A Quick ‘Rental Family’ Review and Then Some Awards-Worthy Thoughts

December 3, 2025

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Normally I would prefer buying a ticket, but this is one Rental I’ll recommend! (CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures/Screenshot)

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, Akira Emoto, Shino Shinozaki, Kimura Bun, Sei Matobu

Director: Hikari

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Some Language Here and There

Release Date: November 21, 2025 (Theaters)

Since Rental Family is already out in theaters by the time I’m posting this review, I’ll be quick with my thoughts and then transition into a related matter. This is one of those movies where the trailer spells out the premise pretty much perfectly, as Brendan Fraser plays the delightfully named American actor Phillip Vandarploeug, who’s living in Japan when he’s hired by the titular company to serve as a stand-in for various clients’ friends and family members. His main gigs involve pretending to be the previously absent father of a young biracial girl (the winning Shannon Mahina Gorman) and a journalist/friend hanging out with a retired actor struggling with the onset of dementia (Akira Emoto). I was worried that this premise could lend itself to an overly cloying adventure, but writer/director Hikari and his cast wisely opt for a generally understated approach. Except when they get madcap! That’s right, this movie is surprisingly silly at times, and I have to admit that I expelled some genuine belly laughs. Overall, Rental Family works as well as it does because it has Fraser at its center, and that’s a big reason why I give it a Grade of 3.5 out of 5 Fake Dads.

And now I’ll segue into taking a pulse on the state of the Oscar race, specifically the Lead Actor category. Fraser won that little gold man just a few years ago for The Whale, so we know he’s on the Academy’s radar, or at least he has been in the past. Weirdly enough, though, I haven’t heard his name batted around at all in this year’s Oscars discussion, despite Rental Family being Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and being distributed by a studio (Searchlight Pictures) with plenty of experience running awards campaigns. Although maybe he does have a chance, and I’m just caught in the prognosticator echo chamber at the moment.

Spanning outward, I’ll throw my weight behind someone else who appears unlikely to get a nom despite totally deserving one, i.e., Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun: he perfectly fulfilled the assignment! A few names I think could be legitimate contenders include Jeremy Allen White for the Springsteen movie, Joel Edgerton for Train Dreams, Dwayne Johnson for The Smashing Machine, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon, and maybe even Jesse Plemons for Bugonia.

But ultimately I foresee this race coming down to three dudes: one a former winner, one a former nominee but not yet a winner, and one who’s surprisingly never been nominated. That would be Leo D. in One B. After A., Timmy C. in Marty S., and Michael B. J. in the vampire flick I really, really loved. I’ll be pulling for Mr. Jordan’s double-duty performance, but if I’m a betting man, I’m leaning ever so slightly in the DiCaprio direction (especially considering the repeat acting winners we’ve seen recently with Emma Stone and Adrien Brody).

But wouldn’t it be hilarious if everyone just got Fraser’d in the end? Lol!

Killers of the Flower Moon,’ AKA The Dusty, Bloody, Roaring ’20s

October 18, 2023

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Mmm, this one’s a killa (CREDIT: Apple/Paramount Pictures)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, Jason Isbell, William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Scott Shepherd

Director: Martin Scorsese

Running Time: 206 Minutes

Rating: R for Disturbingly Widespread and Remorseless Murder

Release Date: October 20, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Here’s an important piece of information that is emphasized right from the get-go in Killers of the Flower Moon: at a certain point in the early 20th century, the Osage were the richest people per capita in the entire world. But where oil flows, bloodshed soon follows. And so it was during the Osage murders that plagued Oklahoma in the 1920s, as detailed in David Grann’s 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon and now the Martin Scorsese-directed adaptation of the same name. All of the action revolves around William King Hale (Robert De Niro), a white man who’s managed to keep all of Osage County in his iron grip. In the course of the long wealth accumulation game that he’s ruthlessly playing, he directs his nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) to ingratiate himself with the native people. This takes the form of Ernest marrying and starting a family with a local woman named Mollie (Lily Gladstone). This could all be perfectly wholesome, if only Ernest weren’t involved with his uncle’s schemes to kill pretty much every member of Mollie’s family.

What Made an Impression?: Keeping Your Heart Afloat?: I had one major persistent question throughout Killers of the Flower Moon: could Ernest and Mollie actually be in love with each other? Of course, you don’t have to be in love to get married or to have kids together. But they do seem quite smitten with each other, despite being aware of the treachery afoot. Mollie knows that white men are just romancing the Osage to get their oil money. And Ernest surely knows that she knows. But she nevertheless still considers him as a pretty decent romantic prospect. Partly that’s because she and her sisters don’t really see many other options available for them. When Ernest eventually becomes fully culpable in William’s most murderous machinations, he’s already committed himself to his wife. And it never seems like an act. DiCaprio plays him like someone who never reckons with the moral implications of his behavior. This isn’t remorseless psychopathy. It’s more like family killing family, or friends killing friends, but with so much twisted rationalizing that it’s impossible to remain sane and/or sympathetic.
Shout, Shout, Let It All Out: Once the FBI takes an interest in all the Osage murders, we’re eventually led into a (somewhat) cathartic final act in which William is actually forced to answer for all his deeds in a court of law. Two towering performances in this section are bound to wake you up if you happen to be nodding off at this point. John Lithgow tries to keep things dignified for the prosecution, while Brendan Fraser casts up some fire and brimstone as Hale’s attorney W.S. Hamilton. I can’t help but chuckle at Lithgow whenever he’s in a courtroom, partly because it reminds me of the delightful short-lived NBC sitcom Trial & Error, and partly because his commanding voice is somehow simultaneously both so silly and so reasonable. Fraser meanwhile threatens to knock the entire proceedings off their axis. He’s just as over-the-top as he was in The Whale, but this time it affects me deeper to my core because everyone else is so modulated. These moments feel like being rumbled from a stupor, as all the crimes up to this point have been presented so matter-of-factly.
A Note on the Length: A different version of Killers of the Flower Moon could’ve been 2 hours or so, and it could’ve also been successful, but in a different way than it is now. At 3 hours and 26 minutes, you feel the full weight that goes along with reckoning with this dark chapter in American history. So if you’re planning on seeing it, get a good night’s sleep the day before and pop in some caffeine if you think it will help (but not too much!). And if you’re downing liquid while you’re watching and you don’t want to have to take a bathroom break, then pair it with something like popcorn or pretzel bites so that it won’t go straight through you.

Killers of the Flower Moon is Recommended If You Like: Dad books and Dad movies

Grade: 4 out of 5 Handsome Devils

I’m Not Entirely Sure What to Say About ‘The Whale,’ But I’ll Do My Best

December 6, 2022

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , 2 Comments

CREDIT: A24

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Hong Chau, Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Running Time: 117 Minutes

Rating: R for Profanity Borne of Anger and Frustration

Release Date: December 9, 2022 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Charlie (Brendan Fraser) spends all of his days sitting on his couch, teaching an online English class and ordering delivery. Hardly anyone ever sees him, including his students, as he keeps his laptop camera disabled. He tells them it’s broken, but really, he just doesn’t want to have to deal with their reactions to the fact that he weighs 600 pounds. This may just be the last week of his life, as he’s enduring congestive heart failure and refusing to go to a hospital. So instead he’s looked after by his no-nonsense friend Liz (Hong Chau), who’s also a nurse. They’re occasionally interrupted by door-to-door missionary Thomas (Ty Simpkins), who becomes obsessed with counseling Charlie through what he believes is the impending apocalypse. And in the meantime, Charlie also does his damnedest to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter, the disaffected and manipulative Ellie (Sadie Sink).

What Made an Impression?: I’m really not quite sure how to react to The Whale. And I’m not even talking about the controversy that tends to always surround fat suit prosthetics. As far as I can tell, the physical demands of playing someone this big actually demand an actor who’s fit and hardy. So if you are going to make a movie with a character who weighs as much as Charlie, the only way to do it is with someone who doesn’t weigh anywhere near as much as he does. This is all to say: I certainly get the criticism around this sort of casting, but I also understand why it was made the way it was made.

But that doesn’t mean I understand everything about this movie. It’s based on a play by the film’s screenwriter, Samuel D. Hunter, and that theatrical pedigree is present every which way. The action is limited to one location, and the emotion is delivered all the way to Pluto. That overwrought style can be fine, you just have to convince the audience to buy into it. And on that point of whether or not I’m convinced? I’m confounded.

Charlie is a supremely frustrating character. He likes to see the good in everybody, especially Ellie, who he insists is just wonderful, despite pretty much all evidence to the contrary. Part of that is just what a long-absent dad would typically say when trying to reconnect to his kid. But at a certain point, you think he ought to admit that she’s not exactly what we call friendly. To anybody. At all. He does value honesty above just about everything else, though, even when it’s brutal. But to that point, we viewers might want him to confront the brutality in his own life, particularly the loss of a boyfriend that led to his reclusiveness and disordered eating. Fraser undoubtedly gives it all, as he wrings just about every note he can out of what he’s asked to do. But while I recognized the ambition, I was also left ultimately responding, “Well, gee… Hmm.”

The Whale is Recommended If You Like: Distorted optimism

Grade: 3 out of 5 Moby Dicks