Christmas Eve in Miller's Point

A plotless film... A chaotic masterpiece, perhaps? I felt an immediate sense of belonging amidst the Christmas clamor in this house of diverse personalities.

It's as if you're a fly on the wall, observing every single character, mischievous children, and snippets of conversations lost in the festive din. And I love it.

The soundtrack is rich, the scenes fleeting, yet every frame is a visual delight. The credits reveal the joy that went into crafting this cinematic gem. I especially loved the first hour, after that it's somehow different, since scenes are out of the house.

Count me in for another viewing next year. :)

Christmas Eve at Miller's Point was, unfortunately, one of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen. It lacked a cohesive plot, storyline, or any semblance of character development. The film felt like a collection of random, disjointed conversations, introducing characters only to abandon them moments later without any follow-through.

The strange videography added to the confusion, with awkward close-ups on irrelevant details and unnecessarily long shots of background decor that served no purpose. It felt entirely random and odd, leaving me wondering how this ever became a movie in the first place.

Overall, it was a waste of time that left me frustrated and regretting the experience. This is not a film I would recommend to anyone.

There is literally no plot, no story, and no character development of any kind. What was the point of this? A full 45 minutes in, nothing has happened. It's just random people that we don't know, doing random stuff at a Christmas party, and none of it is interesting in any way. It starts with a family, so your thinking it's about the family, then we don't see them again for almost an hour after they walk through the door. Then we see a bunch of relatives in a typical Christmas gathering talking about people and things we know literally nothing about. It's like they just had a camera person walk into a random party and they just start filming. Who green lit this? If you want footage of some random family's Christmas where nothing happens, then this is the movie for you. Otherwise, pass.

Greetings again from the darkness. It's that time of year when we get bombarded with Christmas movies. Some are light-hearted comedies, while others play off the elevated emotions of the holiday season. Most of these seem to be harmless, although some are so lame that we can barely watch. Yet it seems most every year one or two surprise us by packing a punch. Writer-director Tyler Taormina and co-writer re-team after their underappreciated HAM ON RYE (2019) for the most unique Christmas movie we will likely watch this year.

This is certainly no vehicle for movie stars to make an easy buck. In fact, most of the faces won't be familiar, and that works to the film's advantage ... a shrewd casting move. Based in the 1970's, a large family Christmas gathering is happening on Long Island, and the little bits of story are captured through the blips of snippets of conversations we catch. This includes discussions about the family matriarch needing to be moved to an assisted living facility and whether or not the family home should be sold. There are secrets and grudges and familiar jokes, along with teenagers trying to look cool ... in other words, the same things that happen at most family gatherings plus the added stress of Christmas.

Some of the jigsaw pieces are in the form of a player piano, a pet iguana, an electric train, video games, and a dozing grandma. A few of the men escape to the garage for a cold beer, while one uncle plays the piano and sings a Christmas carol. Another uncle is obsessed with cooking his portion of the family feast and explaining each step to anyone who will listen. Of course, the feast is enough to feed three times the number of people in attendance, and yes, one adult gets stuck at the kids' table. There are presents opened and home movies that bring back memories - some good, some tear-inducing. Yet another uncle has his book draft read aloud, providing quite the surprise. Those "cool" teenagers do manage to sneak out, and this along with the goofy cops (Michael Cera, Greg Turkington), seem like bits that don't really fit. The exception is one red-wrapped gift that must be fished out of a dumpster, ultimately providing a touching moment.

Again, most of the cast will not be recognizable, but they handle their characters beautifully. The cast includes Maria Dizzia, Matilda Fleming, Steve Alleva, JoJo Cincinnati, Ben Shenkman, Chris Lazzaro, Tony Savino, Elsie Fisher, as well as a couple of well-known offspring in Sawyer Spielberg and Francesca Scorsese. Cinematographer Carson Lund provides the retro look and feel, with a dose of nostalgia that avoids the customary overdose of sentimentality. The film is more complex than it appears on the surface, and the offbeat flow allows for emotions, love, and chaos - even as Santa rides by on the firetruck. An unconventional soundtrack is filled with 1960's music rather than Christmas tunes, and that works just fine. The best compliment I can offer is that this feels as much like we are at the party as it does we are watching the party. And that's impressive.

Showing in select theaters.

A critic once famously described "Waiting for Godot", the absurdist two-act play written by Samuel Beckett in which the characters engage in much discussion but absolutely no action whatsoever and in which nothing is resolved, as "A play in which nothing happens...twice." Yet everyone, including the critic in question, consider the play as being a masterpiece of the 20th century. I, of course, apparently being a total dimwit, miss the point entirely.

The same can be more or less said of this film. Oh sure, a couple of things actually happen (a garishly decorated and lit fire truck, made up to look like Santa's sleigh, passes by an eagerly awaiting crowd, a bunch of teenagers manage to score some beer and drink happily in a parking lot before couples form to engage in some making out in various cars), but I can't help but feel it is nevertheless a film in which (almost) nothing happens...from beginning to end.

Indeed, the writer and director clearly mislead us into thinking that something WILL actually happen (the teens in question engage in some dangerously high speed racing, while two policemen who are expressly watching out for speeders are apparently oblivious to that), and you expect some sort of damage to ensue...and then the scene abruptly changes to another set of characters, and by the time we are back to the teens, they too are somewhere else.

I suppose the idea was to create a sort of "anti-film", in which various vignettes with no beginning are played out with no end either, but I can't but feel that this sort of "repeated slices of life" is, like Waiting for Godot, impenetrable to me. I hope it makes more sense to other viewers -- and apparently it does so, since other ratings on here are quite high.

So, as I said at the outset, I feel dumb -- never a pleasant experience.

One last point: the usual IMDB question "Does this review contain spoilers" made me laugh this time. In order for a review to contain spoilers, something actually has to happen in film that is exposed in the review. I don't believe that is possible for a film in which I have difficulty figuring out if anything of note actually happens.