The Rentals
2025 · 10m · USA
Directed by Nicholas Andre
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: dark, darkly comic, provocative
An aging wealthy white man undertakes a methodical search to replace his young Black escort, working through candidates as if shopping. A late revelation recontextualizes the whole transactional charade.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Sits in the discomfort instead of editorializing it; that takes nerve. I'm always interested in films that trust the viewer to do the moral math themselves.
The audition-as-commerce structure presented with clinical patience so the racial and economic ugliness festers in the open — that's a serious formal commitment, not a provocation for its own sake. Andre takes a real risk.
Audition-as-commerce structure presented with clinical patience so the racial-economic ugliness can fester in the open is a brave directorial register — Peter Knox getting singled out for liveliness amid the trial-and-error patter helps me trust the casting.