Griffin Dunne finds truth in low-key father-sons dramedy Ex-Husbands

Pritzker has one previous feature credit as a director, 2015’s Quitters, which also unpacked familial tumult—albeit chiefly from the perspective of a teenager seeking a stability not afforded him at home.

Here, Pritzker expands his canvas. He also cannily sets expectations early, having Nick describe watching an experimental film and the dawning realization of it being driven by vibes more than plot, and equating that with his own current station in life. It’s a description which works on a character level (Nick is 35, stuck in a professional rut, and diagnosed with “double depression”), but also a nod to the audience that Ex-Husbands itself is more invested in small moments of observation and reflection than narrative dynamism.

Among these bits and beats: Peter’s chance encounter with a former patient (John Ventimiglia), which affirms a single life he doesn’t want. There’s a great scene in which Peter bonds with Otto (Nate Mann), a young man in town to be wed, sharing an anecdote from his wild youth. Later, it makes total sense that (a drunken) Otto would insist Peter take him sightseeing at the local ruins—only to no-show in the morning, leaving Peter to spend time with the bride-to-be’s godmother, Eileen (Eisa Davis). Illuminating, too, is a brief sequence in which Nick’s friends privately share thoughts on his break-up.

Individually and collectively, these scenes wander afield from the premise the film’s set-up might seemingly augur. Yet they not only enrich the movie as a whole, but smartly color and shade our view of how these men view the world, and how they are seen by others.

Not every moment lands. Nick’s blurted disclosure of his break-up to his father comes at an unconvincing moment, and a hook-up for Mickey comes across as contrived, even if its payoff later gives him a moment of earned reflection. But Pritzker has a nice touch with conversational patter that can be amusing without feeling forced (“Not taking meds in the 21st century feels like not using an iPhone just to try to prove a point,” opines one character). When he takes the movie back stateside for the last 20-plus minutes, it’s momentarily surprising, like we’re leaving Tulum with unfinished business. But it’s a smart play, pushing the characters back into lives on which they’d momentarily pressed pause.

If the movie’s budgetary constraints seem to feed a lack of imagination in its visual vocabulary, its basic stagings at least communicate a certain assurance. Avoiding manipulative close-ups, Nick’s confession to Mickey about his relationship ending unfolds in the half-dark, with a nice mix of resignation and self-awareness. A sequence in which Nick listens on voicemail to a draft letter to friends and family explaining the wedding’s cancellation makes evocative, subtle use of time-lapse framing, something that can easily come off as gimmicky in less skilled hands.

Ex-Husbands understands that uncertainty, rather than knowledge, ultimately drives our lives, both animating and connecting us. Is it “funny,” really? No. Is it searingly dramatic in a way that pulls at your heartstrings? No. And yet it possesses an undeniable authenticity, wrapping its arms around a truth most movies avoid: there’s no such thing as absolute certainty in life.

Director: Noah Pritzker
Writer: Noah Pritzker
Starring: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Richard Benjamin, Miles Heizer, James Norton
Release Date: February 21, 2025