Two weddings, one double booking and a series of cliches are the order of the day in Nicholas Stoller’s Bride Wars-lite comedy

Any film combining the comedy talents of Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon is unlikely to be entirely terrible. That said, the wildly uneven wedding clash comedy You’re Cordially Invited is certainly in the vicinity of terrible on numerous occasions. Ferrell plays Jim, the smothering, widowed dad of Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan); Witherspoon is Margot, the overprotective older sister of Neve, played by Meredith Hagner. When, due to an administrative snafu, Jenni’s and Neve’s weddings are double booked at the same venue, Jim and Margot are determined that their loved ones will still get their day to remember, no matter the cost to the rival party or to personal dignity. Wedding catastrophe cliches abound (cakes, hair and frocks take the brunt of the physical comedy). Ferrell’s crocodile wrestling scene notwithstanding, this just feels like a Bride Wars rip-off without the bite.

On Amazon Prime Video

Playing a raging but inwardly terrified housewife, the actor and a fine supporting cast are the intense focus of a story that cries out for closure

Anyone who has ever heard the director Mike Leigh interviewed will know that he is not a man who is given to enthusiasm. He doesn’t effuse; rather he growls, a bristly, whiskery warning to the world to keep its distance. Listening to him, you could be forgiven for assuming that, with a career spanning more than half a century, seven Oscar nominations, a Cannes Palme d’Or (for Secrets & Lies) and a Venice Golden Lion (for Vera Drake), Leigh is not much of a fan of anything to do with the film industry. But then you watch one of his films – his latest, Hard Truths, for example – and it becomes clear that there is one passion that remains undimmed over the years, one thing that he cherishes above all others. And that is actors and their craft.

The British director has a distinctive way of working that amplifies and embraces the contribution of his cast. This is not just a case of handing an actor a few inert lines on page and hoping for the best. His films are born out of an extended process of workshopping and rehearsals. Dialogue is chewed over; characters are fully lived in; stories are grown out of the fertile collaboration between director and performers. It’s a way of working that has pros and cons for the final film, but what’s undeniable is that Leigh’s method has helped give birth to some viscerally powerful performances over the years, the latest of which is a quite remarkable Bafta-nominated, British independent film awards-winning turn from Marianne Jean-Baptiste in the central role of housewife Pansy.

Reliving the chaotic 90 minutes running up to launch of Saturday Night Live in 1975, Jason Reitman’s film delivers infectious energy minus the requisite edge

The behind-the-scenes drama, the high-stakes potential for disaster, the tussling egos, the promise of cultural impact or risk of ignominy: it’s not surprising that live television holds an enduring fascination for film-makers. For the most part, however, it has been news events and weighty current affairs programmes that get the big screen treatment, in films such as Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck, and the excellent forthcoming September 5, by Tim Fehlbaum.

Jason Reitman’s latest picture, Saturday Night, argues that comedy can make history too, particularly if, as in the case of the very first edition of Saturday Night Live, the cast are fighting, the green room is awash with cocaine, the studio heads are threatening to pull the plug, and there’s a llama backstage and nobody can remember why.

In UK and Irish cinemas