A horror movie about the friction between our erosion of public trust and our addiction to apps that depend on the kindness of strangers.
An unpleasant recording of a slasher movie that aims to do for Airbnbs what “Psycho” did for motels, Dave Franco’s “The Rental” serves up a fine slice of millennial popular horror that raises the modern concerns of the concert economy with the grindhouse The sadism they demand. Even despite its obvious obviousness, this thing is an old school programmer so lean, cruel, and utterly ruthless that it could seem anachronistic if it weren’t for the fact that it’s launching on many of the same drive-in screens they would have shown 35 years ago.
Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic only strengthens a movie’s attraction about the friction between the erosion of Americans’ trust in each other and our growing addiction to apps that depend on the kindness of strangers. It’s always been a recipe for disaster, and “The Rental” is less interested in reconciling that tension than seeing it boil over in a brutal reminder that you should probably never leave your home.
Franco’s script, co-written by Joe Swanberg and carved an inch from his life by his characteristically Spartan approach to these things, couldn’t be much simpler. Charlie (horror movie cleanup hitter Dan Stevens) and Mina (the breakup of “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”, Sheila Vand) are delicate coworkers who decide to celebrate the launch of their new startup with a weekend trip to the west coast. What better way for these beautiful people to test the tension of atomic-grade sexual chemistry between them than to spend a few nights on Airbnb by the cliff and overlooking the sea with their two loved ones?
To further complicate matters within this quartet is the fact that Mina’s boyfriend Josh is Charlie’s exhaustion of a younger brother, a Lyft driver with a gentle soul and a violent past (he is portrayed by the actor “Shameless” Jeremy Allen White, who gradually produces a single role in a quiet heartbreaker). Josh, perhaps sensing the general consensus that Mina is too good for him, gravitates towards Charlie’s reserved girlfriend, Michelle (Alison Brie), whose relationship is more unstable than he might think. Add a lot of MDMA, a potentially racist Airbnb host (Toby Huss), and a pug who’s not allowed on the property and has enough trouble preparing even before throwing a homicidal maniac into the mix.
Franco turns the screws carefully, the star of “Neighbors” and “Nerve” is more interested in establishing his basic gender in good faith than in becoming the next Ari Aster or Jordan Peele. The iron-clad camera work is patient without being pretentious, the (Oregon) locations are grumpy and evocative without compromising the undemanding environment of the film, and the cast can develop their characters without dirtying them with more poignancy than this 80s chill. minutes from a movie. You have time to unpack.
In addition to the occasional jolts (which are even more effective due to the little that happens), “The Rental” avoids the cheap emotions in favor of something more disturbing, since the distrust that these people have in their Airbnb host begins to reflect more and more distrust. they have each other. And since Charlie and Mina hit each other in the shower before the end of the first night, it seems that at least some of those suspicions are well founded; If this movie has some kind of morality beyond “Don’t stab you in a stranger’s house,” it could be “If you’re going to cheat on your romantic partner, don’t do it in the shower.” On the one hand, you have to consider irritation (and a real The horror master would have considered it, Dave!) On the other hand, there could be a camera hidden in the ceiling. It’s quite creepy that the host has access to the house while the guests are staying there, but this is obviously a violation of a very different kind. And maybe Mina and Charlie could have saved some lives if they told the rest of the gang what they had found and everyone agreed to leave, but whoever was filming them now has their illicit link on the tape, and they really don’t. I want to give you some reason to share it.
Mina negotiates this entire section with a two-sided despair so compelling that it seems that both the character and the actress who play it could do almost anything. Josh, on the other hand, has a chance to shine when the shit hits the fan, and White’s dying turn as a well-meaning boy who seems like he can’t do anything right only gets better during stretches when most of the horror adjacent to Schlock Las Movies tend to sacrifice even their best actors on the altar of bad special effects. It helps Franco move from the character studio to a full-fledged slasher with a ton of confidence and absolutely zero mercy, and the first-time director makes a sudden burst of “look behind you!” moments that hit the spot even when they frustrate your interest in finding out who is under the mask.
“Rent” doesn’t really matter to him. From the dizzying flirtation of the opening scene to the vibe of the end credits tobacco film, this film is more interested in unlocking the everyday nightmares that lurk within the concert economy than creating some sort of iconic genre villain that you would be able to recognize from the window of that beautiful lake house where you are staying at the beginning of September. Sure, the host only has one-star reviews (“Wi-Fi was reliable, but my brother was beheaded in the kitchen, I wouldn’t recommend it”), but you’ve been locked in your apartment since the quarantine started, and if not you leave the city soon you will explode. Too many people are selfish or stupid enough to think that public safety is infringing on your rights, your father lied to you about wearing his mask for dinner the other night, and you shudder when someone even walks near you at the grocery store But there is a button on your phone that allows you to live in someone else’s house for a few days; you are not no I will press it.
The latest reveal on “The Rental” is a disappointment at how little it has to do with the movie’s premise or the app-based anxieties it triggers, but it still leaves you with the same bewildering feeling you might have, for example, Live in a catastrophically incompetent country in the midst of great contagion: in a modern world that requires us to place an unprecedented degree of mutual trust, few things are more terrifying than remembering what it really means.
Grade B-
IFC Films will release “The Rental” in theaters and on VOD on Friday, July 24.
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