This was a really enjoyable Indie from the IFC Horror people since it paints Wil Wheaton as the villain but if you watch it all the way through, you’ll see it’s debatable.
The plot involves David, a 40-year-old man who lives with his mother in the Denver ‘burbs circa the early-to-mid Eighties, during the gold rush of VCRs and tape rentals. To be fair, he isn’t a “loser.” His mother has dementia and dad passed away a decade ago. David gave up most of his happiness because she didn’t want to be put in an assisted-living home.
Caring for his mother is a full-time job yet he has to time to enjoy his own small pleasures, especially when she sleeps: watching his own movies, listening to his father’s Jazz tapes, nursing a glass of whisky and trying to meet women through a video-dating service. Sadly, he’s a pretty difficult match so one day when comes by to pay his subscription fee with the receptionist, he sees this Rent a Pal in the clearance bin. It’s only a few bucks, no women are dying to meet him, he takes a chance.
As soon as David hits play, Andy introduces himself and explains how they’re going to be great friends. Boy do they! They share stories, they drink, they play Go Fish and through a montage, this tape becomes a daily ritual for David. For a very linear technology, you begin to wonder…how long is this videotape? Is Andy a demon? Is David imagining this? Is it all a bit of everything?
Then out of nowhere the video dating people have a candidate who wants to meet David! She’s too good to be true! Her name is Lisa. She’s around his age. She’s about on par with his looks (we all know how movies think people should be matched). Best of all, Lisa works in an assisted-living home! She’s very familiar with David’s situation and has a great level of patience and empathy for people like his mother.
But how will Andy take the news? They did have plans until Lisa entered the picture. Tune in to find out.
Synopsis aside, Rent was fantastic and I put Thriller as a tag with it since there’s a mystery element along with tension when one character steps out of line, causing another to snap. I also loved how it was a pretty clever “retro” movie, recapturing those days I remember when the VCR was the iPhone of its day and you had local stores before Blockbuster.