“The Holdovers” is the new film by Alexander Payne starring Paul Giamatti and it is considered an Oscar film.
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the film.
- The Holdovers is a 2023 American period comedy drama film
- The film is directed by Alexander Payne
- It is written by David Hemingson
- The film stars Paul Giamatti
- Set in 1970
- Its plot follows a curmudgeon history teacher at a New England prep school who is forced to chaperone the handful of students with nowhere to go over Christmas break
- The Holdovers premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023
- It was released for a limited theatrical release in the United States on October 27, 2023
- Followed by a wide release on November 10, 2023
- The film is released by Focus Features
- The Holdovers is the second collaboration between director Alexander Payne and actor Paul Giamatti after Sideways (2004)
- Payne conceived the film’s concept after watching a 1930s French film
- He contacted David Hemingson to write the screenplay
- It was originally a writing sample for a television pilot
- In June 2021, Miramax acquired the distribution rights
- In early 2022, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Carrie Preston joined the cast
- Filming began in Massachusetts on January 27, 2022
- For the fictional Barton Academy, the crew filmed on location at five real Massachusetts schools: Groton, Northfield Mount Hermon, Deerfield Academy, St. Mark’s School, and a public high school in Fairhaven
- Dominic Sessa, starring in his first film role as Angus, had attended Deerfield in the class of 2022
- The film made $211,093 from six theaters in its opening weekend, an average of $35,082 per venue
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 96% rating
- Based on 151 critics’ reviews
- With an average rating of 8.6/10
- The website’s consensus reads: “Beautifully bittersweet, The Holdovers marks a satisfying return to form for director Alexander Payne”
- Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100
- Based on 51 critics
- Indicating “universal acclaim”
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