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This ensemble road trip comedy of errors is the sophomore effort from writer/director David O. Russell (Three Kings, Silver Linings Playbook), and stars an impressive troupe of actors who make the whole film feel wondrously improvised. Ben Stiller plays a new father who is searching for his biological birth parents. When an adoption agency rep (Tea Leoni) believes she has located them, Stiller and his wife (Patricia Arquette) begin what turns out to be a doomed cross-country road trip full of false hopes, temptation, and destruction of government property. Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal play Stiller’s highly neurotic adoptive parents, while Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin play the counter-culture biological parents — and I’d be tempted to say these four actors almost steal the show. But Flirting With Disaster is full of incredible performances. You also get Richard Jenkins and Josh Brolin as a pair of government agents looking to adopt a kid of their own, and David Patrick Kelly and Celia Weston as two possible birth parents who turn out to be red herrings.

Russell keeps Flirting With Disaster feeling fresh and spontaneous, so the comedy never feels forced or contrived — it all feels like it’s happening in real time, right before your eyes. He also makes terrific use of hand-held camera work and an eclectic soundtrack featuring a pair of songs from Southern Culture on the Skids and a quirky whistle-driven score by Stephen Endelman.

I dislike most comedies, but this is one of my very favorites. I saw it five times during its original theatrical release and have probably watched once or twice a year since then. Whether its re-living Mary Tyler Moore’s mispronunciation of the biological parents’ name (“The Shit-Kings?!?”) or watching Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin try to help Richard Jenkins through an accidental acid trip, Flirting With Disaster just keeps getting better and better.