How To Watch Paul Giamatti In The Holdovers At Home

One of the best-reviewed movies of 2023 is coming home just in time for the holidays. Director Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers" was released in theaters in late October and there's been much buzz surrounding the film (read our review here). This is in no small part because it reunites the filmmaker with Paul Giamatti for the first time since "Sideways" nearly 20 years ago. Now, for those who didn't get the chance to see the film in theaters, Universal Pictures has announced that Focus Features' latest is available to rent or purchase on Digital.

"The Holdovers" is currently available through digital retailers such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, or any number of other places. Take your pick! As of this writing, viewers can rent the film for $19.99, or purchase the film for a little extra. This is what is known as premium VOD, which sprang up during the pandemic. The price typically goes down after several weeks but the ability to watch a recent, theatrical release at home comes at a premium. The synopsis for the movie reads as follows:

"The Holdovers" follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (Dominic Sessa) — and with the school's head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).

Universal did not wait very long to bring this movie to digital despite the fact that it'd been doing well in theaters. But that's largely been the strategy for Focus Features releases in the pandemic era, with a several-week theatrical window followed by a VOD release. At least the studio is still committing to releasing original films like this in theaters in the first place though rather than just dumping them directly to streaming. The film will also make its way to Peacock on December 29, 2023, with a physical media release on the way too.

David Hemingson ("Kitchen Confidential") penned the screenplay for "The Holdovers," which also serves as Dominic Sessa's feature film debut and the first film that Payne has directed since 2017's "Downsizing" (which was both a critical and commercial misfire). This has served as a pretty major bounceback for him thus far.

"The Holdovers" is in theaters and on digital now.