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Hulu just added a slate of new films this November, and we want to highlight one in particular that you need to check out. Perhaps a little early for Christmas cheer, Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is nevertheless going to get you into the holiday spirit regardless of whether it’s November 7 or November 27. The indie film, featuring Michael Cera, Francesca Scorsese, and Elsie Fisher, follows the large and loud Balsano family as they spend what may be their final Christmas together in their family home. While it received positive reviews from critics, it likely escaped your radar last year. Here’s why Watch With Us thinks you should give it a chance. ‘Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point’ Is a Magnetic Slice-of-Life Comedy Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point chronicles all the different niches of the Balsano family during Christmas together in their ancestral Long Island home, set in 2006. It takes a look at the interactions between various family members: a widowed matriarch, her four adult children and their own gaggle of kids. The film has no real “plot,” but a central tension lingers involving the ailing grandmother and what is to be done with her home. Instead of a traditional three-act structure, the film explores the dynamics and textures of an American family during the holidays, occasionally punctuated by two cops on the periphery played by Michael Cera and Gregg Turkington. The adult siblings bicker, the teen cousins sneak off, play video games and observe the way the adults in their lives behave with one another. The care and detail put into Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is totally hypnotic, as you spend the holiday alongside these colorful, eerily familiar characters. It’s Warmly Reflective of Holiday Anxieties and Idiosyncrasies Director Tyler Taormina’s film does an excellent job at articulating a very specific environment seen among large family gatherings over this particular time of the year — how a group of people can simultaneously love and hate one another, how there can somehow exist loneliness amongst such close-knit togetherness. How do such disparate people come together under one roof who are bound by obligation and blood? The film also depicts the intricacies of little family rituals, like the much-memed “cousin walk,” as well as a moment in the film when the family goes out together to witness a holiday procession of emergency vehicles that’s treated with the utmost adoration. With its mosaic, fragmented structure, Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point doesn’t just portray what we see within a family but also what we don’t see, what’s left unsaid, and the way these moments slip away into our memory. It Features a Great Ensemble Cast of Character Actors While Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point has no true protagonist, it features a fantastic array of actors whose faces you may recognize. While Cera is probably the biggest name, comedy fans will likely know comedian Gregg Turkington, or perhaps from his couple of cameos in the Ant-Man films. Francesca Scorsese, Martin Scorsese‘s famously social media-savvy daughter, plays one of the grandchildren, and Elsie Fisher (of Eighth Grade and Barry) plays her friend. The film also features performances from Steven Spielberg‘s son Sawyer, Maria Dizzia (The Staircase) and Ben Shenkman (Angels in America). Ultimately, Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is a low-key film in need of deceptively low-key performances that also pack on depth and character, and you really feel not just the lived-in relationships between the Balsano family but also those outside of it. Stream Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point now on Hulu. Want personalized streaming recommendations? Tell us your favorite services below, and we’ll send you our newsletter. (Select all that apply.)
