Sideways director Alexander Payne, actor Paul Giamatti reunite after almost 20 years for The Holdovers

LOS ANGELES – Directed by Alexander Payne and starring Paul Giamatti, the wine-soaked comedy-drama Sideways (2004) was one of the most critically acclaimed films of the early 2000s.

The story of two middle-aged friends on a semi-disastrous road trip through California’s wine country picked up Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Actress. It eventually won Best Adapted Screenplay for Payne.

And that is one reason Payne and Giamatti’s new film together, The Holdovers, has been tipped as a contender for the Oscars in March.

The other reason is the rave reviews it has received, as seen in the 96 per cent critics’ rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

Opening at The Projector on Jan 11, the movie is set in a prestigious boarding school in New England in 1970. It follows three characters – unpopular teacher Paul (Giamatti), troubled student Angus (Dominic Sessa) and school cook Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) – who form an unlikely bond while stuck on campus over the holidays.

At the Golden Globes on Jan 7, Giamatti was named Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Randolph took home the award for Best Supporting Actress.

At a screening of the film in Los Angeles in December, Payne reveals that the plot was inspired by Merlusse (1935), an obscure movie by the late French writer-director Marcel Pagnol.

“It has that same set-up: a teacher with a wonky eye at an all-boys boarding school who takes care of the boys over the Christmas break and develops a special relationship with one of them.

“I was, like, ‘That’s a movie I’d like to see, or maybe make another version of,’” says the 62-year-old American film-maker, who won a second Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for comedy-drama The Descendants (2011).

Payne – who also directed the satirical comedies Election (1999) and Downsizing (2017) – usually writes his own films.

But he felt he did not know enough about the world of boarding schools to pen this one himself, and so sat on the idea for many years.

Then he came across a television pilot script by American writer David Hemingson that was also set at a boys’ boarding school, and asked Hemingson to come up with the screenplay for The Holdovers.

They decided it would take place in the 1970s because that was “an interesting time for cinema”, says Payne.

“The Vietnam War, and the sociopolitical and cultural winds blowing through the moment, would give the screenwriter stuff to deal with. And the war, to a greater or lesser extent, affects all three characters.”

For Payne and Giamatti, it felt like they were picking up right where they left off when making Sideways two decades ago.

Working with Payne again “didn’t feel any different to me”, says American actor Giamatti, 56, who starred in the hedge-fund drama Billions (2016 to 2023) and was Oscar-nominated for the sports biopic Cinderella Man (2005).

Payne agrees. “It felt like we had wrapped Sideways about a week before.”

The director acknowledges there are similarities between Giamatti’s characters in Sideways and The Holdovers, as both are cranky middle-aged school teachers with a chip on their shoulders.

When Giamatti read an early draft of the The Holdovers, Payne recalls apologising to the actor.

“I said, ‘I’m sorry, there’re some similarities, maybe, between (your Sideways character) Miles and this.’ And Paul said, ‘Yeah, but I’m going to play this guy more like a prick.’”

Giamatti says this is because his character in The Holdovers “enjoys being a prick too”.

“They’re similar guys at different stages of their lives,” says the actor, who won an Emmy for his title role in the historical drama series John Adams (2008).

And the two stories are ultimately very different, with The Holdovers more a tale “about selflessness – people making sacrifices and giving of themselves”, he adds.

“It’s a movie about these three people finding common ground and common humanity.

“So, it gives you this sense of lived humanity that feels comforting in some way.”