General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Ezra (2024 film)

Ezra is a 2024 American comedy-drama directed by Tony Goldwyn and written by Tony Spiridakis, about a stand-up comedian who takes his 11-year-old autistic son on a cross-country road trip without permission, in effect kidnapping him, while facing decisions about the boy's schooling and medication.¹^•² It stars Bobby Cannavale, Robert De Niro, Rose Byrne, William A. Fitzgerald, Vera Farmiga, Rainn Wilson, and Whoopi Goldberg, with Goldwyn also appearing in a supporting role.¹

Key fact	Detail
Director / writer	Tony Goldwyn; screenplay by Tony Spiridakis¹
Lead cast	Bobby Cannavale (Max Bernal), William A. Fitzgerald (Ezra), Robert De Niro (Stan), Rose Byrne (Jenna)³
Premiere	September 9, 2023, Toronto International Film Festival⁴
Theatrical release	May 31, 2024, wide, distributed by Bleecker Street¹
Runtime / rating	100 minutes; R for language, some sexual references and drug use⁵
Box office	$2,631,451 domestic; $3,325,472 worldwide⁵
Reception	69% on Rotten Tomatoes (98 reviews); Metascore 57 (mixed or average)¹^•⁶

Spoilers

Plot

Max Bernal (Cannavale) is a former late-night comedy writer turned stand-up comic who, after blowing up his career and his marriage, lives with his father Stan (De Niro). He co-parents his autistic son Ezra (Fitzgerald) with his ex-wife Jenna (Byrne), and the two disagree sharply about how to address the boy's needs.¹^•⁵

After an incident in which Ezra is frightened by a dog in front of a taxi and will not explain himself, his doctor, weighing earlier outbursts at school, moves him to a special-needs school with medication. Max protests, punches the doctor, and receives a three-month restraining order barring him from his son.⁷ When Ezra is expelled from yet another school, Max takes him in the middle of the night and sets out cross-country, partly drawn by an upcoming audition for Jimmy Kimmel on the West Coast; the film treats the trip as a kidnapping and relies on that danger for dramatic tension.⁵^•²^•³

Production

Goldwyn and Spiridakis met in 1981 as aspiring actors at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts and have remained close; Goldwyn, who had read several drafts of the screenplay over the years, signed on to direct in 2021.⁸ The story is deeply personal for Spiridakis, who wrote it based on his own experiences raising his autistic son Dimitri, and on realizing he had to let go of trying to "fix" him.⁸^•³

Authentic casting. The production was adamant about casting an actor with autism in the title role and hiring cast and crew members with personal experience of neurodivergence. William A. Fitzgerald, an autistic actor, makes his film debut as Ezra, and there was never a question of hiring a neurotypical child for the part. The team consulted Alex Plank, founder of WrongPlanet.net, and acting coach Elaine Hall, creator of the Miracle Project, screened versions of the film for autism community groups for feedback, and employed autistic crew members on set.⁸^•³^•⁷

Filming took place in New Jersey, with locations there standing in for Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, and Utah.⁹

Release

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2023.⁴ Bleecker Street released it wide in the United States on May 31, 2024, on about 1,320 screens, and it opened to $1,242,678, 47.2 percent of its eventual domestic gross.¹^•⁵ It reached digital platforms on June 25, 2024.¹ International releases included the Netherlands (May 31), Russia under the title Папа and Croatia (June 13), Australia (August 1), and Brazil as Meu filho, nosso mundo (August 15).⁵

Reception

Critical response was mixed to positive. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds 69 percent from 98 reviews, with a critics consensus that good performances give it "a resonant emotional core even when its script strains credulity"; its Metascore is 57, in the mixed-or-average band.¹^•⁶ Reviewers repeatedly singled out the acting. The Los Angeles Times found each character choice plausible because it comes from emotional honesty in both script and performances,² and the New York Times credited the chemistry between Cannavale and Fitzgerald, who "build a bond worth cherishing."⁶ Common criticisms targeted the script: the Guardian called the road movie sappy and didactic, and Slant Magazine wrote that the film stalls out on pat storytelling.¹^•⁶ Audience response was warmer, at 92 percent on the Popcornmeter.¹

Portrayal of autism

Commentators placed the film in the lineage of autism dramas beginning with Rain Man (1988). Common Sense Media noted the similarity of the abduction-and-road-trip premise but argued the destination differs: both Max and Ezra learn when and how to use self-control, and that loving someone can mean ceding control.¹⁰ Writing in The Jerusalem Post, Hannah Brown called the film a nuanced, realistic look at a boy with autism and his family that tells truths Rain Man glossed over.¹¹ The film depicts recognizable autistic traits, including intense sensitivity to taste, texture, and touch, avoidance of eye contact, and unflinching honesty, alongside management techniques such as flash cards and sensory brushes, and it frames the central parental question as whether to medicate or to accept the child as he is.¹⁰^•¹²

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026