Ithaca

This impressively staged and beautifully shot (at times it feels like a moving Norman Rockwell painting) adaptation of William Saroyan's novel The Human Comedy marks Meg Ryan's directorial debut. Its coming-of-age story follows 14 year-old Homer (Alex Neustaedter) as he starts delivering telegrams in the early 1940s, with his breezy life changing as he has to start delivering bad news. Tom Hanks and Sam Shepard contribute telling cameos. (Edinburgh International Film Festival)