Wilson

The word "bittersweet" is an unavoidable touchstone for this feisty comedy drama that stars Woody Harrelson as the titular middle-aged social outcast, who views the world around him with thinly veiled disdain. However, his cosy corner of contempt is breached when he discovers his long-gone bride gave birth to a daughter (now a teenager) that she kept secret until now, meaning there's someone else on the planet he should, feasibly, care about. Stories about misfit curmudgeons having their hard hearts mellowed by contact with the younger generation are plentiful (think Bill Murray in 2014's St Vincent), but what gives Wilson a slight edge is the zippy interplay between Harrelson and Laura Dern as his estranged wife, a comedic rhythm that helps paper over the occasional cracks in the script. Adapted by Daniel Clowes from his own graphic novel, the film contains the sort of misanthropic characters familiar to fans of the writer's earlier Ghost World - that is people with whom we don't mind spending 90 minutes, but wouldn't want to meet every day.