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THE RENTAL: Scarebnb

24 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by cinepam in Reviews

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Alison Brie, Dan Stevens, Dave Franco, Jeremy Allen White, Joe Swanberg, Sheila Vand, The Rental, Toby Huss

Rental_AR_05.23.19_234.ARW

Rental_AR_05.23.19_234.ARW

There is such a thing as “too good to be true.” That is the terrain actor-turned-director Dave Franco explores in his feature directing debut, The Rental, a chameleon of a film that morphs from relationship drama to edge-of-your-seat thriller in a compact 88 minutes. What The Shining did for isolated mountain lodges, The Rental stands to do for luxury home shares. Be afraid, very afraid of what might be lurking just below sleek surfaces and a host’s five-star rating.

The house is huge, really too big for two couples, Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Michelle (Alison Brie), and Charlie’s brother, Josh (Jeremy Allen White), and Mina (Sheila Vand), on a short weekend getaway. But the home’s beauty and its placement on a bluff overlooking the ocean are the perfect backdrop for the celebration of business partners Charlie and Mina’s latest success. At least, that is the theory.

Mina’s immediate dislike of Taylor (Toby Huss), the property’s caretaker, and faint but evident fissures in both couples’ relationships cast discreet shadows over the trip, but part of the beauty of the script that Franco wrote with mumblecore veteran Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas) is that he spins a yarn where the audience is far more clued in than the characters.

The weekend never quite goes as either couple plans – Michelle is on a different wavelength than everyone else when it comes to having fun, Charlie and Mina both have reasons to question their relationships, and  Josh has a troubled past that affects his relationships with his sibling and his girlfriend. So far, so mundane, but Franco privileges the viewer with another point of view, one that hints of malevolence in the offing, Someone is watching. The question that hovers is whether the trouble in the offing will come from within or outside of the house?

Performances are uniformly excellent, even if it is hard to work up much sympathy for characters that are whiny, entitled, and sometimes downright awful. The plot is set at a low simmer, only coming to a full boil in the last half hour or so. The sedate tempo, Danny Bensi and Saunder Juriians’ eerie score, and the pea-soup fog that surrounds the house at night blend into a menacing atmosphere. The tension slowly ratchets up until at last the house reveals its horrifying secrets. For this sleek, suspenseful film’s director, it is quite a calling card. –Pam Grady

The Rental is playing in drive-ins, theaters, and digital and cable VOD platforms.

 

 

 

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Review: A very HAPPY CHRISTMAS

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by cinepam in Reviews

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Anna Kendrick, Happy Christmas, Joe Swanberg, Lena Dunham, Mark Webber, Melanie Lynskey

Happy christmas

Chaos arrives in a petite package in Happy Christmas, the latest improvisational dramedy from indie auteur Joe Swanberg that is currently in theaters and VOD. The filmmaker himself stars in one of his finest movies to date as a man not unlike himself, a married father and movie director, who welcomes his little sister into his home after her latest breakup, her Yuletide visit creating a stir far beyond merely breaking up the household routine. Populated by a nimble cast, this fresh, funny look at family life is a charmer.

Jenny (Anna Kendrick) is a mess when she arrives on Jeff (Swanberg) and Kelly’s (Melanie Lynskey) Chicago doorstep, as she embarrasses best friend Carson (Lena Dunham) with her behavior at a party her first night in town, blows off a promise to babysit Jeff and Kelly’s toddler son Jude (Jude Swanberg, Joe’s own ultra-adorable child), and tries to rebound into a new relationship with amiable pot dealer/babysitter Kevin (Mark Webber). But it’s Jenny’s presence that also spurs Kelly, a novelist turned stay-at-home mom, to realize that it’s time to reclaim that part of her life again.

Happy Christmas makes astute observations about how families works, both on a sibling level and in couples. Jeff clearly adores his baby sister and has probably been acting as her protector since they were children. But where he once might have protected her from bullies on the playground, he now offers a soft landing for one of life’s emotional blows. That may not be the best thing for her, since she takes it as tacit permission to act out. At the same time, as Jeff and Kelly find themselves in the odd position of feeling almost like Jenny’s parents instead of a brother and sister-in-law, it shakes them out of a complacency that has crept up without their awareness.

Swanberg shot Happy Christmas in his own home, including in his fabulous tiki bar basement, apparently a remnant from the original homeowner. That just adds another layer of realism to a film that plays a lot like life, only with better dialogue.—Pam Grady

San Francisco Bay Area residents: Joe Swanberg is participating in a Skype Q&A after the 7pm screening at San Francisco’s Roxie Theater on Friday, August 1. For more info, visit http://www.roxie.com.

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