''Room for Rent'' is a Canadian comedy/mystery film written and directed by Matt Atkinson. It stars
Brett Gelman
Brett Clifford Gelman (born October 6, 1976) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Murray Bauman in Netflix's horror-supernatural series '' Stranger Things'' and as Martin on the BBC comedy ''Fleabag''.
Gelman bega ...
,
Mark Little,
Carla Gallo
Carla Paolina Gallo (born 1975) is an American actress. Gallo has had recurring roles in the television series '' Undeclared'', ''Carnivàle'', '' Bones'', '' Californication'', and a number of film roles. Since her role on ''Undeclared'', she ...
,
Stephnie Weir
Stephnie Carmel Weir (born November 28, 1967) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is best known for being a main cast member and writer on the Fox sketch comedy television series '' Mad TV'' from 2000 to 2005, for which she got two ...
,
Patrick J. Adams, and
Mark McKinney
Mark Douglas Brown McKinney (born June 26, 1959) is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known as a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, which includes starring in the 1989 to 1995 TV series ''The Kids in the Hall'' and 1 ...
.
It had its world premiere at the
Atlantic Film Festival
FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival (known as The Atlantic International Film Festival until 2017) is a major international film festival held annually in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada since 1980. FIN is the largest Canadian film festival ...
on September 16, 2017, won awards for its 2017 showings at the LA Comedy Festival and Chicago Comedy Festival and its 2018 showing at the
Canadian Film Festival, and won three
Canadian Comedy Awards
The Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) is an annual ceremony that awards the Beaver for achievements in Canadian comedy in live performance, radio, film, television, and Internet media. The awards were founded and produced by Tim Progosh in 2000.
T ...
when it opened theatrically in Canada on October 26, 2018. It was released to
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...
on November 2, 2018.
Plot
In high school, Mitch Baldwin won the lottery and blew all the cash. Twelve years later, he's holed up living with his parents when his dad says they have to downsize their house so he can retire. Mitch insists they rent a room to save from selling their home. Enter Carl Lemay. Carl at first seems like the perfect renter but when he begins upsetting Mitch's routine way of life, a battle of wits turns into all out war.
Cast
Production
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...
took place in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
, Canada in June 2016.
Release
The film had its world premiere at the
Atlantic Film Festival
FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival (known as The Atlantic International Film Festival until 2017) is a major international film festival held annually in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada since 1980. FIN is the largest Canadian film festival ...
on September 16, 2017. This was followed by its US Premiere at the
San Diego International Film Festival
The San Diego International Film Festival (SDIFF) is an independent film festival in San Diego, California produced by the non-profit San Diego Film Foundation. The main event has traditionally been held annually in the autumn at venues in the ...
on October 16, 2017, and its Asian premiere at the
Shanghai International Film Festival
The Shanghai International Film Festival (, French: ''Festival international du film de Shanghai''), abbreviated SIFF, is one of the largest film festivals in East Asia.
"China's biggest film festival" according to the Hollywood Reporter. Nex ...
on June 19, 2018.
The film opened theatrically in Canada on October 26, 2018.
Gunpowder & Sky released the film in the US to
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...
platforms on November 2, 2018.
Reception
The film has an 88% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
. Alan Ng of
Film Threat awarded the film three and a half stars out of five. Norm Wilner of
NOW Toronto
''Now'' (styled as ''NOW''), also known as ''NOW Magazine'' is an online publication based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Throughout most of its existence, ''Now'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper. Physical publication of ''Now'' was suspen ...
awarded the film three stars out of five.
Awards and recognition
References
External links
*
*
* {{Rotten Tomatoes
*
Room for Rent' at
Library and Archives Canada
2017 films
Canadian comedy films
English-language Canadian films
2010s English-language films
2010s Canadian films