Christmas Eve in Miller's Point
Norman Rockwell meets John Cassavetes in this clear-eyed but deeply affectionate family holiday hangout.
Four generations cram into a fairy-light-bedecked Balsano family home on Long Island for what might be their final Christmas there – if tense discussions between adult siblings Elyse, Ray, Matthew and Kathleen about their ageing mum, Antonia, are anything to go by. For now, however, the same comforting rituals play out, soundtracked to Frank Sinatra and 60s pop: men smoke cigars in the garage; women sip wine in the kitchen; kids play videogames in the basement or struggle to stay awake for Santa; Aunt Isabelle snoozes in her stairlift; and teenage cousins Michelle and Emily plot to escape for illicit beers with their crushes. Meanwhile, cruising through a nearly silent night, two quirky cops (played by Michael Cera and Gregg Turkington) are having their own revelatory experience.
A tone poem with a sentimental streak, Tyler Taormina’s Cannes-premiering feature wanders between overlapping Noo Yawk conversations among a sprawling cast of non-actors and actors, including Francesca Scorsese, Elsie Fisher, Matilda Fleming and Sawyer Spielberg. DOP Carson Lund’s alert, roving camera captures small multigenerational moments of tension and connection amid the humble textures of American family Christmases: tables groaning with casseroles and candelabras; kitschy, well-worn decorations; and young people who are ‘too cool for Christmas’, but nonetheless beguiled by moonlight on snow.
“As warm and tense as a hug with someone you’ve always known but may never see again, every moment at once both fleeting and forever.” – IndieWire
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