In theaters via Searchlight Pictures on November 21st is ‘Rental Family’, a comedy drama about the lies we tell others (and ourselves) that explores a fascinating real-world service in Japan through the eyes of an American actor.
Films that view Japan through the lens of outsiders can sometimes be distancing. Yet in ‘Rental Family’, co-writer/director Hikari has found an emotionally satisfying way into the unusual business of performers playing family members to help strangers through awkward social situations that not only has solid things to say about how we interact, but also tells a satisfying story.
Hikari co-wrote the script with collaborator Stephen Blahut, and together, they have crafted a sensitive, well-sketched portrait of a man seeking his place in a changing world who finds it in the seemingly fake world of pretend relatives.
While there are initially concerns that one of the subplots –– about Fraser’s character pretending to be a journalist interviewing a famed filmmaker whose faculties are failing –– might seem less effective than the main story of his bonding with a young girl needing a father to help her pass a school admissions test –– it all gets tied together and works well.
Fraser, who won the Oscar for ‘The Whale’, is, if anything, even better here, his big frame juxtaposed with his fellow Tokyo residents for both comic and emotional effect. He’s superb in the role of a struggling actor looking to find meaning, and his scenes with Shannon Gorman as young Mia are particularly effective.
Yet the movie also boasts great roles for the likes of Takehiro Hira and Mari Yamamoto, never neglecting to explore the inner worlds of the rental family company’s employees.
A movie such as this could, in the wrong hands, turn out mawkish and saccharine, but Hikari walks the line with such elegance and care that ‘Rental Family’ never has to lean on stereotype or crude laughs.
It’s a beautifully-crafted and effective comedy drama.
Set in modern-day Tokyo, ‘Rental Family’ follows an American actor (Brendan Fraser) who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers.
As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality. Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Brendan Fraser and Takehiro Hira about their work on ‘Rental Family’, Fraser’s first reaction to the screenplay, Hira’s approach to his character, working with director Hikari, and shooting on location in Japan.
(L to R) Takehiro Hira and Brendan Fraser star in ‘Rental Family’.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, Brendan, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and why you were excited to play this character?
Brendan Fraser: First reaction, sign me up! Second reaction was that I love the premise of a rental family for how unusual that really and truly is. Then to learn that this really is a business, where I think it has been since the 1980’s or something like that. There are some 300 of them still exist in today, probably more now. But I felt like, of course it makes sense to have actors stand in for these surrogate mothers, fathers and brothers to the client’s needs. But the story itself deviates from that make believe pretend, and it gets real when they stop pretending and are genuinely affected by the relationships that are forged. I mean, take one look at little Shannon Mahina Gorman, and you can’t not fall in love with this kid, just like Philip does. He did not expect it. He didn’t even know he was looking for anything like that. But in her innocence and in his need to discover who he is and his paternal instincts that he didn’t know he had, something magical happens between the two of them. That’s really what the movie is about, when make believe stops and reality begins.
MF: Takehiro, can you talk about the unusual business that your character operates and why he recruits Phillip for this unique job?
Takehiro Hira: Because he’s a token white guy. Well, to be honest with you, in Japan, if you or let’s say, over the age of 70 and if you have gray hair and a big beard, you can get a job as a Santa Claus. That’s happened. I mean, you will see them all over the town during the Christmas period. So, along that line, you know, he’s found (the right person for the) part.
MF: Finally, Brendan, what was your experience like working with director Hikari and shooting on location in Japan?
BF: Hikari, well, she is her namesake. Light. Fire, energy and light. The experience of shooting and Japan was unique, singular to me. I traveled there several times before, but I was always trapped in a hotel room answering questions to journalists, with respect. So, this time I got to get out into the city, get good and lost, and eat a lot of good food. Make friends with people that I still feel are now my family and leave the experience after having worked with her, knowing that it is true. I do feel I am claimed by the cast and crew of ‘Rental Family’. I’ll be their guy forever, I will. It was so positive.
A lonely American actor (Brendan Fraser) living in Tokyo starts working for a Japanese rental family service to play stand-in roles in other people’s lives. Along the way, he finds surprising connections and unexpected joys within his new family.
Based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won him a series of Nissan-sponsored video game competitions to become an actual professional race car driver.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director Neill Blomkamp about his work on ‘Gran Turismo,’ adapting the video game while telling Jann Mardenborough real life story, why Archie Madekwe was the right actor to play Mardenborough, the VFX he used to simulate the game, and shooting the race car driving scenes.
Neill Blomkamp director of ‘Gran Turismo.’
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Blomkamp, Archie Madekwe and Jann Mardenborough.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about the idea of adapting the ‘Gran Turismo’ video game by telling Jan Mardenborough’s real life story. Was that the key for you in making this movie?
Neill Blomkamp: Yeah, totally. I mean, the thing about the movie that I thought was unique and a different way to approach video game films was this totally unusual approach of it being a biography. His life is very interesting and this combination of real world racing and the drama of the real world where we’re not in the narrative of a video game, but the video game is so integral to his journey and to the movie. I thought that was a really cool and unusual way of approaching a video game movie.
The real Jann Mardenborough on the set of Columbia Pictures ‘Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story.’ Photo: Gordon Timpen.
MF: Why was Archie Madekwe the right actor to play Jann Mardenborough and bring his real life story to the big screen?
NB: I mean, there’s a host of different factors that make Archie perfect. One of the things that we spoke about a lot was just that Jann is a very grounded and sort of warm person. He’s like a really good guy. There’s something in Archie that naturally seems grounded and similar to him. They’re very similar in terms of charisma, but they’re physically totally different. Archie’s 6’6, or some crazy height and he’s not optimal for being a race car jockey, that has to be squeezed into small, lightweight race cars. So physically, he’s cool in the movie, because he kind of lurches over everyone, but he’s very different to Jann in that respect. But I met so many actors for this role and even the first time that I had a Zoom with him, I could just tell that he was the right person. Then I went to London and I met him in person and I just totally loved him. I loved working with him as well. I loved his performance and I also loved the process of actually working with him.
Archie Madekwe as Jann Mardenborough in ‘Gran Turismo.’
MF: Can you talk about the VFX you used to simulate the game within the movie?
NB: Yeah, I mean that idea came from this concept that in the PlayStation or any video game computational device, that it’s running some kind of game engine. It’s calculating in 3D space everything correctly. So when you’re driving it, it’s projecting an approximation onto a screen of roughly what the track looks like. But in reality, it’s genuinely computing like an eight-kilometer long track where the size of the car is correct, all of the mathematics are in fact correct. I wanted to just project that in 3D space and let the audience see what the PlayStation is actually computing. Visually, I thought it was interesting, but the real thing about it that’s cool is, it’s kind of how a real professional sim driver experiences and sees Gran Turismo. So it felt very personal to Jann, even though it’s a cool visual motif, it’s actually how he sees the world. So any place that I could put it that didn’t feel gratuitous or too much of a gimmick, I wanted to include it.
A race from Columbia Pictures ‘Gran Turismo.’ Photo: Gordon Timpen.
MF: Finally, can you talk about the challenges of shooting the race car driving sequences and making those seem as authentic as possible?
NB: I mean the goal with the race sequences was to make it as much of an experiential thing as I could. I wanted to put the cameras in positions that really let you feel like you were on the track, feeling it in a visceral way, almost like you were there as much as I could. A huge portion of that was sound design and also how the sound design would change depending on where the camera’s placed. Then also showing the internal mechanics of the car and the idea with that was, if this is how all the mechanics work, then there’s sort of a G-force or physical stress that’s applied to the driver. It all came back to this idea of trying to feel it through the screen. Then the other thing was for everything to just be real as opposed to using tricks or visual effects. I don’t really want to say visual effects, because we used visual effects, but we used visual effects to amplify what was real. So the basis for everything was always real. Anytime you see one of the actors in the cockpit, they’re really on the track doing that. None of that is fake. It’s a hundred percent real.
Director Neill Blomkamp (center) and the real Jann Mardenborough (right) with additional crew on the set of Columbia Pictures ‘Gran Turismo. Photo: Gordon Timpen.
‘Gran Turismo’ is produced by PlayStation Productions, 2.0 Entertainment, and Columbia Pictures. The movie is scheduled to release in theaters on August 11th, 2023.
Archie Madekwe as Jann Mardenborough in ‘Gran Turismo.’
Opening in limited release in theaters on August 11th and wide on August 25th, ‘Gran Turismo’ is the latest attempt to bring a video game –– sorry, driving simulator as the movie’s characters are at pains to remind us –– to screens. And it’s a mostly successful effort, partly because it has a compelling true story/underdog tale to tell rather than trying to force a narrative onto a title that doesn’t have one.
The movie follows Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a gamer living in the UK who is obsessed with the PlayStation-based driving simulation ‘Gran Turismo’. He’s become a highly proficient driver, rising up the ranks of top players and saving money to buy new gaming equipment even as his parents –– particularly former professional footballer Steve (Djimon Hounsou) –– don’t understand his ambitions.
Jann’s life changes forever when he wins an invite-only GT race, gaining him entry to an exclusive academy set up primarily as a marketing deal between Nissan (driven by ambitious PR executive Danny Moore, played by Orlando Bloom) and Sony. Whoever succeeds at the academy will score a contract –– subject to also securing a racing license by finishing at least fourth in one race –– to drive in Nissan’s professional team for races in Europe and the United Arab Emirates.
After making it through as the champ, Jann faces the toughest test of his life… since racing with trained drivers who have been behind the wheel of real vehicles for years is no mean feat. And he faces snobbish backlash from both pit crews and the drivers he’s competing against. Aided by former driver-turned-mentor Jack Salter (David Harbour), Jann will have to prove he has what it takes on actual tracks such as the legendary Le Mans in France.
A scene from director Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Gran Turismo.’
In a world where video game adaptations have finally started to see real success (e.g., ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ and ‘Mortal Kombat’), the pressure is on for new titles to stand out. ‘Gran Turismo’, which has been in development for years (at one point, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski was in the directing driver’s seat), has an advantage thanks to its hooky roots in Mardenborough’s real-life story, which means it doesn’t have to go the ‘Need for Speed’ route and try to layer a fictional idea over a game that doesn’t have a narrative.
The result is much more effective than that benighted 2014 movie, though it still suffers from a few issues.
Neill Blomkamp was an interesting choice to direct: he’s more known for the sci-fi likes of ‘District 9’, ‘Elysium’ and ‘Chappie’ and more recently took a side-step into shorts and horror. He certainly has a grasp on how to meld the effects with real-world footage seamlessly, aside from the moments where he actually wants to call attention to them (such as Jann’s car breaking apart to put him back in his bedroom before reforming all in one shot to show him channeling his virtual racing experience in a key moment during an actual event), and he knows how to shoot a kinetic racing scene.
Madekwe, previously seen in movies such as ‘Midsommar and ‘Voyagers’ does a decent job of bringing Jann to life, the script from ‘American Sniper’s Jason Hall and ‘King Richard’s Zach Baylin, portraying him as quietly confident but never overly cocky (there’s a stock American fellow driver for that purpose). He’s believably a young man still looking for his place in the world when he discovers this extension to his obsessions.
Yet the person truly deserving of a place on the acting podium is David Harbour, who has spent years perfecting the grumpy veteran dealing with a bunch of younger people on ‘Stranger Things’. His Jack is a highlight of the movie, a former racer himself tinged with tragedy who is grimly unconvinced that any of these “sim” kids can cut it in an actual car before Jann proves he has real potential, and a bond begins to form. Harbour is also the anchor for an amusing montage where Jack washes out one simulator candidate after another.
Oh, and this is likely to be the only video game/sports movie where the hero chills out to Enya and Kenny G.
Where does the movie lose traction?
‘Gran Turismo’ video game from PlayStation.
Which isn’t to say ‘Gran Turismo’ is totally free of issues. Despite the pacey racing scenes, no amount of sweeping drone/helicopter shots and camera positions near wheels can help the fact that an awful lot of what happens on the track is repetitive. There are several moments where Jann is trying to get past his competition, only for them to swerve to block him. It makes for less excitement more checking of the watch as you wonder if there is ever going to be anything else happening.
And even when Jann suffers an accident that shakes him to the core, the fallout seems less than realistic, him refusing to see his mother and father when you know any real parent would have rushed to the young person’s side, no matter their feelings.
In fact, emotion is a big issue for a film as a whole, coldly bringing the story to life with little in the way of heartfelt human reactions. Again, only Madekwe and Harbour moving the needle in any real direction on that front.
And while the cars are running on gas, the film’s plot –– real as it might be –– is solely powered by cliches. There are the family misunderstandings, the wilder sportier brother (played by Daniel Puig, who ironically looks more like the real-life Mardenborough), the rivalry on the track and the snobbish professionals, one of whom drives a gold car. There’s also an entirely unnecessary subplot about Jann’s flirtation/relationship with a girl from his hometown who he follows on Instagram that adds nothing to the story and could have been excised, shortening the bloated 2hr and 15-minute running time.
Yet ‘Gran Turismo’, while it might not be in pole position, has enough entertainment value and certainly skirts around some of the bigger potholes of game adaptations past.
‘Gran Turismo’ is produced by PlayStation Productions, 2.0 Entertainment, and Columbia Pictures. The movie is scheduled to release in theaters on August 11th, 2023.
