The Rental

“The Rental” is a 2020 horror/thriller movie starring Dan Stevens (Beauty and the Beast), Alison Brie (GLOW), Sheila Vand (Argo), and Jeremy Allen White (Shameless). Dave Franco (Unfinished Business) makes his directorial debut with this one.

Two Couples rent a house on the beach for a relaxing weekend away, but things quickly go downhill.

Almost every rental movie is the same, some people rent a house then there’s someone creepy watching them and/or killing them. It’s been told a thousand times, but the ones that are good are really good while the others fall flat. This one falls in the flat department. It’s not the acting, it has a solid cast and it’s good acting. The story doesn’t flow well and is a little jumbled. It’s an hour and a half movie, but it takes an hour before anything happens, then the last thirty minutes they try to jam all the action in. By this point it’s too late, also the ending doesn’t add anything up or answer any questions. With the actors and the story, it has the potential to be good, if it was done differently. I would skip this one altogether, but if you do want to check it out, it just released on Netflix. I give it a 4/10.

Happiest Season

“Happiest Season” is a 2020 Christmas Rom/Com starring Kristen Stewart (Twilight), Mackenzie Davis (Black Mirror), Mary Steenburgen (Step Brothers), Victor Garber (Titanic), Alison Brie (GLOW), Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek), and Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation).

Abby (Stewart) isn’t a fan of Christmas but decides to try to get into the Christmas spirit by going to her girlfriend’s (Davis) family for the holiday. Abby plans on asking her girlfriend to marry her while spending the holiday with her family, but she soon finds out her girlfriend hasn’t come out and her family and friends don’t know about Abby.

It’s about Christmas time, so time to fit in one more Christmas movie review of one you may or may not have seen. It’s a Hulu exclusive, and as you can see it’s star studded. I love Dan Levy, Aubrey Plaza, and Alison Brie, all are great and funny in their own ways. This is not your typical Rom/Com it’s a LGBTQ one, and it delivers on how some are confident in who they are, while some are still struggling to find themselves. It has a good blend of dry humor mixed in with heartfelt moments. Overall it’s worth checking out, I give it a 7/10.

A Promising Young Woman

‘A Promising Young Woman’ is a 2020 crime/thriller starring Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby), Bo Burnham (The Big Sick), Alison Brie (GLOW), Chris Lowell (GLOW), and Max Greenfield (New Girl). A promising young woman (Mulligan) drops out of med school to take care of her childhood best friend when she is gang raped at a party and is forced to drop out of school when the school turns a blind eye to the event. She now swears vengeance on anyone and everyone involved in her friends rape, and also all bad men in general.

This is a pretty dark film, but an interesting, an original concept. Mulligan pretends to be drunk every night at a different club or bar, and leaves with a guy who volunteer’s to take her home. When the said guy doesn’t take her home but instead to his home and tries to take advantage of her, that’s when she strikes. It’s a real and scary topic that isn’t addressed enough, and kudos to ‘A Promising Young Woman’ on addressing it. It’s a topic that people do tend to turn a blind eye to and even shoot it down in a lot of situations when a woman does cry rape. The biggest problem I had with this film is Mulligan playing a 30 year old, she looks to be about 45 in this movie. I don’t know if they made her look older because everything that’s happened to her character or she really looks 45, but it was difficult to imagine her as a 30 year old. Also the movie is a little anticlimactic until the end of the movie, it does have a great ending, but other than that it just kind of floats a long. I give it a 6/10.