Movie Review: RENT-A-PAL

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: September 11th, 2020 / 09:44 AM

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Brian Landis Folkins, Kathleen Brady, Amy Rutledge, Wil Wheaton
Writer: Jon Stevenson
Director: Jon Stevenson
Distributor: IFC Films
Release Date: September 11, 2020

RENT-A-PAL is one of those movies that’s hard to evaluate. It seems to be the movie that writer/director Jon Stevenson set out to make, it’s well-acted, and it works up some tension. However, it raises a lot of intriguing questions and then doesn’t answer them. It winds up not being any of the movies the setup leads us to hope we’re going to watch.

We’re in 1990 Denver, Colorado. Forty-year-old David (Brian Landis Folkins) is a sad, lonely fellow. He lives in the basement of his parents’ house, tending to his dementia-stricken mother Lucille (Kathleen Brady), who often mistakes David for his late father, Frank.

David subscribes to a video dating service. This is back in the days when such companies literally supplied their clients with physical VHS tapes, which David plays back on a top-loading VCR. (Even in 1990, that’s old-school tech.) While he waits for a match that may never come, David discovers an odd tape at the dating service’s office, Rent-A-Pal.

David rents the tape. It features the sincerely smarmy Andy (Wil Wheaton). Andy addresses his viewer directly, one to one, promising friendship and breaking up his patter to give his audience – in this case, David – time to respond.

At first, David responds the way we do, at first disconcerted, then dismissive. And then he starts to succumb to Rent-A-Pal Andy’s dubious charms.

At this point, we’re intrigued. Who would make such a video? What is its real purpose? It can’t actually be just a grownup version of those kiddie shows where we were invited to respond to a host who couldn’t really hear or see us, can it?

We also feel for David, who starts out as a genuinely decent, responsible man. Yes, he drinks and watches porn, but he truly is dedicated to being a full-time caregiver for his mother. When he makes a tape for the dating service, the long version is rather endearing. It’s credible that this would eventually attract quasi-kindred spirit Lisa (Amy Rutledge).

Unfortunately, RENT-A-PAL is a lot more interested in another angle, so that it winds up looking like a low-budget, non-tie-in version of an extremely successful film about an incel that came out in 2019. This isn’t necessarily a filmmaking flaw – Stevenson has done well in terms of achieving what the goals that he appears to have set out for himself – it’s just not the most engrossing or even believable trajectory for the setup.

Folkins is excellent as the troubled David, Wheaton brings a lot of shadings to Andy, and Brady and Rutledge are both very persuasive.

RENT-A-PAL is a movie that has been made well on limited resources, with a strong cast. As a viewing experience, though, it is likely to leave many dissatisfied, and with the feeling that we’ve more or less seen this before.

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