Rent Free— the smart, funny, and ultimately provocative new comedy-drama by Fernando Andres— is a true “buddy movie” for a new generation.  Those two buddies are Jordan (David Trevino) and Ben (Jacob Roberts), who have been close friends since childhood.  Jordan, who lives in Austin with his girlfriend Anna (Molly Edelman), is visiting Ben, who is living for free in Brooklyn courtesy of some well-off friends.  On the last day of his visit, the pair– inspired in part by TikTok– challenge themselves to spend the day in New York City without spending any money.  Indeed, they do survive the day in the Big Apple without parting with a cent– by bumming cigarettes, indulging in free food samples, crashing picnics, hotwiring Citi Bikes, and (Trigger warning ahead…) jumping subway turnstiles.  Sadly, a sexual indiscretion by the super-horny Ben leads his host couple to ask him to leave.  Despite Ben’s resistance (“I don’t want to go back to Austin! I’d literally rather kill myself!”), the pair are soon on a plane to “ATX”.  However, shortly after arrival, Anna– fed up with Jordan’s inability to pay rent and lack of a life plan– breaks up with him. As it turns out, the “living for free” for a day in New York inspires the best buds to take on an even loftier goal: Specifically, it’s at the 31-minute mark that the pair decide to live, as the title states, rent free for a year to save enough money to go back to New York.  

As mentioned earlier, Rent Free is the perfect buddy movie as we enter the second half of 2025. The humor– and there’s a LOT of it– is smartly authentic, incorporating all the economic angst and restless energy (sexual and otherwise) of twenty-somethings today.  Unlike Stepbrothers or Dumb and Dumber, this movie won’t kill brain cells.  Rent Free is also a road movie, but unlike Thelma and Louise, for example, there’s a lot more sex and a body count of “0”.  But if you still want to have a Rent Free drinking game, have a shot every time the pair gets thrown out, asked to leave, or leave voluntarily from their new settlement.  (This reviewer, for one, stopped “counting” at seven…) David Trevino as Jordan and Jacob Roberts as Ben have an indisputably idiosyncratic charm; We route for them, and we can even admire them for their dogged persistence to avoid paying rent.  We’re not afraid to laugh both WITH the pair and AT them at the same time.  Most of all, we admire their friendship:  As one of the characters notes, their bond is just as important as a marriage.  The two even briefly separate, but it’s a very short-lived uncoupling.  

In perhaps the movie’s most provocative scene, the pair have no choice but to move in with Ben’s father and brothers in Flower Mound, Texas (Population: 79,445).  This segment could have easily become weighed down in heavy-handed stereotypes of the “city mouse/country mouse” phenomenon.  Instead, it’s nuanced and bordering on poetic, thanks largely to the direction (by Fernando Andres), script (by Andres and Tyler Rugh), and the performance of Bill Wise as Ben’s father.  The supporting cast, in fact, are all fine actors, with some extra acid thrown in by the character of Neil (Neal Mulani).  Every group of gay friends has a “Neil”: someone who can get away with lines like, “I love my chosen family!… Now will you please help me get these FAGGOTS out of my house?!” The cinematography in Rent Free, also by Andres, also deserves a particular shout-out. Andres knows how to fill every frame perfectly; not an inch of screen space is wasted or underused.  There’s one perfect shot of a lavender Austin sky that’s absolutely priceless.  

Rent Free arrives on digital and VOD from Cinephobia Releasing on Friday, June 27th,