A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England school remains on campus during Christmas break. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school's cook,... Read allA curmudgeonly instructor at a New England school remains on campus during Christmas break. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school's cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England school remains on campus during Christmas break. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school's cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 134 wins & 205 nominations total
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMany of the scenes were filmed at Fairhaven High School in Fairhaven, Massachusetts in February 2022 during the school's February break. At this time, the area received a snow storm to the delight of the film crew since many of the scenes took place during a snowstorm. They took full advantage of the weather and the snow you see in the film was from an actual snowstorm.
- GoofsWhen Paul and Angus go to the "packie" (liquor store) in Cambridge, the sign on the front shows open hours on Sunday. In 1970, Massachusetts still had "Blue Laws" that forbade liquor stores to open on Sunday.
- Quotes
Paul Hunham: There's nothing new in human experience, Mr. Tully. Each generation thinks it invented debauchery or suffering or rebellion, but man's every impulse and appetite from the disgusting to the sublime is on display right here all around you. So, before you dismiss something as boring or irrelevant, remember, if you truly want to understand the present or yourself, you must begin in the past. You see, history is not simply the study of the past. It is an explanation of the present.
- Crazy creditsThe film opens with a 1970's vintage R-rating MPAA card, followed by a 70's version of the Focus Features and Miramax logos.
- Alternate versionsThe UK release was cut, a cut was required to remove a misleading category symbol, in order to obtain a 15 classification. Cut made in accordance with BBFC policy. An uncut classification was not available.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Half in the Bag: Oppenheimer and The Hollywood Implosion (2023)
Teaching privileged boys at an elite new England prep school called Barton (think for example, Philips Exeter), might be the pinnacle of an academic's career. But not Paul Hunham in The Holdovers, an elite movie itself of the year.
Paul should be teaching classics at an ivy school, not teaching entitled "vermin," among the many sobriquets he tosses around about the fortunate young men to experience his brand of grumpy intellectualism and misanthropy. He prepares them for a world that won't always be coddling and protecting them as their family wealth so naturally does in their early years.
Director Alexander Payne worked with Giamatti in Sideways, so he is prepared to have another winning cynical character who is endearing while distanced by negative temperament from normally positive fellow humans (Paul's last name, Hunham, suggests a distant connection with the better angels of humanity).
As Paul accepts the assignment to supervise holdovers (exiled to Christmas vacation in the absence of parents or guardians), the number whittles down to just Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa, reminiscent of young, Timothy Chalamet and Adam Driver), who shares Paul's dark attitudes and, with the sharp writing of David Hemingson, some witty dialogue- e.g., about Paul he says, "I thought all of the Nazis had left for Argentina."
Although, as in likeminded dramas such as Dead Poet's Society or Goodbye, Mr. Chips, the principals are destined to be transformed into more humane characters, Holdovers continues, even in its denouement, to accentuate the unsunny side of life for Paul and Tully, whose fortunes are still compromised by cold-hearted parents and administrators. The chilly world, however, is warmed on these lovely, snowbound days, by women, viz., the cook, Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and administrator Lydia (Carrie Preston).
Mary good-naturedly deals with the death of her son, Curtis, a Barton grad who had to join the military because he did not have the resources as other Barton grads of the late '60s did to avoid the draft.
Lydia, an attractive middle-aged staff member, holds the promise of a love interest for Paul, only to show how difficult it is for social exiles to enter the romantic mainstream.
The Holdovers is a small gem of a move that will immediately remind buffs about Hal Ashby comedies of the same era like Harold & Maude, where character development is paramount and detachment from the mainstream is required to look at humanity clearly with its foibles and endearments.
The Holdovers is a movie everyone can enjoy with endearing characters who share with us our moments about loneliness peppered with the possibilities of love and happiness.
"Do you think I want to be babysitting you? No. I was praying your mother would pick up the phone, or your father would arrive in a helicopter or a flying saucer...." Paul Hunham.
- JohnDeSando
- Nov 15, 2023
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Los que se quedan
- Filming locations
- Groton School, 282 Farmers Row, Groton, Massachusetts, USA(Barton Academy)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $20,355,375
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $211,093
- Oct 29, 2023
- Gross worldwide
- $45,638,135
- Runtime2 hours 13 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1