‘Renner’ Review
February 22, 2025 1:33 pm |
Frankie Muniz is back in a big way, delivering a grounded performance that rivals the roles of his youth. He delivers such a role in Renner, a tense game of paranoia disguised as a romance with a science-fiction twist.
Patience is key, diving into Renner (both the film and the character) the audience has to accept that things aren’t entirely as they seem. Renner is an isolated feature, never removing the audience from the confines of our lead’s apartment and hallway, but the claustrophobia of never going outside delivers one of the best payoffs in years!
With such an isolated atmosphere, the film also utilizes just as small of a cast – 4 to be exact. Frankie Muniz plays Renner, an awkward inventor that has created an AI life coach in the vein of his abusive mother’s tone. Renner is a loner, asking a majority of advice from his creation, Salenus as played by Marcia Gay Harden. For those unfamiliar with the voice of Harden, you may recognize her as being the most infuriating factor (purposefully) in 2007’s The Mist. Harden dials in for a robotic approach to his role of Salenus, but a few programmed emotions of manipulation and unease seeps through on occasion when Renner is 1 on 1 with “her”.
One of the key advice Renner requests from Salenus is how to talk to the girl that’s just moved in next door and is on a very coordinated workout schedule everyday so that he can time his interaction perfectly. This neighbor is the wonderfully charming Violett Beane as Jamie, who has been popping up in projects often in recent years – most notable as the lead in the Hulu hit Death and Other Details. After some time together and an awkward encounter after the initial “dinner” invite in which Jamie brings along her mysterious roommate, Chad.
Chad immediately is off-putting, Taylor Gray who portrays the pompous ass that can’t comfortably be in the same room as his soon discovered “sister” while she’s flirting up a storm with someone like Renner. Ammo is loaded as Chad doesn’t act courteous to his new neighbor in any way and is one of the initial times that the well-written screenplay translates such a sudden paranoia to its audience — screaming “something is wrong”. Gray is fantastic as a quite literal Chad, portraying him with an edge to him at every given moment, which makes the finale all the more chaotic.
When alone, Muniz and Violett Beane are dynamite together as their connection over the few days together grows rapidly and fiercely. This is also where the next batch of men paranoia sets in as Salenus and Jamie appear to have opposite considerations for the meaning of love. As this fear grows not only for the audience but for the character of Renner himself, he must then decide what’s best for his creation and the world he wishes to enhance.
Robert Rippberger’s Renner is a slow-burn that starts from an ember of the fire and winds up by the close a blazing ball of orange and red. The film takes what the modern world has naturally become so afraid of and uses it as a way to cause disruption for a man seeking connection. It’s thrilling, at times romantic, but in the most successful of ways it’s suspenseful as you can never quite guess what’s next for Renner and his reincarnated mother in AI form.
Review Simultaneously Published on Cinefied.com
Categorised in: Movie Reviews, Reviews
This post was written by Connor Petrey
Comments are closed here.