Paul Giamatti and young newcomer Dominic Sessa star in The Holdovers, the latest film from director Alexander Payne, and his first collaboration with Giamatti since 2004's Sideways. Set in 1970, Giamatti stars as a somewhat cantankerous teacher at a boarding school for boys who are forced to spend Christmas on campus with a group of "holdovers," or students who are unable to return home for vacation and must remain at school themselves. Sessa, in his feature film debut, plays one of the students, who begins to form an unlikely bond with his ornery and odiferous professor.

https://screenrant.com/the-holdovers-movie-writer-david-hemingson-interview/