Rental Family

Posted on November 20, 2025 at 8:54 pm

A-

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some strong language, and suggestive material
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	Sad death, family conflicts
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	November 21, 2025

“Rental Family” written and directed by a Japanese woman who goes by the mononym Hikiri, is one of the most heartwarming and humane films of the year, with wise and touching insights into the connections that make life meaningful and the fear of being hurt that holds us back from trusting each other. It is a festival favorite, with audience awards that include a narrative feature award at the Middleburg Film Festival.

Brendan Fraser plays Phillip, an American actor who is adrift in Japan, still living there years after his most popular role in a toothpaste commercial. His most recent role was a tree. He lives in a tiny apartment, eating take-out dinner and looking at the neighbors in the high rise across the street, “Rear Window”-style and has occasional encounters with a sex worker, to have some semblance of human contact.

His agent calls him with an offer. All he knows about the part he is to play is “sad American.” He discovers that it is not the kind of performance he is used to. He is a fake mourner at a fake funeral the fake corpse has purchased to see if the affection and respect he might get after his death is enough to make him want to continue to live.

In the US, if someone is having suicidal thoughts, we would expect them to see a psychotherapist or other counselor. But in Japan, where cognitive therapy and other psychological resources are not as accepted or available, an alternative has served the same purpose: “rental” family members to do what their customers wish they could get from the people in their lives. It’s not as different as we might think, especially in the emerging opportunities of parasocial and AI “relationships.”

Just as a therapist can sometimes be a stand-in for characters who create conflicts in the life of a patient, the rental family can be a way of accessing the support or even the conversations that a struggling person wishes for.

At first, Phillip turns down an offer to join a rental family company. But the money is good and it is kind of an acting job. His first “role” is fiancé to a young woman who needs a Caucasian man from North America she will call Brian to go through a wedding ceremony with her so she does not have to tell her parents the real reason she is moving to Canada. Then he has to pretend to be the father of a young girl who needs both parents to apply to a special school.

Each of his jobs begins to open up a part of him that he did not realize he had closed off. The sympathetic sex worker (who makes a delightful surprise appearance in another context later on), is only half teasing when she tells him they have the same job, paid intimacy. Phillip cannot help first being interested, then concerned, then invested, and then committed to the people he is being paid by. This is ideal casting for Fraser, uncomfortably large among the much smaller Japanese, his deep, expressive eyes showing us the way he slips from closely observing for “yes, and” improv-style purposes to finding depths of compassion and connection. His scenes with the little girl are endearingly natural, and the look on his face when the initially hostile and wary child falls asleep with her head on his shoulder is infinitely moving. This is a lovely tribute to the people who pretend to be part of someone’s family and an even lovelier one to the people who take the risk of letting themselves truly connect.

Parents should know that this film includes a sad death, some strong language, a non-explicit sexual situation with a sex worker, drinking, and smoking.

Family discussion: Which job was the most difficult for Phillip and why? What do people get from renting someone to be their family or friend?

If you like this, try: the Japanese film “Departures” and “Local Hero”

Good Fortune

Posted on October 16, 2025 at 7:44 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language and some drug use
Profanity:	Very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, smoking, drugs
Violence/ Scariness:	Comic peril, no one hurt
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	October 17, 2025

If you could trade places with someone, who would it be? Going back to Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper (this is the best movie version), the idea of switching lives with someone who seems to have a more comfortable, secure, happier existence has been an appealing fantasy. The stories usually end with the discovery that the original life was better, harking back to the old Indian aphorism that you should never judge someone until you have walked in his moccasins. We’ve seen that play out in Hallmark movies (the “Princess Switch” trilogy and “Switched for Christmas”), with focus on family in “Freaky Friday” and all of its many remakes and variations, and, sometimes with more commentary on class and economic issues, as in “Trading Places.”

Aziz Ansari’s “Good Fortune” draws from all of the above with a smart, fresh, and funny take on the switched lives fantasy that has some punch in its depiction of the gig economy, the people who struggle with it and the people who profit from it.

Keanu Reeves is well cast as an angel named Gabriel, first seen in a nod to Wim Wnders’ “Wings of Desire” as he stands on top of a skyscraper, gazing down at humanity with a serious but patient and benign expression.

While other angels are responsible for big, life-changing, highly satisfying tasks, like showing a despondent man the value of his life (Stephen McKinley Henderson as Azrael), Gabriel is relegated to “texting while driving” duty. All he does is ride invisibly in the back seat of cars and touch the shoulder of the texting drivers to remind them to pay attention. He may be saving their lives but he is not involved in their lives. He complains to his supervisor, Martha (Sandra Oh) that he wants to save lost souls, but she tells him that is a complicated and demanding task and he, with the small wings of a trainee, is not ready.

Writer-director Ansari plays Arj, living in his car as he tries to stay afloat with an assortment of gig jobs, assembling furniture, waiting in line, delivering food. He lies to his father about having a new apartment as his father tells him about the success of his cousin Nuveen who works for Microsoft.

A wealthy venture capitalist named Jeff (Seth Rogen) hires Arj to clean up his garage. Arj offers to stay on as his assistant, and Jeff agrees to a one-week trial. It goes very well at first but when something goes wrong, Jeff fires Arj.

Gabriel, who has been watching Arj, decides that he has found a lost soul. And he decides that the way to make Arj appreciate all he has to live for is to switch him with Jeff. Martha asks what Gabriel is doing, and he says, “I tried to show him that wealth wouldn’t solve all his problems. It seems to have solved most of his problems.” Arj is having the time of his live in Jeff’s fabulous house and also enjoying Jeff’s having to learn what it’s like at the bottom of the socio-economic hierarchy.

We get to enjoy our own wish fulfillment on both counts, and the movie is packed with jokes that are shrewd as well as hilarious, with specifics about the details on both sides. Ansari’s range as an actor is limited but he mitigates that by writing around those limits. Rogen keeps getting better and Reeves is well cast, especially when Martha takes his wings and makes him a human, so he gets to try human pleasures like burgers, milkshakes, “chicken buggies,” and dancing for the first time. Reeves can have a blank quality that works very well in roles like John Wick, Neo, and Ted Logan. Here, though looking gaunt with his beard and long hair, it helps convey Gabriel’s innocence. The three of them have excellent chemistry. And there is the always-wonderful Keke Palmer, bringing endless warmth, grace, and good humor to give life to an underwritten role as a big-hearted co-worker who wants to organize a union and becomes Arj’s love interest.

This movie reminded me of Ken Loach’s “Sorry We Missed You,” a devastating look at the corrosive, dehumanizing, exploitive impact of the gig economy, with its faux “you’ll be our partner, not an employee” bait and switch. This film has the same impact, taking on the small indignities, dispiriting invisibility, and shattering hopelessness of the working poor with the same specificity in a highly comic fantasy/comedy. Ansari wants to make us laugh because he likes being funny, but he also wants to make us laugh because he knows that is how unsettling realities bypass our defenses.

Parents should know that this film has very strong language, smoking, drinking, and drugs.

Family discussion: What did Arj learn from living Jeff’s life? Who would you like to trade places with? What should qualify an angel for a higher-level responsibility?

If you like this, try: “Here Comes Mr. Jordan”

The Italians

Posted on April 10, 2025 at 5:58 pm

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Not rated
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	A scuffle, sad death
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	April 11, 2025

“The Italians” is a messy movie about a messy family. It begins as farce and ends as, well, no spoilers but it ends as something more serious.

Director Michelle Danner stars as Angelina, a middle-aged mother of Nico (Matthew Daddario) and wife of Vincenzo (Rob Estes). She is very Italian. Exaggeratedly Italian. Meaning that she has very strong views and is very open about expressing them: everyone should be Italian, Italians should only marry church-going, previously unmarried Italians who are eager to have babies, and feeding everyone Italian food is much more important than having conversations about feelings or finding compromise. Even her husband calls Angelina sterotypical.

The movie begins with Nico, Angelina, and Vincenzo going to confession with Father Joe (Luca Riemma). They begin to tell him the story we will soon see unfolding, about two family dinners.

The first is when Nico brings his girlfriend, Lily (Abigail Breslin) to meet his parents. She is not what Angelina had in mind. She is not Italian. She is an atheist. More disturbing, she does not eat meat, she has been married before, and she is not sure whether she wants to have children. All of a sudden, a previous girlfriend of Nico’s, known in the family as Geena the Hyena (Olivia Luccardi) for her loud, honking laugh, is looking better. At least, she is Italian. Angelina invites her to the second dinner without telling Nico. Things go even more badly, and Lily leaves in the middle of the meal.

The Italians trailer

We think we know where we are at this point, a relatable romantic comedy about culture clash and family pressure. But even with the flashback from the confession booth structure and the heightened tone, it never captures the rhythms of comedy and lurches when it should zip. The actors seems to be in different movies; their performances are tonally out of synch.

And then the movie shifts in subject and tone to focus on marital issues between Angelina and Vincenzo and then shifts abruptly into sentimental drama. Somehow by that point we still feel connected to the family and the conclusion is genuinely touching.

Parents should know that this film includes discussions of infidelity, family conflict, and illness and a sad death.

Family discussion: Does your family blend more than one culture? If so, did it create any conflicts, big or small? If not, do family members feel pressure to stay within the culture?

If you like this, try: “Moonstruck”

Wolfs

Posted on September 19, 2024 at 5:36 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language throughout and some violent content
Profanity:	Very strong language throughout
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drug dealing, alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended crime-style violence, chases, car crashes, bloody shoot-out with many dead bodies, graphic and disturbing images
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	September 20, 2024

Two old pros play two old pros in the irresistible “Wolfs,” basically an hour and 40 minutes of George Clooney and Brad Pitt bickering plus some crime stuff (drugs, chases, shooting), and there’s nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, it is delightfully entertaining.

The title may be a callout to Wolfe, the Harvey Keitel character in “Pulp Fiction,” the fixer, the clean-up guy, the hyper-capable, unflappable character who can make even the messiest, most embarrassing, most serious, bloodiest, lock-you-up-forever or get-you-killed situation go away. We are smack dab in the middle of exactly such a situation before the credits roll. While we are looking at a winter nighttime skyline, we hear the sounds from just one penthouse hotel room, one which we will later learn goes for $10,000 a night.

It’s a very bad sound. It’s a scream of shock and pain, with shattered glass, followed by the words and gasps for breath one might imagine someone present in such a situation might say. That person is Margaret (Amy Ryan), a “law and order” prosecutor, and she is horrified to find that a young man she has invited to hotel suite has apparently accidentally killed himself by jumping off the bed and landing on the now-shattered bar cart.

After a gruesomely funny retrieval of her purse from under the body, she scrolls through her blood-spattered phone to find someone to call. There is a number with no name. Just two brackets: []. She has been told to call this number if she needs help and she has been told what to say. “I was told that if I needed help, serious help, I was to call you. There is only one man in the city who can do what you do.”

George Clooney’s character, identified in the credits only as “Margaret’s man,” so what the heck, we’ll just call him George Clooney, tells her not to talk to anyone or do anything and he will be right over.

He arrives and gets to work. But then someone else arrives, too, “Pam’s man,” who we will call Brad Pitt. He also is “the only man in the city who can do what you do.” Pam, the owner of the hotel (I won’t spoil the Oscar-winning performer who provides the voice) has her own “wolf.” And we settle in to see these two guys, every bit as good at what they do, radiating screen charisma, brilliant acting, and the comic rhythms they have perfected over decades of friendship, as their characters are at what they do, whether it’s providing a change of clothes for the client to getting rid of a body.

Writer/director John Watts keeps the story moving briskly and it is a treat to see it all play out, with some wild twists and turns that include the wedding of a gangster’s daughter, a seedy motel with a safari room that rents by the hour, and coffee with a very big fan of Frank Sinatra. It is fun to see the two characters, master problem solvers able to consider every risk and option, try to top one another, and yes, grudgingly learn that they have more in common than they thought and yes, that it might be nice to know someone who understands what it’s like. But that takes a while and it is hilarious and exciting along the way thanks to a fresh mix of action and comedy and the sizzling chemistry of the co-stars. Outstanding camera work from “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and music video cinematographer DP Larkin Seiple captures just the right tone, making the most of the winter setting and locations like Chinatown, a couple of bars, and a small suburban home.

I won’t spoil the identity of a third party who ends up being part problem, part solution, except to say he takes them on quite a chase (in his underwear!) and provides a nice naive counterpoint to their seen-everything, cannot be flustered demeanor.

From about the halfway point, I was not just rooting for them to succeed; I was rooting for a sequel. Good news: one is on the way.

Parents should know this movie includes a lot of violence including chases and shoot-outs with some gory and disturbing images and many characters killed. It also includes drug dealers and other criminals and very strong language. Characters drink alcohol.

Family discussion: Do you think there are people like the wolfs? What kind of background would they have and who would have their contact information? What is the importance of their view that one’s word is “the measure of a man?”

If you like this, try: “Oceans 11”

Finally! A Terrific Hallmark Hanukkah Movie!

Posted on December 13, 2023 at 10:47 pm

Hallmark has justifiably been criticized for its all-white, all-Christmas winter holiday movies, and then it was justifiably criticized for its first attempts at a Hanukkah movies, with problems that ranged from insensitivity and ignorance to outright failures (captioning describing a Hebrew prayer as Yiddish, for example).

But “Round and Round,” written by Tamar Laddy of “Pretty Little Lies” is one of the best Hallmark movies ever, smart, funny, and romantic, with terrific chemistry between stars Vic Michaelis and Bryan Greenberg. The “Groundhog Day” story of a woman who gets stuck repeating the seventh night of Hanukkah is delightfully self-aware, with clever references to other time loop films and cultural touchstones. And the details of Hanukkah celebrations are grounded in experience and appreciation.

Highly recommended!

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Comedy Jewish Romance