Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 126 mins

The Bride! (yes, that exclamation mark is intentional…) is the second film by Maggie Gyllenhaal after her multi-Oscar nominated debut The Lost Daughter. While the film had some interesting themes, it failed to fully explore them and I didn’t care for the characters at all. But Gyllenhaal takes some bolder swings with The Bride! – an alternative take on the Bride of Frankenstein that was of course based on Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel.

The film opens with Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley) speaking from the afterlife, who explains she had another story to tell after Frankenstein, but her death put an end to that desire. So she possesses Ida (also Jessie Buckley), a woman in 1930s Chicago who in the film’s opening scene, openly discusses the criminal activities of crime boss Lupino (Zlatko Burić) at a fancy restaurant, before being finished off by his henchmen.

Elsewhere in Chicago, Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale), who goes by ‘Frank’ arrives at Dr Cornelia Euphronius’ (Annette Bening). Aware of her reanimation work, he enlists her to create a companion to combat his loneliness, which happens to be Ida’s corpse. What follows is the relationship that develops between Frank and Ida and the trouble they get into against the law.

There have been many adaptations of Frankenstein over the years – just look at Guillermo del Toro’s recent rendition that’s currently up for a Best Picture Oscar – Shelley’s novel is a timeless tale, after all. But not all of them are good, and while undoubtedly an original vision, The Bride! is a bad one…

A mash-up between Bonnie and Clyde, Joker: Folie a Deux and Public Enemies, The Bride! is an utter mess that frequently changes gear and can never decide what it wants to be – it flits between being a gangster film to sci-fi to a twisted romance, with some musical numbers thrown in – and it’s often incoherent. Maggie Gyllenhaal is also on scriptwriting duties and it’s just woeful, with fine actors delivering some seriously ear-scraping lines. I knew I was in for a rough ride with the spectacularly misjudged opening scene, which would surely send Mary Shelley spinning in her grave – and the overlong experience rarely let up afterwards.

After being miscast in Hamnet (although I’m in the minority with that opinion), Jessie Buckley is dreadful as the titular bride, saddled with delivering literary gibberish as the possessed corpse. I felt nothing for the character and cringed every time she was on screen (which is a lot!), however it must be acknowledged that Buckley’s only doing what’s been asked of her by her director.

Christian Bale just about gets away with his reputation intact as Frankenstein’s monster, even if the character is confoundingly written, as does Annette Bening in a largely expository role. Peter Sarsgaard and Penélope Cruz play a detective and assistant duo, who are also poorly serviced by Gyllenhaal’s script – but both are more tolerable than Jessie Buckley’s abomination. In a sprinkling of nepotism as the cherry on top, the always-excellent Jake Gyllenhaal also appears as a popular Hollywood actor, but his role is so minor that he also walks alway scot-free – give it a few years and most will forget he was in this film!

Not even Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score can save proceedings, nor can Lawrence Sher’s bleak cinematography – it’s interesting that Gyllenhaal opted for the same composer and cinematographer as Joker and its divisive sequel. Slightly elevating The Bride! is the excellent and lavish costume design by Sandy Powell – it’s just a shame that the film around it is just so weak.

Some have and will continue to champion The Bride! for trying something different. But different doesn’t always mean good and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s film is a car crash of clashing tones and ideas, hamstrung by an atrocious script and a ghastly Jessie Buckley performance. It proved a thoroughly miserable cinematic experience and I’ll be surprised (and depressed) if there’s a worse film this year…

Director: Daniel Chong
Starring: (voices of) Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco, Meryl Streep
Certificate: U
Run Time: 104 mins

Hoppers is the first of two Disney Pixar films this year, an original work from director Daniel Chong, who cut his teeth at the studio as a storyboard artist. It has quite a high-concept plot – Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) is a 19-year-old with a deep love for the natural world. When Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) announces plans to build a freeway that would cross over a pond, where a colony of beavers formerly lived, Mabel actively campaigns against him. She discovers her university professor is developing a technology called the ‘Hoppers program’ where a human can ‘hop’ their consciousness into a robotic animal to communicate with their respective species – a little like Avatar, if you will. After Mabel hops into a robotic beaver against her professor’s wishes, she makes friends with the local animal community to help save their habitat from destruction. Although Turning Red and Inside Out 2 both performed very well, Pixar’s recent crop of films haven’t been up to the studio’s usual standard in my view. Does Hoppers finally put them back on track?

Although not top-tier Pixar, Hoppers is one of the studio’s better efforts in recent years. It’s energetically paced with a sharp and fast-paced script with some decent jokes and puns, although it’s rarely laugh-out-loud funny. More importantly, Chong’s film is a smart parable for climate change and the detrimental effects to the environment humans have, as well as showing kindness to animals – a good message for younger audiences. There’s some fun set pieces too, especially a chase sequence at the end of the film’s second act, as well as a spirited score by Mark Mothersbaugh.

As is customary for Pixar, Hoppers is beautifully animated and occasionally touching, especially an early sequence of Mabel spending time with her inspirational grandmother. Many Pixar films try to tug on the heartstrings, and although Hoppers has some tender moments, it gets the tone right in and the film never over-eggs it.

Where Hoppers looses its footing a little is in the villain department, where the story feels a little awkward as the film reaches its third act climax and Chong seems indecisive with how far he wants to go. But otherwise, this is a perfectly fun effort that should appeal to children and adults alike, with an important message at its core that anything can be accomplished if we work together. Hoppers might not be top-tier Pixar, but it’s certainly the studio’s strongest film since Turning Red.

Director: Mary Bronstein
Starring: Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald, Christian Slater, ASAP Rocky
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 113 mins

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a drama film about a psychotherapist who gets stretched to her mental limit. Rose Byrne (nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance) plays Linda, whose daughter has a paediatric feeding disorder where she requires feeding through a tube at night, while her husband Charles (Christian Slater) is away for work. Things worsen in the opening scene when Linda is forced to leave her apartment after it gets flooded when the ceiling collapses, and the pair are moved to a shabby motel. And then it doesn’t exactly get easier for Linda when she gets dealt an even worse hand…

This is a claustrophobic and grim work that holds its uneasy-feeling claw over you for its entirety, but it’s a gripping film from director Mary Bronstein with some outstanding performances. Many have drawn comparisons to Uncut Gems (Josh Safdie coincidently gets a producer credit) with how the film resembles a panic attack, but I find the two very different. While Uncut Gems is stress-inducing for how Adam Sandler’s Jewish jeweler constantly digs himself into a deeper hole, Linda isn’t the master of her own fate. At times, it feels like a horror film – particularly one scene where a character peers into the hole in the ceiling, where it almost feels like there’s going to be a jump scare – and there’s even a few chuckles to be had at other moments.

But it took a while for Bronstein’s film to cast its spell on me – the director makes a conscious decision to keep Linda’s daughter off-screen, as if she’s a void. While I understand the creative decision, the film’s first half felt rather jarring in places (almost bordering on being gimmicky) because of how the camera moves and also because some set-up is required before a string of unfortunate events occur. However, when Linda’s life starts to completely unravel in the second half, the film really kicks into gear and I’d settled into the daughter being withheld from view.

Bronstein gets some really terrific performances out of her cast – Rose Byrne is phenomenal as the lady at the end of her tether, really conveying a palpable desperation and call for help. It’s a far superior performance to Jessie Buckley in Hamnet, who I suspect will sadly win the Best Actress Oscar. But it’s not just Byrne’s show – cast-against-type Conan O’Brien is fantastic as Linda’s indifferent and smarmy therapist. After impressing in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, ASAP Rocky also has bags of charisma as James, who works at the motel and tries to bond with Linda. And Mary Bronstein is also brilliant as an unsympathetic doctor who is constantly on Linda’s case.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is ultimately a very mature piece of filmmaking from Bronstein and although I wouldn’t quite go as far as to call it outstanding, the second half in particular is certainly very powerful once the scene is set. With excellent performances, grimy visuals and a thought-provoking story, this is a very memorable film but I’m not sure it would have quite the bracing impact on a repeat viewing.

Director: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, Juno Temple
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 134 mins

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a new sci-fi thriller by Gore Verbinski, the director’s first film since the underrated A Cure For Wellness back in 2016. Sam Rockwell stars as the unnamed ‘man from the future’ who rocks up at a Los Angeles diner as the film opens and announces to the patrons he is there to save the world from a rogue artificial intelligence and needs volunteers to help him. It transpires this is his 117th attempt and his knowledge of the customers from when they’ve helped him before convinces some to join his cause. Once he’s assembled a team, we then follow the group’s journey (which begins from trying to escape the diner while it’s surrounded by police) which is intercut with flashbacks that provide a backstory to some of the diner patrons.

Although the film looked pretty rote from the trailers, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is fortunately a very entertaining piece with a biting and thought-provoking message at its core on phone use and the rise of AI. If you want a film that will discourage you from mindlessly doomscrolling on your phone, this is it. There’s some thrilling set-pieces and inventive visuals too. That the film only has a $20 million budget is frankly staggering – this looks like a much more expensive film, especially considering Verbinski’s previous experience with big-budget fare, such as Pirates of the Caribbean or The Lone Ranger.

Comparisons have been made to Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is fair from a visual standpoint – this is equally exaggerated, but I vastly prefer this film for its focussed storytelling. Props to screenwriter Matthew Robinson for dreaming up the concept – and it fits considering his back catalogue because he co-wrote and co-directed The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais. That Verbinski has then been able to realise Robinson’s vision with gorgeous cinematography and fun performances cements this film’s success. It’s also by far and away the best score Geoff Zanelli’s ever produced, who I’ve been very sniffy on in the past, with memorable and romping themes.

Sam Rockwell’s effortless as the tramp-like ‘man from the future’ and full of charisma. There’s plenty of meat to the bone with the cohort he assembles – Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz and Juno Temple all get profound Black Mirror-esque backstories (that don’t feel derivative), but it’s Haley Lu Richardson who’s the real highlight as Ingrid, a woman with an allergy to electronic devices.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is overall a return to form for Gore Verbinski after a decade’s hiatus (although I really enjoyed A Cure For Wellness) with a lively story that barrels along at an energetic pace with an important warning message about mankind’s increasing technology use. Its committed performances are supported by inventive visuals that really pop and some profound sequences, especially its climax. I’m excited to see what’s next in store for Verbinski and Robinson.

Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Starring: Wagner Moura, Carlos Francisco, Tânia Maria, Robério Diógenes, Alice Carvalho, Gabriel Leone, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Hermila Guedes, Isabél Zuaa, Udo Kier
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 161 mins

The Secret Agent is a historical political thriller directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho that’s received quite the buzz at this year’s Academy Awards, including a Best Picture nomination. The film stars Wagner Moura as a man we’re first introduced to as Marcelo Alves, who’s travelling to Recife (which happens to be the director’s hometown) in his yellow Volkswagen Beetle to seek refuge during the 1977 Carnival – during the political turmoil of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Slowly but surely, The Secret Agent reveals its hand as to who Moura’s character really is and why he’s ended up in this tension-fuelled city. It’s interesting that this is the second film in the space of a year to explore the same point in history, with Walter Salles’s hypnotic I’m Still Here landing a Best Picture nomination just last year.

Although ramshackle in its construction, The Secret Agent is a powerful film with an outstanding central performance from Wagner Moura. It’s particularly period-appropriate in its sun-dried setting and rich characters from the warm refugees Marcelo shares a block of flats with (run by Dona Sebastiana, in an endlessly charismatic performance by Tânia Maria). From the gripping opening scene, human life is treated as expendable as Marcelo fills his car up at a petrol station where a fly-encrusted corpse is rotting in the corner, and when the police turn up, they’re more interested in finding something wrong with his car than they are about the casualty – death is simply a way of life. Even more impressive is how Filho contrasts these realistic skits with surreal images, such as a symbolic severed leg.

As well as Moura’s effortlessly likeable performance, he’s surrounded by a superb supporting cast. Carlos Francisco is superb as Marcelos’ projectionist father-in-law, as is Robério Diógenes as the diabolical police chief Euclides. Gabriel Leone and Roney Villela are terrific as two hitmen who are hot on Marcelo’s trail, as is Kaiony Venâncio as an impoverished gunman. Technically, the film’s sumptuously shot by Evgenia Alexandrova and although tonally all over the place, the score by Tomaz Alves Souza and Mateus Alves soars in the third act, especially in a monumental chase sequence.

Although unconventional in its storytelling, if you can get on board with The Secret Agent and have patience with its themes that may at first seem arbitrary, it’s an enriching experience that’s profound in its exploration of this dark age of Brazilian history. It won’t be for everyone, but this is fearsomely original filmmaking with a brilliant Wagner Moura performance that deftly balances warm characters, surrealism and emotional poignancy – once you get past the somewhat disjointed first half.

Director: Bart Layton
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, Halle Berry
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 140 mins

Crime 101 is the new Bart Layton film, who last directed the excellent American Animals all the way back in 2018. Staying in the heist film genre, Crime 101 stars Chris Hemsworth as an elusive jewel thief, who skilfully plans violence-free robberies while escaping via the 101 Freeway in Southern California. When a job that goes wrong shakes him up, he calls off his next planned robbery, but his fence Money (Nick Nolte) sends a psychotic young biker Ormon (Barry Keoghan) to do it instead with violent results. Mark Ruffalo plays Detective Lou Lubesnick who investigates the robberies and Halle Berry plays an insurance broker who’s becoming increasingly frustrated with her firm. It’s certainly got a star-studded cast.

For the vast majority of its runtime, Crime 101 is a hypnotic heist film with brilliantly developed characters and thrilling set pieces. While many will inevitably make comparisons with Michael Mann’s Heat, Crime 101 takes the usual crime thriller and Los Angeles tropes and does something interesting with them. This is a film that gives its characters space to breathe – Hemsworth is excellent as the stoic lead who wants emotional fulfilment but can’t make eye contact or bring himself to tell Monica Barbaro’s love interest what he does for a living. Mark Ruffalo’s perhaps more impressive as the dishevelled detective, who’s under pressure from his superior to find a neat solution to the robberies and park the case, and Barry Keoghan’s suitably slimy as the unstable motorbiker with bleached white hair. Layton also lays on some interesting critique on materialism in how every character is simply concerned with earning or gaining money or possessions to feel happiness.

The meaty substance is complimented by some terrific action sequences – the opening heist is outstanding, as is a car chase around half-way through. It’s confidently shot by Erik Wilson – the opening shot of an inverted LA skyline is particularly memorable and he doesn’t resort to quick, frenetic cuts on the action sequences, instead allowing them to breathe. Blanck Mass’ moody soundtrack is also excellent and ups the film’s intensity.

My only real qualm with Crime 101 is it doesn’t quite stick the ending – while the film builds up to a satisfying finale, its final scenes feel a little too neat, but I can mostly forgive the final five minutes or so when the rest of it’s just so gripping. Otherwise, Crime 101 is yet another brilliant showcase of Bart Layton’s talent and certainly the best heist film I’ve seen since American Animals or Widows. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Edyll Ismail, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang, Dennis Haysbert
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 115 mins

Send Help is a horror comedy directed by Sam Raimi, his first wholly original work since Drag Me To Hell all the way back in 2009. The always-reliable Rachel McAdams plays hard-working corporate strategist Linda Liddle, who’s been looking forward to a long-promised promotion at work. But when the CEO of the company dies, and his repugnant son, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) takes the mantle, Linda’s promotion is given to a recent hire who he happened to be fraternity brothers with. When she accompanies the team on a business trip to Bangkok, the plane crashes after suffering engine failure and Linda and Bradley find themselves wound up on a deserted island.

It might not be particularly thematically deep, but Send Help is a fun and gnarly romp that’s a Sam Raimi film through-and-through. Blood splatter? Check. Projectile vomit? Check. Rachel McAdams is brilliant as the meek office worker and shares an excellent chemistry with Dylan O’Brien’s loathsome CEO. As you’d expect, the tables turn because it just so happens Linda auditioned for a television show called ‘Survivor’, so knows a thing or two on how to sustain herself, while Bradley requires spoon-feeding. There’s a real thrill in witnessing the duo play off each other and you’re always questioning what their ulterior motives are.

Blending horror and comedy is perhaps the most difficult genre mix to pull off, but Raimi is reasonably successful here, although I wouldn’t call this a scary film in the slightest and while some of the jokes really land, others fall flat. One has to suspend belief a little in the third act where there’s perhaps one rug pull too many, but to Raimi’s credit, the finale is suitably vicious and nasty. It’s all accompanied by a somewhat subdued Danny Elfman score, and Bill Pope’s cinematography is uncharacteristically unshowy for a Sam Raimi film.

Send Help is an enjoyable romp with a standout Rachel McAdams performance that reminded me of Lord of the Flies, only under the veil of a corporate satire rather than a bunch of schoolboys. I wanted a bit more meat to the bone in terms of its themes and some of its beats are repetitive, but this is a fun, if not especially enriching, experience that only Sam Raimi could have concocted.

Director: Johannes Roberts
Starring: Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, Troy Kotsur
Certificate: 18
Run Time: 89 mins

Primate is a creature feature horror film about a chimpanzee who goes on a killer rampage after becoming infected with rabies. It’s directed by Johannes Roberts, whose credits include 47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City – quite the chequered CV. The film opens with a vet entering an outdoor animal enclosure, where his face is grossly turn off by said chimpanzee, before the film winds back 36 hours earlier. Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) is taking a flight back home after spending years away at college with her best friend Kate (Victoria Wyant), but Lucy doesn’t know that Kate has invited her friend Hannah (Jessica Alexander) to join the club too. Lucy’s deaf father, Adam (Troy Kotsur) is a celebrated author who lives on the edge of a cliff in a beautiful home with younger daughter Erin (Gia Hunter). They have an adopted chimpanzee, Ben, who Adam has taught to be highly intelligent and he communicates using custom soundboard software on a tablet. But when Ben gets bitten my a rabid mongoose, all hell breaks loose…

While it’s lacking in the script and character development department, Primate is a lean and mean natural horror film that relishes in its visceral violence and brutal body-part dismemberment. While I wouldn’t say it’s frightening, the film’s undeniably intense and there were several sequences where I winced – this is probably the nastiest horror I’ve seen since Terrifier 3 or In A Violent Nature. There’s a couple of very effective sequences, especially an impressively tense encounter in a bed. A significant portion of the film is set in an infinity pool – a place where Ben can’t attack, given the hydrophobia caused by rabies – novel, considering it’s the inverse of other natural horror films involving underwater creatures.

Hats off to Roberts and the crew on opting for practical physical effects over CGI. The killer chimpanzee is played by former mixed martial artist Miguel Torres Umba, and the way in which he moves brings a real menace that you’d never get with digital. The film’s also confidently shot by Stephen Murphy, with the camera often swirling around and peering on the characters like they’re being watched. Adrian Johnston’s score is also terrific, with memorable themes and its 1980s synth-heavy sound reminiscent of the works of John Carpenter.

It’s just a shame that the film drops the ball in the script department. Roberts co-writes the script with Ernest Riera and some of the dialogue is really ropey, not helped by some of the unconvincing performances from the cast. That said, the two performances that fare well are Johnny Sequoyah as the likeable lead and Troy Kotsur as the father – the deaf representation is a nice touch and lends the film some much-needed emotion, but it also results in an excellent set piece devoid of sound that’s from Kotsur’s perspective. After his Best Supporting Actor win for CODA, it’s refreshing to see Kotsur back on the big screen.

Primate is ultimately an effective animal rampage horror, a genre that no filmmaker’s really explored for a while. It’s grisly and gnarly, with the reliance on practical effects lending the film a real weight. I just wish the script and character development were on the same level – then we’d really be talking. Despite this, Primate is undeniably Johannes Roberts’s best film (although that’s damning with faint praise) and I hope it inspires him to be similarly creative in his future works.

Director: Park Chan-wook
Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 139 mins

No Other Choice is the new film by South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, of Oldboy and The Handmaiden fame. It’s the second adaptation of a 1997 novel ‘The Ax’ by Donald E. Westlake, the first being a 1997 French film called The Axe. Park Chan-wook is no stranger to adapting English-language novels and transplanting them into his native South Korea, with The Handmaiden, for example, an adaptation of Sarah Waters’s ‘Fingersmith’.

Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) is an award-winning employee of papermaking company Solar Paper. He’s got a decent salary, he has purchased his childhood home and lives a luxurious lifestyle with his wife, two children and dogs. When an American company buys Solar Paper and fires many employees, Man-su finds himself out of work after 25 years of service. After thirteen months, he struggles to find a new gig, and the family have minimised their spending and now struggling to pay the mortgage, Man-su decides to identify those whose credentials exceed his own by posting a fake job advert and then bump them off to improve his employment prospects.

No Other Choice is yet another excellent film by the auteur filmmaker that’s directed with real confidence. Although its tone at first seems a little off for the usually serious director (it almost feels as if Park Chan-wook is trying to emulate Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite), the film quickly becomes darker with a scathing outlook on capitalism and Man-su’s murderous descent. There’s a sensational sequence with loud music and a three-way struggle involving oven gloves that goes straight up there with the director’s most memorable work.

The characters are uniformly well-developed, with the always-reliable Lee Byung-hun making for a compelling lead, a character who has to go through all the emotions that come with redundancy and finding one’s purpose again. It’s beautifully shot by Kim Woo-hyung with the director’s meticulous attention to detail and symmetry, and I found the film’s ending commentary on automation particularly grim and affecting. While No Other Choice isn’t quite up there with Park Chan Wook’s very best, it’s still a brilliant and ruthless critique on capitalism with excellent performances and memorable set pieces. I suspect it will be even better on future rewatches.

Director: Hikari
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, Akira Emoto
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 110 mins

Rental Family is a comedy drama starring Brendan Fraser as Phillip Vanderploeg, a Japanese-based American actor who has been struggling to find meaningful work after a successful toothpaste advert seven years earlier. He meets Shinji (Takehiro Hira) who introduces him to his company, ‘Rental Family’, a business that provides actors to play stand-in family members and friends for strangers. “We sell emotion” is how Shinji sells it. Although somewhat reluctant at first, Phillip takes on two long-term jobs – one acting as the estranged father of a young half-Japanese girl called Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman), who her mother thinks will be a great way to boost her daughter’s mood to get her into private school, and another as a journalist profiling retired actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto) with dementia. But Phillip finds himself getting a little too involved and finds himself caring for them.

This is a sweet-natured and very positive comedy-drama with an excellent Brendan Fraser performance that you’re sure to walk out of with a smile on your face. While the first half borders on saccharine, director Hikari does enough to keep things more than interesting in the latter half where the complexities and moral questionings of what the firm’s employees do come into the fray and it takes a more melancholic tone.

It’s hard not to be totally wrapped up by Fraser’s deliciously twinkly performance, with a gentle physicality and affable temperament – and Rental Family wouldn’t be half of what it is without that central performance. There’s good supporting performances from the rest of the cast, and there’s reasonably strong development of the firm’s employees who begin to form a warm dynamic. Takurô Ishizaka lenses the film neatly too, with some colourful, sweeping shots of the luscious Japanese landscape.

But although I enjoyed Rental Family for what it is, I wanted a deeper exploration into the themes of loneliness and loss, which the film only touches on. That would have given the narrative more of a complete circle. Still, if you want an uplifting comedy-drama with an effortlessly likeable Brendan Fraser, Rental Family hits the spot.