Focus Features presents the first trailer for Alexander Payne‘s new film, The Holdovers. The project will once again unite the director with one of the most acclaimed actors in Hollywood, Paul Giamatti, who already worked with him on the 2004 film Sideways, one of the most outstanding titles in their filmography.
Payne hasn’t released a movie in six years since 2017’s Downsizing, which starred Matt Damon. For his part, Giamatti starred in A Mouthful of Air in 2021, and is preparing for his return to television in a few months in the second season of 30 Coins, an HBO series created by Alex de la Iglesia.
The Holdovers will hit select theaters in New York and Los Angeles on October 27, with a limited release later on November 3 and a nationwide release on November 10.
Here’s the official trailer and synopsis for the film:
“From acclaimed director Alexander Payne, THE HOLDOVERS follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).”
The Holdovers is written by David Hemingson and produced by Mark Johnson p.g.a, Bill Block, David Hemingson, Andrew Golov, Thom Zadra, and Chris Stinson.
Related: Best Paul Giamatti Movies, Ranked
Alexander Payne’s Legacy
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Although his career does not include a long list of titles, Payne has left his mark on Hollywood with memorable stories, endearing characters and comedies that leave an important message beyond the laughs they may provoke.
The director made his debut in 1996 with Citizen Ruth, a film that focuses on a homeless woman whose life seems to be ignored by everyone, until an unexpected event makes her the most beloved person by different political groups, changing everything forever.
Continuing with the political plots, in 1999 he released Election, starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick. The story centers on an ambitious student willing to do anything to win school elections, and a teacher with extremely questionable actions who will try to sabotage her.
In 2002, with Jack Nicholson, he released About Schmidt, about a man trying to make sense of his life now that he’s retired, his wife has died, and his daughter is getting married.
His previous work with Paul Giamatti came in 2004. Sideways follows two friends who embark on a vineyard trip to avoid dealing with midlife crises and the ghosts that haunt their lives from unresolved issues from the past.
In 2011, George Clooney starred in The Descendants, about a man who has his wife in a coma and must decide the fate of the woman he loves, while discovering that she was cheating on him and had a parallel life.
Nebraska from 2013 is another of the director’s most remembered titles. The story centers on a father with senile dementia and his son, whom he forces on a trip to search of a supposed prize that he believes he won.
Finally, in 2017 came Downsizing, which shows a world struggling with overpopulation. To deal with the issue, a plan is set in motion with Norwegian technology that can shrink a man to 12 centimeters in height. A couple is proposed as candidates for the experiment to live a life of luxury.
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