Parents' Guide to The Family McMullen

This breezy, if unnecessary, sequel reunites several familiar faces from the 1995 indie darling. Burns' The Brothers McMullen was the very first Fox Searchlight film, cost just $25,000 to make, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, launched Burns on the road to stardom, and ultimately grossed nearly $20 million worldwide. Three decades later, The Family McMullen feels more like a special holiday episode of a prestige TV drama than a feature film. Still, for fans of the original, it's worth watching to see what became of the titular brothers. The family has endured more tragedy: Jack, the oldest brother, has died, while the remaining brothers are now separated (Patrick) or twice-divorced (Barry) with kids.

The new generation is represented mainly in the form of Barry's two adult children, even though Patrick also has unseen grown kids. Tommy and Patty are charmingly portrayed by Alexander and Sage, respectively. Everyone gets a romantic arc, makes jokes about middle age, and has a modest happily ever after. Burns clearly loves the characters who launched his career, and they still talk like an authentic New York extended family. (They're so close, in fact, that an aunt actively encourages her niece to have more sexual experiences before committing to marriage with her kind but bland law school boyfriend.) Tracee Ellis Ross and Juliana Canfield are welcome additions as Nina and Karen Martin, a mother and daughter who each become involved with a McMullen, and Shari Albert returns as Patrick's ex-girlfriend from the first film, now divorced and open to reconnecting. In the end, like its predecessor, this is a quiet but entertaining dramedy about a bickering, ride-or-die family.