42 | NOVEMBER 7 • 2024 J
N

XMAS WITH SAWYER, 
OFFERINGS FROM OUR 
MEXICAN AND FRENCH 
‘LANDSMEN’

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point 
is a comedy/drama film that will 
have a limited premiere on Nov. 
8 and will open wide on Nov. 15. 
The film focuses on a Christmas 
celebration, and rarely do I find 
something about a Christmas-
time film to write about. 
But this film is a bit different. 
Here’s the film’s premise: 
On Christmas Eve, an Italian 
American family gathers for 
what could be their last holiday 
at their ancestral home on 
Long Island. As the night 
wears on, tensions between 
the generations arise, and two 
teenage girls rebel and sneak 
out of the house to meet up 
with their friends. 
Francesca Scorsese, 24, 
plays Michelle, one of the teen 
girls. Yes, she is the daughter 
of famous director Martin 
Scorsese. 
Another major cast member 
has an equally famous director 
father: Sawyer Spielberg, 
32. He’s the son of Steven 
Spielberg, 77, and actress Kate 
Capshaw, 70. Sawyer plays 
“Splint.” I gather it’s a fairly big 
role as a “tough guy” family 
member. 
Miller’s Point was directed 
by Tyler Taromina, and he 
co-wrote the script. One critic 
speculated that these two 
children of famous directors got 
their parts because Taromina is 
a great admirer of the directors. 
(Sawyer and Francesca are 
seasoned actors and casting 
them wasn’t a big risk).
Taromina got good reviews 

for his first film, Ham on Rye 
(2020) and Miller’s Point got 
good reviews at the Cannes film 
Festival.
So, here’s the 411 on Sawyer: 
He is one of the five children of 
Steven and Kate (three natural 
and two adopted children). 
Steven has a son from his prior 
marriage to actress Amy Irving, 
and Capshaw has a daughter 
from a previous marriage. 
Sawyer began his acting 
career as a young teen and, 
when he was 18, he began 
studying at a school affiliated 
with a New York repertory 
company. In most of his stage 
roles, he acted using his middle 
name. He was billed “Sawyer 
Avery.”
To be frank, it seems to me 
that Sawyer is at a very decisive 
time in his career. He’s 32 and 
he’s only starred in one film 
(Honeydew, a 2020 low-budget 
horror film) and he had a not-
large role in Masters of the Air, 
a 2024 Apple TV+ WWII series. 
Now, he’s got a “middle-size” 
role in a film with a big cast. 
I think his next film, Martyr of 
Gowanus, will make or break a 
big career. He stars as a man 
torn-up by the 9/11 attack.
Sawyer married actress Raye 
Levine Spielberg in 2018, and 
the couple have two children. 

Raye has only a few credits and 
I couldn’t find out, for sure, that 
she is Jewish — but I think that’s 
very likely. 
As I have noted before, New 
York area Jews and Italians 
have a lot in common, and it’s 
quite common for NY Jews to 
play NY Italians and vice-versa. 
Big family holiday celebrations, 
with tons of pretty good food, 
are just one thing in common. 
So, I’m not surprised that 
Sawyer isn’t the only Jew in the 
cast. Ben Shenkman, 56, plays 
Lenny, the Italian father of teen 
rebel Michelle. Shenkman has 
tons of TV and movie credits 
(almost all are supporting roles). 
Next year, he will celebrate his 
20th anniversary with his Jewish 
wife. 
Here’s two foreign catch-
up items: Freedom is an 
original Prime Video movie 
that began streaming on Nov. 
1. It is inspired by Bruno Sulak, 
a real-life outlaw in France in 
the 1970s. He masterminded 
daring heists without firing a 
single shot. Sulak was pursued 
by George Moreas, a dogged 
police commissioner. Yvan Attal, 
59, a prominent French actor 
and filmmaker, plays Moreas. 
Attal was born in Tel Aviv. His 
parents were Algerian Jews.
French actress and director 

Melanie Laurent, 41, directed 
Freedom and co-wrote it. She’s 
best known in America as a 
star of two really good flicks: 
Inglourious Basterds (2009) and 
Beginners (2011).
I just came across a note 
that HBO/Max was going to 
stream (Nov. 3) an original, big-
budget, eight-episode Mexican 
series entitled Like Water for 
Chocolate. I glanced at the cast 
credits and one name stood 
out: Ari Brickman. I lucked out 
and found a 2015 profile on 
a Mexican Jewish community 
site and translated it. Yes, he’s 
Jewish, and he’s pretty big in 
Mexico: many good acting roles 
(stage, TV, films) — and he’s 
a quite popular musician and 
composer. 
Brickman, 39, has a big 
supporting role in Like 
Chocolate. Here’s the series 
premise: Star-crossed lovers 
Tita and Pedro’s romance 
is thwarted by her family’s 
traditions, forcing Tita to 
navigate magic and flavors in 
the kitchen as she fights for 
love and embraces her destined 
path.
Salma Hayek produced the 
series, and she was a guest on 
Today on Oct. 29 to promote 
the series. You can watch the 
interview on today.com. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

IMDB

Sawyer 
Spielberg
Ben Shenkman
Ari Brickman

IMDB

IMDB

