The Screen Critic: Four veterans shine in a friendship comedy, a Marvel epic that’s actually good and Nicolas Cage takes on the apocalypse

A frustrated father with anger issues struggles to cope with the pressures of dealing with his autistic son in the moving comedy-drama Ezra.

Bobby Cannavale plays Max, a struggling New York stand-up comedian who is constantly battling with his ex-wife Jenna (Rose Byrne) over how best to raise Ezra (William Fitzgerald).

He’s also at war with his father and housemate Stan (Robert De Niro), a lovably acerbic soul determined to keep Max from becoming the failure he is.

The offer of a TV spot in LA sets Max and Ezra on a road trip, with Stan and Jenna in hot pursuit, hoping to get to them before the welfare authorities.

Without a sentimental cliche in sight, this energetically paced piece really hits home as an emotionally honest look at a desperate father trying to keep his broken family together.

Cannavale and Byrne are exceptionally strong, with De Niro again proving how much he can bring to a supporting role.

Old resentments boil up in the enjoyable lightweight reunion comedy The Fabulous Four as a quartet of long-time chums band together for a latter-life wedding.

Marilyn (Bette Midler) is heading down the aisle once more, with pals Alice (Megan Mullally), Kitty (Sheryl Lee Ralph), and Lou (Susan Sarandon) joining her as bridesmaids in Florida’s Key West.

It’s all bonhomie and banter with Marilyn determined to document everything on TikTok. Only there’s a fly in the ointment with Lou harbouring long-standing bitterness over having lost a man to her in their youth.

Things start looking up for Lou when she meets an attractive bar owner (Bruce Greenwood), which ends up making things more complicated.

Breezily directed by Australian Jocelyn Morehouse (The Dressmaker), the film is pure fairy floss, with a sweet line in naughty humour, a nice message about friendship, an energetic Midler, and a cameo by Michael Bolton. What more could you possibly want?

The ailing quality of recent Marvel superhero films is redeemed somewhat by Deadpool & Wolverine, with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman teaming up for a pretty funny adventure as they try to save their world from oblivion.

The story involves the usual guff about multiverses, little of which makes much sense, though that matters not. D&W is mega-sized mulch with characters from other Marvel films popping in as Reynolds fires off a seemingly endless stream of very juvenile jokes about genitalia.

Brilliant it ain’t, but it hits the mark well enough as a good throwaway spectacle.

In the stylish, absorbing cop thriller Sleeping Dogs Russell Crowe is at his scowling best as Roy Freeman, an ageing ex-detective who is undergoing experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s.

The impending execution of a convicted killer who insists he is innocent prompts Freeman to reopen a cold case about the murder of a promiscuous academic (now there are two words you don’t often see together).

A slow-burn thriller with a very strong plot and a terrific finale, the film has plenty of noir touches as Crowe makes up for some of the junk he’s headlined of late.

The current run of top horror films continues with the aptly titled Canadian shocker In a Violent Nature.

Set deep in the pretty Canadian woods a group of youngsters is set upon by a beastly gent who has arisen from the grave when they disturb his resting place.

This could so easily have been a conventional slice of schlock, yet what sets it apart is the inventive manner in which all the usual cliches have been either reworked or avoided entirely. There’s no creepy music, for instance, and even the scenes of gruesome gore are unique. Genre fans will absolutely love it.

Life on Earth is in trouble yet again in Arcadian, the latest movie to demonstrate just how popular the post-apocalypse is to filmmakers.

Germ-carrying aliens have descended to make things difficult for humans, in particular Nicolas Cage and his two teenage sons who live on a self-sufficient farm.

Their home is well-barricaded as each night the spidery extra-terrestrials come around trying to break in.

One of the lads falls for the girl living on a neighbouring farm, but those pesky critters from yonder make his first romantic encounter bumpier than most.

Underpinning all the creature action is the story of a father trying to teach his kids responsibility.

As with all protective fathers, he also instructs them on how best to sidestep getting chewed upon by aliens, who invariably arrive on Earth feeling peckish.

Good movie. Only 90 minutes. Catch it on Stan.

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