Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman are Annie and Baxter Fang, the offspring and reluctant collaborators of Caleb and Camille Fang (Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunket). Celebrated and controversial performance artists, Caleb and Camille’s work put innocent bystanders in the midst of elaborate staged scenes that frequently featured their young children. When the elder Fangs go missing under mysterious circumstances, Annie is convinced it’s just another elaborate prank-cum-art piece, while Baxter suspects something else might be afoot. In digging into the unraveling mystery, the siblings begin to unpack long dormant and unresolved issues from their unorthodox childhoods.

Following up his delightfully raunchy debut Bad Words, Bateman turns his directorial attentions to more mature material, telling a dysfunctional family story that is at once idiosyncratic and identifiable, while never losing his distinctive sense of humor. Deeply felt and caustically funny, Bateman’s sophomore feature is an unpredictable and unique take on the dysfunctional family drama genre.

—Cara Cusumano

Directed by

Jason Bateman