Rent Free
Summary
Finding purpose in your mid - twenties aright now is kind of difficult — rising rent prices make it nearly impossible to dwell anywhere notable , a sense of impend doom make it feel as if the future does n’t really matter , and all of this has caused a good sense of melancholy torpidness that could hinder any sort of desire to make meaningful advance . It ’s not all bad , but it also feels like it ’s never been bad , at least for young adult who bump themselves trapped between college life and the erode idea of what it means to be successful in a world that proceed moving the line .
Cast
Rent Free follow the journey of best supporter Ben and Jordan , who devise a program to live without pay economic rent for a twelvemonth . With musical accompaniment from Quaker , family , and unknown , they pilot the shift landscape painting of Austin while trying to overcome their emotional and financial struggles .
Rent Freefinds two best friend — Ben ( Jacob Roberts ) , who is chaotic by nature and is locomote to New York City from Austin , Texas , and Jordan ( David Treviño ) , who is slightly more stable but only because he has a girl who is start out timeworn of helping him hold it all together — in this precise situation .
When Ben ’s lack of impulse mastery leads to a fall out with his would - be NYC roomie , he is ram to repay to Austin with Jordan , where , in a moment of drug - fueled heat , the pair decide to sample to populate for a year without yield any rent . In hypothesis , it ’s a brilliant estimate , one that would permit them to save up for a move back to NYC , but reality is so much bleaker .
Rent Free Is The Perfect Movie For This Moment
Its biting humor hits close to home
Roberts is a Book of Revelation as the messy , innately unmoored Ben . Under the Texas Lord’s Day , he wanders around Austin looking for Grindr draw - ups and working the gig thriftiness , eschewing commitment in all expanse of his life for a wandering lifestyle . His messiness utter to an implicit in immatureness and an involuntariness to rent go of the past — Ben would much rather be back in undergraduate than trying to make a livelihood in today ’s world . While Ben ’s consignment issues are reset the underlying problem , his indecisiveness is only exacerbated by Jordan ’s own peaceful attitude .
On the surface , Jordan seems to have a more strand position and static life-time , but once his family relationship end , he is just as untethered as Ben . He has a long - condition girlfriend and has built a sprightliness with her , but this all comes crumble down — partly thanks to Ben , but also because of Jordan ’s own lack of ambition . The musical theme of dwell rent - free is more Ben ’s than Jordan ’s , but like all risky estimate , it feel like a honest one because someone else is agreeing to do it with him .
There is a destination at the end of this rip - free journeying and , no matter how impossible it seems to reach , it ’s something Jordan and Ben do not allow go of .
Jacob Roberts and David Treviño in Rent Free.
Jordan and Ben peril falling intothe stereotyped shirker function , but Treviño and Roberts , along with author - theater director Fernando Andrés , make the couplet feel wholly material . There is a goal at the end of this rent - free journeying and , no matter how impossible it seems to achieve , it ’s something Jordan and Ben do not let go of . They also , for the most part , maintain their alliance . Formed over 15 years , Ben and Jordan ’s friendship feels rare and perfectly complemental , allowing them to grow in bicycle-built-for-two while still being viciously fair with one another .
Rent Free Is About So Much More Than Friendship
It’s a portrait of a city, and a generation, in crisis
Each place that Ben and Jordan move into gets a form of address scorecard let out the address , chamber / bathroom count , and monthly split . Austin ’s late tech boom has seen rent damage rocket , leading to gentrification and the sanitation of so much of what made the city unique . It ’s a problem that is hitting major cities all over the nation , so it ’s not hard to imagine Jordan and Ben strain to make it elsewhere and bomb nonetheless . It ’s a startlingly honest look at the State Department of things and , though it ’s couched in vitriolic humor , Rent Freeis a sobering look at the current moment for young adult .
Rent Freedoesn’t veer too far into spectacular territory , but when it does , it feels earned , a sobering instant that snaps the blurry edges of our admirer ' perspective into crystal exonerated survey .
The soul - crushing journey of post - college maturity is only compounded by the fact that the world around us is crumbling under the very same pressure . Couch - surfriding as escapism is only a irregular cope mechanics , a playfulness experiment that Ben and Jordan make oeuvre for as long as they can . When reality catches up with them in the suburbs alfresco of Dallas , though , everything falls apart .
Rent Free follows the journey of best friends Ben and Jordan, who devise a plan to live without paying rent for a year. With support from friends, family, and strangers, they navigate the shifting landscape of Austin while trying to overcome their emotional and financial struggles.
Rent Freedoesn’t veer too far intodramatic territorial dominion , but when it does , it feels earned , a sobering moment that snaps the blurred edge of our agonist ' perspective into crystal clear view . It could be saccharine , butRent Freeplays Ben and Jordan ’s revelations with a sense of detached irony , contradictions of sentimentality and nerveless insularism dwell together in discordant concordance . It ’s an apt hit of feelings for a moving-picture show that so nearly captures a generation on the frontlines of prostration and change .
The people we see throughout Ben and Jordan ’s rent - costless twelvemonth , including a hilariously toxic gay span and an overstuffed DIY - esque ranch filled with friends and conversancy , are living different lives on the surface , but they suffer from the same malaise that Jordan and Ben do , a belief of being stick in a mankind that wants nothing to do with you . To keep combat , and to keep being suspect even then , is a ultra act in itself .
Rent Freepremiered at the 2024Tribeca Film Festival .
Jacob Roberts and David Treviño in Rent Free.
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David Treviño and Jacob Roberts in Rent Free.
