Overview
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school 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 — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.
MovieMagicScore Overview
Auto-generatedSet at a New England prep school over a lonely Christmas break, this 2023 comedy-drama from director Alexander Payne follows a gruff, demanding teacher left behind to supervise the few students with nowhere to go. What begins as a reluctant arrangement gradually softens into an unexpected connection between the instructor, a sharp and troubled boy, and a grieving cafeteria cook. Bittersweet and character-driven, it blends dry humor with quiet melancholy and themes of loneliness, grief, and the makeshift families we stumble into. With a MagicMovieScore of 7.6, it suits viewers who favor warm, talky, slow-burn dramas over plot spectacle.
An automated summary to help you decide what to watch — not a user review or critic rating.
Trailer
Top Cast
Paul Giamatti
Paul Hunham
Dominic Sessa
Angus Tully
Da'Vine Joy Randolph
Mary Lamb
Carrie Preston
Miss Lydia Crane
Brady Hepner
Teddy Kountze
Ian Dolley
Alex Ollerman
Jim Kaplan
Ye-Joon Park
Michael Provost
Jason Smith
2,481 ratings. The score is reasonably stable but could shift up to 0.06 as more ratings come in.
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Movie Info
Release Date
October 27, 2023
Runtime
2h 13m
Rating
R
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Director