Dave Franco, now the preeminent Franco of the Franco brothers, following James’s disgrace in the public forum of shame, has now taken to directing. And, like so many actors out there, he proves himself to be a perfectly decent director, which makes you wonder about just how difficult the directing really is. I mean, how many other industries out there would put an untrained nonprofessional in charge? Just movies and politics, right?
Mind you, Franco co-wrote, produce and directed this one, also doing the tricky business of directing his own wife, so yeah...good going. OK, so The Rental… It was supposed to be a perfect getaway. Two couples, two brothers and their ladyloves, one car, one cute small dog, one giant luxury rental. But no, things never work out that way, do they? Or maybe they do, but it’s so uninteresting that no one would make a movie about it. This vacay goes to sh*t pretty quickly. Too many attitudes, too many emotional undercurrents. Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary’s first spouse is the older responsible brother with classic good looks, good job, good wife – played by Franco’s own good wife, Alison Brie. This stud’s baby bro is Jeremy Allen White, basically resuming his role of Shameless’ Lip as a strutting short muscly dude, a college dropout with attitudes for miles and anger management situation. The baby bro is currently being reformed by a love of a good woman who is conveniently enough his older brother’s business partner. Those two have an unusually close relationship. And if we learn anything from the movies, it’s that attractive straight men and women cannot just be friends. There’s also a dude who manages the rental, uncouth by city standards and thus immediately suspected and accused of racism, among other things. One thing leads to another and soon enough there are secrets to hide and then they find the cameras. Cameras that presumably know all their secrets. From there on, the situation unravels into a worst-case scenario with a concomitant body count. And here you go, lesson learned. Don’t trust anyone. Behave. And party responsibly. All in all, quite fun and as short as it ought to be. Nicely done, young Franco, nicely done.
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