2025 Middleburg Film Festival Day 4: ‘Is This Thing On?,’ ‘Rental Family,’ ‘Wake Up Dead Man’
The final day at the Middleburg Film Festival felt refreshingly low-key, a welcome breather after the whirlwind of films, panels, and parties. Don’t get me wrong, those days are fantastic, too. But by day four, it was nice to just sink into the silver screen, catching three films that were first-time viewings for me.
Kicking things off was Bradley Cooper’s newest directorial venture, Is This Thing On?, his third time at the helm, featuring Will Arnett (who penned the script alongside John Bishop and Mark Chappell) and Laura Dern as a duo navigating the gentle unraveling of their marriage.
This gem of a film unfolds as a gentle, heartfelt portrait of parting ways with kindness intact, spotlighting how folks fall upon quirky and unique paths to heal from heartache. Arnett’s Alex Novak, unraveling amid the split, stumbles into open-mic nights by chance, where spilling his personal chaos onstage becomes an unexpected salve for the soul. At its core, the story probes the hidden burdens we carry and the mercy and grace we owe ourselves amid life’s twists. One standout moment has their pals, played by Andra Day and Sean Hayes, spontaneously bursting into a kitchen rendition of “Amazing Grace,” a raw, harmonious nod to self-forgiveness.
I think, somewhere along the way, we stop giving ourselves the grace that is needed. And maybe the reason things don’t often work out is because we lose ourselves in the hustle of life. Being a husband. Being a dad. Being a working professional. Life has a way of stealing our true selves from us. It’s only when we give ourselves the grace and time to rediscover who we are that we are able to find true happiness. I found that central theme of the film to be full of hope and joy, even if it required a somewhat sad story to tell it.
Is This Thing On? ranks among the best films of the year: whip-smart writing laced with sharp wit and unflinchingly real, life-affirming storytelling. Arnett and Dern shine with effortless chemistry up front, while Cooper is a scene-stealer in his supporting role. As a director, he’s batting a perfect three-for-three. (A-)
The flipside of that coin is Hikari’s Rental Family, a dramedy that dives headfirst into Japan’s well-established “rent-a-kin” sector, where more than 300 outfits dispatch performers to fill the voids in clients’ emotional landscapes, be it a stand-in sibling for a lonely holiday or a faux lover to ease the sting of solitude.
At the heart of it all is the service’s ironic gift: mending hearts for the hired while handing out gigs with genuine heft to out-of-work actors like Brendan Fraser’s Phillip Vandarpleog, a faded thespian scraping by in Tokyo. Fraser brings his trademark pathos to the part, capturing Phillip’s initial recoil from the gig’s inherent fakery (the scripted hugs, the rehearsed tears) as if it’s just another soul-sucking audition. But as he slips into a parade of personas, from a fiancé at a wedding to a returning long lost dad, the lines blur. What starts as paid pretense morphs into messy, unscripted bonds, pushing Phillip to trample the company’s no-strings code in ways that feel both reckless and achingly human.
Rental Family is a good litmus test for your level of cynicism. It’s sweet and well-intended, but unlike Is This Thing On?, it feels very manufactured and unnatural (much like the product they’re selling to customers in the film). My eyes rolled at the saccharine dialogue more than they teared up, though the Middleburg crowd seemed to eat it up. (C-)
The festival closed with Wake Up Dead Man, Rian Johnson’s third entry in the Knives Out murder-mystery series. Daniel Craig once again dons the drawl and dapper flair of Benoit Blanc, the flamboyant detective whose southern charm and razor-edged wit remain irresistible.
Like its predecessors, Wake Up Dead Man twists the whodunit form with Johnson’s trademark inventiveness and social bite. While the first two films skewered class warfare and elite privilege, this one turns inward, exploring faith, guilt, and corruption. The story unfolds almost entirely within a neo-Gothic 19th-century church, trading marble estates for candlelit decay and giving the film a more haunting, spiritual edge.
Johnson’s humor still crackles, especially through Blanc’s deadpan barbs and the ensemble’s fumbling confessions amid the stained-glass glow. Josh O’Connor and Glenn Close deliver the standout performances: O’Connor as a brooding acolyte torn by violent impulses, and Close as a steely matriarch whose icy composure fractures just enough to expose something raw and riveting.
It does not quite reach the knife-sharp precision of the original Knives Out, but it is a leaner, more intimate, and far more affecting film than Glass Onion. A quietly chilling, wonderfully crafted addition to the Blanc saga. (B)
The Middleburg Film Festival traditionally wraps with the announcement of its three audience awards: Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary, and Best International Feature. Last year brought a rare tie in the Narrative category between Conclave and September 5. In the twelve years since Middleburg began presenting the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature, ten winners have gone on to receive Best Picture nominations, a remarkable track record that speaks to both the taste and demographic overlap of its festivalgoers.
History repeated itself this year with yet another tie. The first winner, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, continues to dominate the festival circuit, collecting audience awards like infinity stones after similar victories at Toronto and Mill Valley, as well as the critics’ unofficial prize at Telluride. That said, Hamnet has yet to face its biggest Oscar-season rivals—One Battle After Another and Sinners—at any of these festivals, so its current streak mostly reinforces that it’s built for a preferential ballot. Still, it’s an undeniably strong run.
The second Narrative Feature winner was Hikari’s Rental Family, which didn’t come as a huge surprise. After seeing it, I tweeted that the crowd ate it up, and based on that reaction, I suspected it might take the award.
The Audience Award for Best Documentary went to The Cycle of Love, which I’m eager to catch up with after hearing raves all weekend from festival attendees. There was a strong, passionate reaction to this film, unlike any I’ve seen from a documentary at Middleburg.
The Best International Feature honor went to The Voice of Hind Rajab, winner of the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at Venice and Tunisia’s official submission for this year’s Oscars.
Another stellar year for Middleburg, one of the best-run, most thoughtfully curated film festivals out there, and one I’m always grateful to attend.
- 2026 Oscar Predictions: The Awards Alchemist’s Updates With Festival Awards and Heading Into Critics Season - November 4, 2025
- 2025 Middleburg Film Festival Day 4: ‘Is This Thing On?,’ ‘Rental Family,’ ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ - October 20, 2025
- 2025 Middleburg Film Festival Day 3: ‘The Secret Agent,’ ‘A House of Dynamite,’ Critics Chat and the Annual Concert Celebration Featuring Kris Bowers - October 19, 2025
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