Alexander Payne’s bittersweet Christmas dramedy “The Holdovers” is hitting Peacock on Dec. 29.
The movie, from Focus Features, follows three lonely people stuck at a snowy boarding school over the holidays. It debuted in theaters in October and earned rave reviews, including from PvNew‘s own chief film critic Peter Debruge, who wrote that Payne’s “portrait of a prickly history teacher is the rare exception to the complaint that ‘they don’t make ’em like they used to.'”
Set in 1970, “The Holdovers” stars Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, a hard-ass, curmudgeonly history teacher at an elite boarding school who is tasked with looking after the teens who can’t come home for the holidays. When all of the other students are thrown a life raft, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) is left shipwrecked with just his teacher and the kitchen manager Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who is grieving the loss of her son. As the eclectic trio spend the holidays together, they form an unlikely bond.
David Hemingsonwrote the script and produced “The Holdovers” with Mark Johnson and Bill Block. Executive producers are Andrew Golov, Thom Zadra, Chris Stinson and Tom Williams.
The film, which premiered at Telluride Film Festival and then screened at Toronto International Film Festival, made nearly $18 million in ticket sales and has already received awards attention. It nabbed Critics’ Choice Award nominations for all three actors plus Payne; Golden Globe nods for best motion picture (musical or comedy) and Giamatti and Randolph; and Independent Spirit Award nominations for Sessa, Randolph, scribe Hemingson and cinematographer Eigil Bryld.
