The Holdovers
Directed by Alexander Payne. Performances by Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston, Andrew Garman. Focus Features, 2023 133 min. Rated R. Holiday / Comedy / Drama
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).