Set against modern-day Tokyo, Rental Family follows an American actor (Brendan Fraser) who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality. Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection.

Searchlight Pictures presents Rental Family, directed, co-written and produced by HIKARI (“Beef”, “Tokyo Vice”, 37 Seconds). The film stars Academy Award® and Screen Actors Guild award winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale, The Mummy, Encino Man) with a supporting cast that includes Emmy® nominee Takehiro Hira (“Shogun”), Mari Yamamoto (“Pachinko,” “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”), Akira Emoto (Lovers Lost, Shin Godzilla, Dr. Akagi) and newcomer Shannon Gorman. With a screenplay by HIKARI and Stephen Blahut (37 Seconds), the film is produced by Sight Unseen Pictures’ Julia Lebedev (Dear White People, Bad Education) and Eddie Vaisman (Wildlife, A Thousand and One), as well as Knockonwood’s Shin Yamaguchi (37 Seconds, Spirit World). Jennifer Semler (A Real Pain, Theater Camp), Tomo Koizumi, Blahut, Leonid Lebedev (Bad Education), Fraser, and Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Love & Mercy) are executive producers.

Joining filmmaker HIKARI behind the camera are director of photography Takurô Ishizaka (All of Us Strangers, Snake Eyes), production designers Norihiro Asoda (The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi) and Masako Takayama (“Tokyo Vice”), editors Alan Baumgarten and Thomas A. Kruger, composers Jónsi and Alex Somers, costume designer Meg Mochizuki (37 Seconds), makeup department head Hiromi Momose (Like Father, Like Son), and casting directors Kei Kawamura and Yumi Takada.

The film will be in cinemas on December 26!
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This film is never tranquil in its intent or its execution. It’s based on a play of the same name written by Samuel D. Hunter (who also penned the screenplay). It tells the story of Charlie a morbidly obese man who is so damaged by losing the one he loved, he is eating himself to death.

In his mind, his fate is sealed and in the last moments of his life, he tries to make a connection with his daughter Ellie, played with venomous intensity by Sadie Sink. She is truly awful but Charlie sees only the good in her and still feels deep guilt over abandoning her and her mother when she was a young child.

Aronofsky builds in so much discomfort with his creative choices, you are never left at ease. Fraser’s performance is a master class in delivering emotion with a minimal amount of body activity. His sad puppy dog eyes will tear out your heart. This is not easy to digest cinema but for those that are up for the challenge, it creates real and visceral emotions.
Rob Hudson
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A reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.

The Whale is coming to Australian cinemas February 2.

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The film stars Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, with Ray Liotta, Jon Hamm, Amy Seimetz, Brendan Fraser, Kieran Culkin, Noah Jupe, Craig muMs Grant, Julia Fox, Frankie Shaw, and Bill Duke.

Curt Goynes (Cheadle) is down on his luck. Recently released from prison, Curt is dogged by a missing “code book” and his questionable history in the underbelly of Detroit’s African-American crime syndicate. Approached by a shady go-between known only as Jones (Fraser) to do a babysitting job on the family of a low-level auto executive, Matt Wertz (Harbour), Curt sees an opportunity to climb out of the hole he’s in. But it’s not that simple. Turns out, it’s a three-man job as Jones recruits two more petty criminals, Ronald Russo (Del Toro) and Charley Barnes (Culkin) to sit with Matt’s wife, Mary (Seimetz), and two kids (Jupe, Holt) in their middle-class neighborhood while Matt plays the unlucky pawn for Jones’s mysterious boss.

Everything that can go wrong does go wrong, leading Curt and Ronald through a maze of Detroit’s midcentury criminal elite vying for interest in an ever-growing scheme of complexity and danger involving competing figures of the local crime world, like Frank Capelli (Liotta), his wife Vanessa (Fox) and Aldrick Watkins (Duke), who is often mentioned but rarely seen. Their activity draws the attention of the State Police, in particular Detective Joe Finney (Hamm), who throws yet another monkey wrench in the works as he navigates the deceptions on both sides of the law, blurring the line between them.

All of this over a piece of paper. Locked in a safe. But not the safe where it’s supposed to be. And the information on this document clearly has implications for a much broader conspiracy that entangles the myriad paper chasers in a web of double-crossing, deceit and shifting loyalties as everyone attempts to get in on the action in hopes of a mounting, monumental payday. And just like every high stakes game, there are winners and losers on both sides.

Soderbergh directed the film from a screenplay written by Ed Solomon and produced by Casey Silver, both of whom he collaborated with on his HBO series Mosaic. Julie M. Anderson executive produced.

The director’s creative team behind the scenes included Oscar-winning production designer Hannah Beachler (Black Panther) and costume designer Marci Rodgers (BlacKkKlansman), with music by David Holmes (Baby Driver, TV’s Killing Eve).

No Sudden Move will be released in Australian cinemas August 26!
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