We’ve only just got Easter out of the way, and here comes the most immersive Christmas movie of the year, an abstract but very much controlled study based in and around a festive party thrown by a very large family from Long Island, New York. Despite the specificity of the setting, however, Tyler Taormina’s third feature film (if you include his 62-minute debut Happer’s Comet, the first of his slice-of-time essay pieces) is a surprisingly relatable experience, part anthropological study, part nostalgia kick, lit up (literally) like a Christmas tree in a yuletide riot of red, white and green.
It begins in a car ferrying members of the Balsano family — mother and father, brother and sister — to the home of the family’s matriarch, where four generations of Balsanos have gathered for their annual get-together. This is about as much of a set-up as you’re going to get, since, once we’re through the door we’re on our own, trying to figure out who’s who in the riotous assembly of cousins, aunts and uncles. That the Balsanos are an Italian American clan is significant, but only in terms of their closeness; though there are suggestions of black sheep in their midst (like the cousin who sports a bruised cheek throughout), this will not turn out like The Sopranos’ Christmas Vacation.
Instead, Taormina asks us to reconnect with the true meaning of Christmas, which, for the younger members of the family, is a tedious celebration of consumerism to be fled at the earliest opportunity. But for the elders, it is, literally, a feast, and Taormina’s camera lingers long on the never-ending turkey dinner that fills the longest dining-room table since The Last Supper. Taormina starts with the grown-ups first, exploring the curious glue that bonds people who otherwise have nothing in common. Primarily, he reveals that grandma, whose house it is, has become too frail to live unassisted, and her son is selling it. No one knows it yet, but tonight is a full stop in that respect.
RELATED: Cannes Film Festival Photos
Even this, however, doesn’t exactly constitute plot with a capital P. Taormina just lets the point linger as he takes us round the house, lingering on the family portraits, the kitsch Hallmark artwork and kewpie dolls — as well as garish novelties such as the self-playing piano belting out “Mr. Sandman” — so that we may connect with them as fondly as if they were memories of our own. Though the film is set in 2006, with video games and VHS tapes on display, the soundtrack is timeless, literally plundering Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising for tunes like Ricky Nelson’s “Fools Rush In”, Gene McDaniels’ “Point of No Return” and Peggy March’s “Wind-up Doll” while also, bravely, using The Ronettes in a way that evokes the spirit if not the letter of Mean Streets by Martin Scorsese (whose daughter Francesca has a small part in the film).
Slowly, the dynamic of the group starts to change; after dinner, while the adults are distracted, the teens start to peel off and head out, to the bagel shop (perhaps a little reference to Taormina’s 2019 feature Ham on Rye), whose owner is fighting a losing battle against the “freegans” that rummage through her bins. Here, Christmas Eve becomes something more magical and impressionistic, a luminous moment where time seems to stand still. Like the adults, the teenagers have their archetypes, and, before long, they start to pair off in surprising permutations.
It’s hard to categorise Taormina’s film, and, for some, its freewheeling, indie American Graffiti vibe might take a little getting used to. Similarly, the presence of producer Michael Cera as a cop is a bit of a misdirect for anyone expecting a straight-up comedy (although his deadpan scenes with Gregg Turkington are funny and absurd). But Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is a trip for anyone willing to roll with it, and more than cements Taormina as a talent to watch. Directors’ Fortnight is the perfect place for it.
Title: Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point
Festival: Cannes (Directors’ Fortnight)
Director-screenwriter: Tyler Taormina
Cast: Matilda Fleming, Michael Cera, Chris Lazzaro, Elsie Fisher, Gregg Turkington
Running time: 1 hr 46 min