There is unexpected depth in RENTAL FAMILY, a comedy/drama starring Brendan Fraser as an American actor living in Tokyo who takes a job with an agency that supplies actors to play a part in people’s lives. There are sweet moments but nothing saccharine in this a film that thoughtfully explores issues about identity, role-playing and self-deceit as well as human connections.
Odd as it seems, such rental agencies really do exist in Japan. Brendan Fraser gives a touching performance in RENTAL FAMILY, which is partly in English and partly Japanese with subtitles, as an American actor who has been living in Tokyo for seven years but still feels like an outsider. With work becoming sparse, the out-of-work American actor takes a one-time job with a company that provides its customers with people to play roles in their lives, such as a mourner at a funeral, or even impersonate someone in their lives. The company asks him to stay one but the actor is hesitant at first. He is persuaded to take the job when the business owner points out it is still acting, like improv, and that the service is helping people.
That is not always true, as the American finds out. Some of the assignments are short-term, but others are longer. In one such case, a single mother hires the actor to impersonate the American father her young daughter never met, in order to help her gifted daughter get into an exclusive school. In another, the daughter of an older Japanese movie star, who hires the American to play a journalist who has come to interview the once-famous, aged actor, who fears he has been forgotten. The one rule in the work is not to get too involved, which Fraser’s big-hearted character struggles with that at times. This charming, beautifully-shot drama, partly in English and partly in Japanese with subtitles, is mostly sweet, warm and sometimes even comic, but it also has some surprising, and even unsettling, food-for-thought moments, as well as offering reflections on identity, human connections and role-playing in our own lives.
While there is plenty of humor, there is also a poignancy to RENTAL FAMILY, as it explores issues around role-playing in our lives and human connections, There is a sweetness to but it is naver cloying or false in tone, and always grounded in real human connections.
RENTAL FAMILY, partly in English and partly Japanese with English subtitles, opens in theaters on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.
So it’s been long established that the Summer season is the “go-to” release time for animated features (along with the year-end holidays). Kids are out of school and parents need an air-conditioned refuge for the whole family. This season has begun at the multiplex with a fully CGI’d version of the “funny papers” feline, and we’ll soon get an ’emotional” reunion with a Pixar sequel and another visit from Gru and his minions. Ah, but “in between” we’re getting treated to something special and somewhat unique as it’s not part of a franchise, rather it’s based on an acclaimed graphic novel. Plus it’s done in the “classic” animation style, often referred to as 2D, much like the “hand-drawn” shorts and features (and TV shows) of the past. Oh, and it’s an Oscar nominee…from last year. Yes, it was one of the five nominated films in the March ceremony. And though THE BOY AND THE HERON took home the gold, this little gem more than deserved to be “in the race”. Now, at last, everyone will get a chance to be dazzled and delighted by some heart-tugging ROBOT DREAMS.
This story’s “waking life” begins in an anthropomorphic (much like ZOOTOPIA) version of NYC nearly forty years ago. The canine hero (known only as “Dog”) spends his nights in a walk-up one-bedroom apartment (perhaps in Brooklyn or Queens) in front of his tube TV. It’s hooked up to a “home gaming system” enabling him to play the classic “Pong” by himself (each hand holding a joystick makes it a new spin on Solitaire). Dog then switches his set over to basic cable, and pops a frozen “mac & cheese” dinner into the microwave. Setting up his “TV tray” he notices the windows of buildings across the street revealing happy couples enjoying life. And then a commercial inspires him. It’s an ad for the “Amica-2000” robot companion. Dog grabs the phone along with his charge card and places an order. After days of listening for a delivery truck stopped on his street, the big package arrives. After the driver (a bull) leaves, Dog quickly assembles his new mechanical buddy. Its steel noggin sports wide quizzical eyes and a broad smile. Soon Dog and “Robot” are inseparable, strolling down the street, watching TV (THE WIZARD OF OZ is a fave), playing video games, sharing a pizza, and even roller skating in the nearby park. As the temps rise, Dog decides they should hop on a bus to “Ocean Beach Park”. After some fun and food on the “boardwalk”, the duo ventures into the water. After a bit of trepidation, the pals finally engage in some undersea exploration. Afterward, they grab a bit of blanket space on the sand and bask in the sun. They doze off and awaken to a nearly deserted beach at dusk. Dog hastily begins gathering their things and takes Robot’s hand. But he can’t move. perhaps the seawater damaged his inner workings (could be rust). Dog then leaves his friend (assuring him he’ll return) and heads back into the city for his tool kit (and an oil can). But when Dog returns, a fence has been erected because the beach is now closed for the season, the sign stating it will be re-opened in June of next year. He tries to squeeze through the fence but the police gorilla hauls Dog away. Can these “best buddies” survive the separation? Could something happen to either one during the long months of waiting?
This is quite an emotionally complex story for an animated feature, though told in a seemingly simple way. As I mentioned earlier, these aren’t digitally shaded characters with “pixel’d” strands of fur and whiskers. Sure there’s a “double color layer” to suggest a light source and guide the shadows, but the main duo would be right “at home” with the Flintstones, Jetsons, or the first seasons of the Simpsons, though Robot could be a distant cousin to Futurama’s Bender. The backgrounds also benefit from a smooth, slick design, with meticulous detail to the time period (from a couple of pop culture nods, I’m zeroing in on 1986). Plus the fact that Spanish craftsman could so convincingly recreate the Big Apple is most amazing. And the movement is quite impressive, as there’s no real spoken dialogue other than some “chirps”, grunts, and growls. Through body language we know exactly how the heroes are reacting and their “inner life”. Which touches on the universal adult feelings of loneliness and the joy of finally connecting with someone, even if you did have to build him. There’s a sense of that even as the duo are kept apart for months. Dog has a brutal “dust-up” with two nasty twin aardvarks, and later he begins a romance with an athletic duck. Even as he lies on the beach, Robot has some encounters, including a rabbit rowing team and a bird seeking a safe nest for its eggs. And he does dream, drifting into shattering fantasies of reunion and whimsy. It all builds to something beyond the usual cartoon “happily ever after” ending, instead, it’s a warm interlude bathed in melancholy. Surprising that these simple shapes could elicit “all the feels”. Even more startling is the director’s resume, as Pablo Berger is mainly known for live-action comedies and dramas (talk about hitting a homer the first time at bat). But then the source material he adapted, from graphic novelist Sara Varon, has plenty of both. So even though this is technically from 2023, ROBOT DREAMS is one of the best films, animated or live-action, that you’re likely to view, and be moved by this year.
Mark Duplass as Adam and Natalie Morales as Carino in LANGUAGE LESSONS. Photo credit: Jeremy Mackie. Courtesy of Shout! Studios
A surprise gift of Spanish lessons via Zoom launches the funny, charming, and touching LANGUAGE LESSONS, a comedy drama that soars on the magical performances of its two actors, Mark Duplass and Natalie Morales. Duplass and Morales co-wrote the script and Morales directed this surprising charmer where the characters only even interact on Zoom yet develop a strong bond of friendship. Duplass and Morales build such well-drawn, appealing characters, and the script is so steeped in humor and well written that, despite the Zoom call format and two languages, we can’t help but be drawn in, laugh delightedly, and then have our heartstrings tugged.
In this clever film, the two characters, who live in different countries, develop a friendship while only communicating via Zoom. LANGUAGE LESSONS begins with a surprise, when Spanish teacher Carino (Natalie Morales) contacts her newest student Adam (Mark Duplass) by Zoom to start his first lesson, only to find him barely awake, sipping his first cup of coffee and completely unaware that his husband Will (Desean Terry) has bought him Spanish lessons as birthday present. Two years of weekly lessons. Playful Will also failed to let the Spanish teacher, Carino, know it was a surprise, and he giggles joyously off screen at both the flustered student and teacher. Despite the rough start and Adam’s doubts about fitting weekly lessons into his rigidly-set morning routine, teacher and student agree to begin the next week.
Adam and Carino have very different lives – she’s a financial-struggling divorced woman in Costa Rica and he’s an affluent, married gay man in Oakland, California – yet they quickly hit it off. But when tragedy strikes, an unexpected bond is formed between them.
The pandemic created big challenges for filmmakers, and this is not the first pandemic-made film to incorporate Zoom. If you had too much Zoom already during the past year, your first impulse might be to run screaming from the room at such a prospect, but then you would miss out on a fast, smart, sparkling comedy, with two outstanding on-their-toes performers who generate a terrific chemistry on screen. This is the best use of Zoom in a film I’ve seen so far in a pandemic-made film. And the pandemic isn’t even part of the story, which takes place in some near contemporary but pre-pandemic time.
There is something refreshing about that too. You might think a movie where the characters only appear together with separate screens and speak a mix of Spanish and English would be challenging to watch. Far from it, LANGUAGE LESSONS is sparkling and smooth as glass, immediately launching into funny with rapid-fire dialog and Morales’ and Duplass’ mix of awkwardness and warmth.
LANGUAGE LESSONS isn’t a romantic comedy, as it is about a platonic friendship between a gay man and a straight woman, but it has many of the same beats as romantic comedy. Early on, tragedy strikes one of the pair, but as that character works through that experience, both the kindness of the other and their shared sense of the off-beat leads to both healing and humor.
The pair quickly discover that they share a playful sense of humor but have very different lives. He lives a comfortable affluent life of leisure in a gorgeous house with a large pool in Oakland, with his successful husband, who runs a dance troupe. She is far less affluent, struggling to make a living giving Spanish lessons on Zoom and teaching English at home in Costa Rica. He once spoke Spanish long ago, grew up poor, and traveled around before meeting his husband. She is divorced, also traveled, and once lived in the U.S. and is fully bilingual.
Morales proves to have the right touch as a director on this project. It feels like she and Duplass are having the best time, with the freedom and time to fully explore their characters and the growing friendship, and to play off each other, which is fun for the audience too.
Despite the restrictive format, the film never feels confined because there is so much going on with the actors. It is not visually static. as screens alternate between side by side and minimized, the characters move around their space in a natural way, and they take turns dominating the conversation. The lessons are practicing Spanish conversation, which also feels natural as they get to know each other, and the conversation is sprinkled with playful word gaffes, some slightly risque. He is the more talkative, outgoing character and she is more reserved, but her sharp mind and their shared sense of humor means they are evenly matched.
It feels a bit like listening in on two friends in a very lively, funny, interesting conversation. As story darkens and the relationship deepens between them, we are completely drawn in and our hearts can’t help but be touched by their experiences.
LANGUAGE LESSONS opens Friday, Sept. 10, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac and select theaters nationally.
