"Rental Family"

The Next Best Picture Podcast

Tv & Film

4.2 • 542 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

THIS IS A PREVIEW PODCAST. NOT THE FULL REVIEW. Please check out the full podcast review on our Patreon Page by subscribing over at - https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture For this week's second podcast review, Josh Parham and Nadia Dalimonte join me to review and discuss the latest film from Hikari, "Rental Family," starring Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, and Akira Emoto. The comedy-drama film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to a warm reception, with praise for Fraser's performance, and Hikari's direction and writing (co-written with Stephen Blahut). What did we think of this sentimental film? Was it too sweet or just the right amount to capture our hearts? Please tune in as we discuss the performances, writing, direction, its awards season prospects, and more in our SPOILER-FILLED review. Thank you for listening, and enjoy! Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture and listen to this podcast ad-free Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to The Next Best Picture podcast and this is our review of Rental Family.
0:05.2	The market here isn't the same anymore. It's half the rate, twice the work.
0:18.5	But I got you a gig and the pay is actually pretty good.
0:21.6	What's my part?
0:23.6	So, what do you think we do here?
0:29.6	We sell emotion.
0:31.6	How?
0:32.6	We play roles in clients' lives.
0:34.6	Parents, siblings, boyfriends, girlfriends, best friends, and help them
0:39.5	connect to what's missing.
0:41.3	I'm just an actor.
0:42.2	I don't know how to help people.
0:43.7	What I'm offering here is a chance to play roles with a real meaning.
0:47.7	What do you need me for?
0:49.6	We need a talking to a white guy.
0:51.7	All right, everybody, you were just listening to the trailer for Rental Family, and the story is as follows.
0:57.0	Struggling to find purpose, an American actor lands an unusual gig with a Japanese agency to play stand-in roles for strangers.
1:04.7	As he eminces himself in clients' worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blurred lines between performance and reality.
1:12.4	Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he soon rediscovers purpose, belonging,
1:18.3	and the quiet beauty of human connection. The film is starring. Brendan Frazier,
1:24.1	Taikiro Hira, Marie Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, and Akira Imoto. It is written
1:30.4	directed by Hikari and co-written by Stephen Blahoot. Here to join me today for this spoiler-filled
	...

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