The Holdovers

Set in 1970s America, this warm comedy - drama by Alexander Payne plays out on the campus of a New England prep school where a grumpy professor spends Christmas babysitting a group of students, starring Paul Giamatti.

The Holdovers reunites Sideways alums Paul Giamatti and director Alexander Payne in a Christmas story of three lonely, shipwrecked people at a New England boarding school over a very snowy holiday break in 1970. The comedy stars Giamatti as Paul Hunham, an optically-challenged adjunct professor of ancient history who is universally disliked by students and faculty; Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb, the head cook of the school whose only child Curtis was killed in Vietnam, and Dominic Sessa, in his film debut, as Angus Tully, a student at the school - a smart, damaged, troublemaker but a good kid underneath who’s just trying to make his way. Left to their own devices in the empty school, there are adventures, a little calamity and finally, a semblance of family.

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