The Chargers are susceptible to opponents’ passing games and have faced the top three passing offenses in the league — the Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings. The weakness of the Bears defense has been defending the pass, and the Chargers have big-armed quarterback Justin Herbert. That seems like a disadvantage for a team that has lost its last six games in the Sunday night time slot.

Chargers 27, Bears 20

Colleen Kane (3-4)

This is a good measuring stick game for the Bears to see if the progress they’ve made in winning two of the last three games is for real. The Chargers are a two-win team with a lot of talent, starting with quarterback Justin Herbert. If the Bears can slow him down, it will go a long way in stating their case that they’ve made a turnaround. Undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent hasn’t given anybody many reasons to doubt him yet. He has handled what has been thrown at him with poise. But this test on the road on “Sunday Night Football” with Khalil Mack lurking seems more significant. I don’t know that he and the Bears can pull off their second straight win.

Chargers 24, Bears 20

Dan Wiederer (4-3)

The Bears have been playing a better brand of football this month and are starting to reap the rewards. Still, their two victories have come against quarterbacks Sam Howell and Brian Hoyer. It will be a step up in class Sunday night on the prime-time stage at SoFi Stadium. And Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense will challenge the Bears to keep up. An upset bid hinges on the ability to take care of the ball and limit mistakes. Herbert, though, is too dangerous.

Chargers 27, Bears 23

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