Directed by Carl Bessai. Starring Benjamin Ratner, Jay Brazeau, Blu Mankuma, and Manoj Sood. Rated 14A.

After directing many hand-wringing dramas, Vancouver filmmaker Carl Bessai loosens the reins to satisfying effect in an ensemble comedy that also serves as a showcase for some of our best acting talent.

Following the format of his Mothers & Daughters, from 2008, and to be echoed by Sisters & Brothers, now in production, Bessai gives us four barely overlapping stories of relatives in various stages of family crisis.

The most unpredictable chapter has Benjamin Ratner as a volatile teacher whose mother must die before he meets his birth father, a Russian reprobate played hysterically by Jay Brazeau. The wackiest follows a strait-laced Indo-Canadian (Stephen Lobo) whose impending wedding is greatly, um, enhanced by the arrival of his dad, a flamboyantly gay Bollywood choreographer (Little Mosque on the Prairie’s Manoj Sood).

There are few laughs in the sober tale of a public-minded musician (Blu Mankuma) whose angry son (Viv Leacock) wonders why pops has lavished his attention on the community instead of him. And the most complicated revolves around a patriarch who’s no longer around. In fact, dealing with the consequences of this strong-armed fellow’s demise is the cause of considerable conflict (most of it quite amusing) between four brothers who are already the victims of a divide-and-conquer approach to family life.

Tyler Labine and Tom Scholte stand out as a semi-successful actor and a loudmouthed dreamer, respectively, and their squabbles sometimes drown out the family man (Vincent Gale) who has walked away and the new-age searcher (Hrothgar Matthews) who still lives in dad’s house.

Despite a few missed opportunities, the improv is sharp and funny, and there’s some nice support work from the ladies. Babz Chula makes her last appearance as the Ratner character’s understanding auntie. No Aunts & Uncles on the horizon, sadly.