The Long Island–shot, holiday hangout hit that premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival—and landed at No. 2 on The New Yorker’s “Best Films of the Year” list—is heading to Quentin Tarantino’s legendary New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles.
One of Hollywood’s most happening, elatedly-curated movie houses will present Tyler Taormina’s “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” on Tuesday, December 9th, and Wednesday, December 10th, each night at 9:45 p.m., paired on a double bill with “Christmas, Again” (2014).
With QT as its head programmer, you can imagine he clocked the same nostalgia and hangout-movie magic that endeared him to Richard Linklater’s high-vibes “Dazed and Confused” (1993) — uncompromising in tone or in-DNA.
Taormina’s generation-hopping hodgepodge weaves ‘60s diner jukebox doo-wop through a mid-2000s-set, subtly askew-and-surreal suburbia. In Miller’s Point, teenagers cruise around in ‘80s cars while outrunning none other than Officer Michael Cera, who’s been described as a cross between his “Twin Peaks” turnout and the bumbling cops in pursuit of he and Jonah Hill throughout 2007’s also Tarantino-indebted “Superbad.”
Where “Pulp Fiction” (1994) had the kitschy, ‘50s-aimed but timelessly insane Jack Rabbit Slim’s, “Miller’s Point” counters with a Smithtown native’s wink called Mott Bagels—a pitch-perfect ode to vintage Americana, courtesy of the real-life Cella Bagels of Selden. The local eatery features vibrant scenery that has charmed more than a few film crews over the years.
The spiritual lineage doesn’t stop with Tarantino; both his universe and Taormina’s bagel-lined byways and Big Fat Italian Christmas schematic evoke Martin Scorsese—whose daughter, Francesca, plays a key role. Moreover, “GoodFellas” (1990) concludes the theater’s November slate.
From shooting on the not-so-mean streets of Suffolk County to earning marquee time in Tinseltown—during a week where “Jingle All the Way” (1996) and “It’s a Wonderful Life!” (1946) also deck the cinematic halls of New Bev—“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” proves that what happens on Long Island does not stay on Long Island.
What the film everlastingly contends: sometimes a midnight convoy, some good tunes, and even greater company are all you need to guarantee yet another joyful Christmas Eve.