Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Film myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.For two months now, the annual festive movie channels have been showing cosy tales of snow-flecked romance and mulled-wine homecomings. Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point sounds as if it might be part of that programming. Indeed, if you’re in the mood for something tender and wintry, Tyler Thomas Taormina’s comedy-drama would do nicely. But this is a profoundly original offering from one of the odder talents on the US indie fringe. Taormina’s 2019 Ham on Rye was a dreamlike reworking of coming-of-age themes, and here he shows the same skewed fascination with American social ritual.In a town on Long Island, New York, four generations of the Balsano clan are gathering to make merry. To call the assembly “sprawling” doesn’t begin to account for the sheer density of the dramatis personae (one poster shows 22 characters, and that’s just for starters). With the action hopping staccato between fragmentary scenes, we begin to identify people — a wise-guy uncle, a dorky cousin in clip-on elf ears, the family doyennes. But as presents are torn open, food served and a large lizard retrieved from the basement, you feel the same heady confusion you get from Robert Altman or Richard Linklater ensemble movies.Then things get stranger and more poetic: Santa’s sleigh whizzes by on the back of a fire engine; there’s an incident involving stolen bagels; a woman starts mockingly reading out a piece of fiction by a relative, only to realise that she’s reciting something poignant and finely crafted. And outdoors, two taciturn cops (Michael Cera, Gregg Turkington) share an awkward moment of truth that’s seemingly extraneous to the whole, but adds its own tragicomic piquancy.By the time the genially bizarre end credits roll, you’re likely to feel bewildered and charmed in equal measure. This could well prove a dependable alternative winter warmer for years to come. ★★★★☆In UK cinemas from November 15 and in US cinemas now
