Surprising, but VERY welcome news coming from Los Angeles. Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” has just had a test-screening in Los Angeles. Reactions look good so far, a return to form for Payne and what is being described as a smaller-scaled film.
Filming began in Massachusetts on January 27, 2022 and there were some reshoots in late April. I was under the impression that they might wait this one out until Cannes 2023, and maybe they will. However, if it’s being test-screened, maybe it’s close to being done. A surprise Telluride inclusion would be quite something.
“The Holdovers” has Payne reuniting with his “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti. Giamatti will play a “curmudgeonly walleyed disliked history teacher” who has to deal with the only student of his, a holdover, who remains in town for Christmas, as all the other students have left to see their families for the holidays.
Payne is coming off the biggest misfire of his career, 2017’s “Downsizing,” which was met with tepid box-office and mixed reviews. Before that, the 60-year-old filmmaker had built up a reputation as the primary humanist of contemporary American cinema with films such as “Citizen Ruth,” “ Election,” “About Schmidt,” and “Nebraska.”