: Instead of endless sabotage, we see a push toward maturity. In Marvel's Ant-Man , the protagonist, his ex-wife, and her new husband eventually form a highly supportive, united front for the sake of their daughter, defying the standard bitter ex-husband trope. 2. The Slow Burn of Step-Sibling Bonds

The films that succeed are those that refuse easy catharsis. They leave us with a family sitting around a holiday table that has two types of china, three versions of the same story about the old house, and a silence where a missing parent’s name hangs unspoken. They show teenagers rolling their eyes at a new step-sibling’s music, then later lending them a jacket. They show ex-spouses signing school forms in separate pens.