Welcome to another installment in my 2025 Review Stew! This week the shuffle feature on my Letterboxd watchlist chose the viewing. I went with the top result which wound up being…Rent-A-Pal (2020).
Title: Rent-A-Pal
Director: Jon Stevenson
Released: September 11, 2020 (Digital – United States)
Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes
Available to stream on: Kanopy
David (Brian Landis Folkins) is a single bachelor serving as a full-time caregiver to his mother, who suffers from dementia. Because he is her full-time caregiver, it is easier and more practical to just live with her.
While he deeply cares for his mother, he also feels held back by her. Having to constantly be there for her has put a serious damper on his dating life. David turns a video dating service called Video Rendezvous to try and find his perfect match. After a few months of no matches, he decides to go down and re-record his video message.
He sits down and delivers an incredibly heartfelt message only for the camera guy to tell him that men get about 30 seconds for their videos. Flustered and nervous, David tries to fit his whole message into the brief window allotted. As you can probably imagine, the end result is a bit of a mess.
One day, while paying for services at Video Rendezvous, David spots a VHS called Rent-A-Pal. Something about the cover jumps out to him and he decides to purchase a copy. David pops the VHS into the VCR as soon as he gets home and is greeted by Andy (Wil Wheaton). The tape’s format makes it feel as if Andy is speaking directly to David.
However, David is quick to realize that this all seems silly. Andy doesn’t actually listen to him, the tape just uses well-placed pauses in the recording to make David feel like he has a friend and is building a connection.
But what if Andy is actually listening to David…
Rent-A-Pal (2020), from first-time writer and director Jon Stevenson, lures you in almost immediately. David comes across as a genuinely kindhearted man from the moment we meet him. He’s willing to put all aspects of his life on hold in order to tend to his ailing mother. When we see that he is trying to find love through a video dating service, it is almost hard to not root for him.
A big reason for this, in addition to the writing, is the performance by Brian Landis Folkins as David. Folkins is able to get the audience to both pity him and the situation he’s in while also managing to have us respect him and his choices as well.
Is Rent-A-Pal (2020) perfect? No, but overall, I had a lot of fun with this one.
It’s definitely a bit on the weird side but it’s a good kind of weird.
If that’s your thing, definitely try and go in knowing as little as possible.
So, have you seen Rent-A-Pal (2020)?
If so, leave a comment below or reach out on Bluesky and tell me what you thought of it!
As always, you can follow me over on Letterboxd to see everything else that I’ve been watching lately.