Those of us who’ve crammed into Grandma or Uncle Gus’ house for a family Xmas party will intensely feel the VIBES of Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point ( now streaming on AMC+ ). Writer-director Tyler Taormina reconstructs a holiday gathering for this unconventional, and dare I say experimental, riff on conventional Christmas-movie formulas, which plays out in not-quite-real-time over the course of one night. The film features a large ensemble (including Michael Cera, Maria Dizzia and (nepo baby alert) Francesca Scorsese and Sawyer Spielberg) talking over each other at crowded dinner tables and kitschy basements and out in the garage over a smoke, while we see and feel all kinds of stuff that’s familiar to these kind of middle-class assemblies of kin.
CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER’S POINT : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? The Gist: A family races down the road, Christmas presents sliding around the back of the station wagon. Dad drives too fast and Mom jokes that he should drive like his family is actually in the car and he wants them to reach their destination safely. Two cops in a speed trap clock him on the gun and shrug.
We’ll see those cops again, but not how we might expect – they’re weirdos, and don’t seem particularly committed to doing their jobs well. Dad plasters on a fake smile and asks if that’ll work; this is the face he wears to extended-family gatherings. It’s Xmas Eve and they get to the party and there’s tinsel and NOELs on doors and overdecorated trees.
