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If there’s one thing that everyone can agree upon, it’s that we all love Brendan Fraser. Whether it’s for his work on 1990s classics such as The Mummy and George of the Jungle (Yeah, I said it) or his ‘comeback era’ roles in things like Doom Patrol, The Whale, or Killers of the Flower Moon, Fraser has proven to be a soulful presence onscreen that audiences are drawn to — which makes his next role all the more fitting.

Fraser is the lead in Rental Family, a new movie directed and co-written by Hikari, a Japanese writer and director best known in the US for her work on three episodes of Netflix’s Beef. (She also directed a couple of episodes of HBO Max’s Tokyo Vice.) He plays a down on his luck actor who gets the opportunity to move to Japan and play the role(s) of a lifetime: inserting himself into people’s lives… as a surrogate token white guy.

Take a look at the trailer to see what that actually means:

There’s no getting around it— this movie looks absolutely beautiful and perhaps a little heartbreaking, as well… which makes it perfect for Fraser at this point in his career, as if anyone needed any more reason to fall in love with the actor. Brendan Fraser explores the human condition? My heart. The movie also stars Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Gorman, and Akira Emoto, and was co-written by Stephen Blahut.

Rental Family will premiere as part of TIFF 2025 this September, before being released in theaters November 21.

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