“There were hundreds of movies made in the ’90s about Generation X,” says Ed Burns. He should know: As the writer-director of “The Brothers McMullen,” “She’s the One” and “No Looking Back,” he was the one who made them. After 30 years and a lot of growing up, he’s drawing fresh from that well for his 14th film, “Millers in Marriage,” the story of three siblings navigating life and love — no longer as angsty, unproven twentysomethings but as adults now teetering on the brink of middle age.

"The coming-of-age stories we did in our 20s and 30s were character-driven looks at relationships and careers," Burns tells Variety. "But now I'm in my mid-50s, and I thought of that time as a different coming-of-age moment."

In the film, which will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Burns plays an artist who begins a romance with a former colleague (Minnie Driver) of his ex-wife (Morena Baccarin); Juliana Margulies plays one of his sisters, a writer whose success eclipses that of her husband (Campbell Scott); and Gretchen Mol plays the other, a former singer-songwriter struggling with a domineering, alcoholic partner (Patrick Wilson).

Burns insists that he rarely draws too much inspiration from his own experiences, but as excited as he was to explore the larger, existential challenges of adult life with a capital A, he admits that some of the dilemmas his characters faced hit closer to home than others. "I was excited that we didn't have a movie about ourselves in relation to the 'smallness' of real life," he recalls. "Do you have anything left to say? Does anyone care? Am I still relevant? Is it time for a fresh start or are you just kind of sitting it out?"