Film Reviews: My Dead Friend Zoe and Ex-Husbands

‘My Dead Friend Zoe’

An Army vet is haunted by a fallen comrade.

The friendship story that writer-director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes tells in his debut feature “could easily veer into manipulative territory,” said Allegra Frank in The Daily Beast. Merit, a young Army vet played by Sonequa Martin-Green, has returned home from Afghanistan only to be haunted by the snarky ghost of her fallen best friend. But while some of the plot points emerging from that premise feel “disappointingly predictable,” the director’s obvious emotional investment in the project transforms it into “something deeper, sweeter, and funnier than it may initially seem.”

Natalie Morales, who plays the spectral Zoe, is, as always, “a welcome screen presence,” said Brian Tallerico in RogerEbert.com. Meanwhile, Ed Harris portrays Merit’s Alzheimer’s-stricken grandfather and shows again why he’s one of our greatest actors. Still, “the movie belongs to Martin-Green, who navigates truly complex emotional waters, finding beats of joy amid the pain in a way that makes both more powerful.”

Hausmann-Stokes’ affecting film “doubles as a public service message of sorts,” said Peter Debruge in Variety. The director, an Army vet himself, had two friends die of suicide after returning home, and he’s determined to raise awareness about veterans’ mental health challenges. “Don’t worry, it’s a real movie, evoking uncomfortable laughter and well-earned tears en route to its cathartic finale. Just know that the movie exists for reasons other than escapism.”

‘Ex-Husbands’

A forlorn dad crashes his son’s stag party.

Despite a premise that’d suit a 1980s sex romp, “no hijinks ensue in Ex-Husbands,” said Brent Simon in The A.V. Club. Instead, director Noah Pritzker’s sophomore feature is a bittersweet father-and-sons dramedy that doubles as “a compassionately observed collection of just-so moments.”

Griffin Dunne plays Peter Pearce, who after being served divorce papers by his wife of 35 years, books a trip to Tulum, Mexico, that puts him on the same itinerary as two adult sons heading to the older son’s bachelor getaway. The sons, played by James Norton and Miles Heizer, beg their father to stay home, not telling him that the bride-to-be has cold feet. From there on, this is a film that embraces “a truth most movies avoid: There’s no such thing as certainty in life.”

Woody Allen and John Cassavetes are clear inspirations for Pritzker, said Pete Hammond in Deadline. Though he isn’t on their level, he “manages to cast his net wider,” showing how failed relationships have plagued three generations of Pearce men, starting with Peter’s dad. Inspired by the late-in-life divorce of his own parents, Pritzker has written a script that “wells with sympathy for each character while gently noting how each of them goes awry,” said Kyle Smith in The Wall Street Journal. “More a poignant reflection than a fleshed-out story,” it does include a bit of inspired casting. Dunne and Rosanna Arquette had “delightfully off-kilter rapport” in 1985’s After Hours, and their brief reunion here is “a fond callback.”