“The Holdovers,” a new film set to screen in theaters this fall, unveiled its first trailer this week and eagle-eyed fans may recognize several Massachusetts locations featured in it.
The movie, which filmed around Massachusetts back in early 2022, stars “Billions” actor Paul Giamatti alongside Da’Vine Joy Randolph (”Dolemite Is My Name,” “The Idol,” “Only Murders in the Building”) and newcomer Dominic Sessa.
Giamatti plays a “curmudgeonly” instructor named Paul Hunham at a New England prep school called “Barton Academy” who must remain on campus during the 1970 Christmas break to watch over a handful of students who have nowhere to go for the holidays, including Sessa’s character, Angus Tully, according to the film’s trailer.
Giamatti’s character — disliked by students and faculty — eventually forms “an unlikely bond” with Sessa’s “damaged, brainy troublemaker” as well as the school’s head cook named Mary Lamb, played by Randolph, who just lost her son in the Vietnam War, it added.
“Left to their own devices in the empty school, there are adventures, a little calamity and finally, a semblance of family,” according to Miramax in a plot synopsis of the film.
Watch the full trailer below or by clicking here to watch on YouTube.
Locations featured in the trailer notably include Faneuil Hall in Boston, the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, as well as Fairhaven High School — as reported by SouthCoastToday.
Other Massachusetts locations where filming took place include The Continental Restaurant on Route 1 in Saugus according to WickedLocal, and Worcester Common and St. Mark’s School in Southborough, per the Telegram & Gazette.
Following the trailer’s release, Western Massachusetts’ Deerfield Academy also gave a shoutout on its social media to Sessa, an alumnus from its class of 2022.
The film is directed by Alexander Payne, who also directed “Sideways” and “The Descendants,” and premieres in select theaters starting Friday, Oct. 27, and in theaters everywhere starting Friday, Nov. 10 of this year. The film is rated R, according to Miramax.
