Anthony Russo

In Arrested Development (2003), the handheld camera has a crowded family to keep up with. Anthony Russo's feel for ensembles suits a comedy in which overlapping stories and performances ask us to pay attention. We laughed at the Bluths, and enjoyed having to keep up: the overlapping stories let the performers reward close attention. Russo directed the pilot and further episodes, helping establish the programme's approach without being responsible for everything that followed.

The storytelling can become tiring, particularly in the later stretches, but we still find the Bluths worth the trouble. That is praise for the series as a whole, and it would be careless to assign all of it to a director whose clearest contribution was at the beginning. What matters for Russo is the habit of attending to several characters at once, which runs through his later work. He and his brother and co-director Joe also adapt their approach to the way individual actors work. That seems more useful than expecting everyone to arrive at a scene by the same route.

The route from Pieces (1997) and Welcome to Collinwood (2002) through television led to Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Its thriller influences gave the superhero action a physical impact, with character helping determine the action beats. Regular collaborators include screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, a useful reminder that the writers share responsibility for keeping these characters interesting. By Avengers: Endgame (2019), keeping a large cast and its relationships clear had become central to the brothers' appeal.

The films after Endgame make a less persuasive case for Russo. The Electric State (2025) is short of fresh ideas and the spark that makes the comedy worth following. That leaves us cautious about treating his ability to handle a large cast as a recommendation in itself. Start with the Bluths, and give the actors as much attention as the plotting demands.