by Gill Pringle at the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival

In this bittersweet story about a father-and-sons, Griffin Dunne’s New York dentist is sent into freefall as he finds himself – squarely in middle-age – at the centre of three generations of divorced men.

It’s the kind of film that is more commonly told through the female lens, and festivalgoers applauded heartily when this traditional genre was flipped so sensitively to the male viewpoint.

Pritzker’s second feature after his 2015 drama Quitters, he began working on the screenplay prior to the pandemic, taking inspiration from his own parents’ divorce, as well as his father’s request to attend Pritzker’s brother’s bachelor party in Tulum, Mexico – an offer that was firmly rejected.

“There was a running joke throughout the trip: ‘is he gonna show up?’ He didn’t show up,” recalls the filmmaker.

“But that’s when I started thinking about this idea of the father showing up and I liked the idea that there’s something sweeter in how he doesn’t crash it entirely. He’s kind of on his own vacation and living up to what he’s promised. But I think on some level, we know he went there to be close to his boys.”

Like his own brother’s bachelor party, Pritzker decided to set Nick [James Norton]’s bachelor party also in Tulum – a destination which also served to help all of the cast bond. “I just thought Tulum was a fascinating place. That this once incredibly low-fi untouched beach is now a party place. And also, in keeping with this conflict of sensitivity and masculinity, Tulum offered this interesting paradox of a place where you go for yoga, but you also go to party. It’s sort of spiritual, but it’s also been corrupted and there’s condos everywhere now and it just seemed like there was something interesting and bizarre about it that felt specific enough to work in this universe – this movie wouldn’t work in Las Vegas. It would be a completely different film,” he says.

But Pritzker’s parents’ own divorce certainly served as the film’s catapult: “My parents divorced after having been married for a very long time. I was thinking about my family coming apart while trying to make one myself,” says the writer/director who has since married and is now a father of two himself.

“And then I started reading the script and found that it actually turned into this much more tender movie about fathers and sons at an interesting moment where fathers are still trying to be fathers to their sons, even though they’re now a grown man,” explains Pritzker.

A Director and his Cast: Griffin Dunne, Simon Van Buyten, Noah Pritzker, James Norton, Miles Heizer, Pedro Fontaine, Zora Casebere. Photo by Jorge Fuembuena

“I showed the script to Griffin [Dunne] and was lucky that he responded to it. And the more time I spent with him ahead of the project – we were waylaid by a pandemic – we became buddies in the process. I just really loved working with Griffin and the whole cast that came together, literally, is a special one,” he says of Ex-Husbands’ line-up which includes Rosanna Arquette, Richard Benjamin, James Norton and Miles Heizer.

Dunne notes how it’s actually his 12th project with Arquette, saying, “It just made perfect sense that Rosanna would be in it. I mean, it was Noah’s call, but I was delighted. We just picked up where we left off. We’re very close friends. And now we’re playing divorced, middle-aged parents – and we just fell right into it. I love working with her.”

Ex-Husbands is co-produced by Academy Award winner Bruce Cohen (American Beauty), who is particularly proud of the film’s sensitive handling of what it means to be a young gay man coming out to his father and still trying to find common ground.

A Director and his Producers: Nicolás Celis, Alexandra Byer, Noah Pritzker, Bruce Cohen. Photo by Alex April

“What I feel is particularly fresh and exciting about this film is it’s something that you don’t see a lot and that goes to the father son relationship. One of my favourite scenes in the film was when Griffin and Miles’ characters are having that fantastic conversation on the plane on the way home,” he says referring to an awkward exchange between the pair.

“As an openly LGBTQ producer, who spent a lot of my career telling these stories, I’m very proud of the LGBTQ representation in this film. I love that scene in particular, I think it’s something you really haven’t seen before where, on the one hand, Peter [Dunne] is trying to be this very powerful, very loving, supportive father and, at the same time, we’re having a conversation that a father and son really should never have. I love the tension in that scene,” says Cohen who has co-produced such memorable films as Silver Linings Playbook, Milk and The Forgotten, with his next highly anticipated film being Zoe Kravitz’s Pussy Island.

“I think that Noah, Griffin, James and Miles have delivered a very beautiful, complicated, nuanced take at masculinity from a lot of different angles,” he says.

Clearly all buzzing to have their film at San Sebastián – where the filmmakers are reliant on capturing overseas buyers – Dunne first went to SAG to receive his union’s blessing. “I wouldn’t have done it without dealing with my union first. I wrote directly to SAG and asked their permission. And they recognised that this film did not have a distributor and was independently financed and really wasn’t particularly relevant to the major issues that they were negotiating for. So, after I had their blessing, I’m thrilled to be here,” he says.

Like all his colleagues, he shares the pain of his colleagues who are all currently struggling. “I’ve been out of work for periods of time before, so I am familiar with that neurosis, but it’s been really tough for younger actors and actors who, you know, are more journeyman, who live on parts from one series to the next. A lot of actors are really hurting. So hopefully, it will get resolved soon,” he told FilmInk on the eve of the WGA reaching an agreement – a result which many in the industry hope will pave the way for renewed talks with SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP.

Main Photo: Jorge Fuembuena
Costume change by Miles Heizer. Photo by Gari Garaialde
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