The Holdovers (2023) on Netflix
In December 1970, Paul Hunham, a classics teacher at a New England boys' school, stays on campus for the Christmas holiday to supervise students with nowhere to go, among them Angus Tully.
- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.9/10273,941 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes97%
Trailer
Plot summary
Paul Hunham teaches classics at Barton Academy, an all-male boarding school in New England where he was once a scholarship student, and his strict grading has made him unpopular. When another teacher cannot take the duty, Hunham must watch the five boys who stay on campus through the Christmas holiday. One is Angus Tully, whose mother has gone away on a honeymoon instead. Mary Lamb, the cafeteria manager, stays too; her son Curtis, a Barton student, died in Vietnam.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Holdovers (2023)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In March 2024, screenwriter Simon Stephenson lodged a complaint with the Writers Guild of America accusing The Holdovers of plagiarizing his unproduced script Frisco, a 2013 Black List entry, which he called "forensically identical" to David Hemingson's screenplay. Alexander Payne dismissed the claim as baseless, saying he took the idea from Merlusse.
- Screenwriter David Hemingson said the film is semi-autobiographical, with dialogue and scenes taken verbatim from his own life. The scene with the sex worker came from an incident that happened to him at age seven on First Avenue and 30th Street with his uncle.
- To fake Paul Hunham's amblyopia, or lazy eye, makeup and effects artist Cristina Patterson hand-painted soft contact lenses for Paul Giamatti, each needing several tries to get the color right; after filming began, Alexander Payne decided the effect had to be visible in either eye.
