Alexander Payne Recommends 5 Films For Alamo Drafthouse’s ‘Guest Selects’ Series [Exclusive]

In celebration of “The Holdovers” hitting theaters this weekend, filmmaker Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) has teamed up with Alamo Drafthouse for a special “Guest Selects” conversation. In the video (which you can watch below), Payne gives five film recommendations when people ask him what they should watch. And in typical Payne fashion, it’s an eclectic batch, including an acclaimed 1937 melodrama, an early great from Peter Bagdonavich, an underseen Italian period piece, and more.

READ MORE: ‘The Holdovers’ Review: Alexander Payne & Paul Giamatti Reunite For A ’70s Nostalgia Dramedy [Telluride]

In chronological order, here are Payne’s five selections: 1937’s “Make Way For Tomorrow,” directed by Leo McCarey, the 1951 Western “Westward The Women,” Bogdonavich’s 1973 Great Depression drama “Paper Moon,” Hal Ashby‘s “The Last Detail” with Jack Nicholson, and Ettore Scola‘s “A Special Day” from 1977. In the video, Payne gives brief synopses and praise for each of the movies. And it’s the lesser-known films on the list that receive the highest praise. For instance, Payne calls “Westward The Women” a “criminally neglected” Western that’s a “brutal, pitiless, and deeply moving film.” And then there’s “A Special Day,” which Payne says “stars two of world cinema’s greatest actors [Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren] at the peak of their powers.”

And Payne also says that “Paper Moon,” one of his favorite movies, influenced his latest film, as Bogdonavich shot his film in the ’70s to make it look like it was from the ’30s, much as Payne shoots “The Holdovers” to look like it was shot in the ’70s. Check out an official synopsis for “The Holdovers” below:

THE HOLDOVERS reunites Sideways alums Paul Giamatti and director Alexander Payne in a Christmas story of three lonely, shipwrecked people at a New England boarding school over a very snowy holiday break in 1970. The comedy stars Giamatti as Paul Hunham, an odiferous, optically-challenged adjunct professor of ancient history who is universally disliked by students and faculty; Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb, the head cook of the school whose only child Curtis was killed in Vietnam, and Dominic Sessa, in his film debut, as Angus Tully, a student at the school – a smart, damaged, troublemaker but a good kid underneath who’s just trying to make his way. Left to their own devices in the empty school, there are adventures, a little calamity and finally, a semblance of family.

“The Holdovers” hits theaters on November 2. Check out Alexander Payne’s “Guest Selects” for Alamo Drafthouse below.