Rent Holiday (2018)

An extremely unsettling and provocative film, but absolutely one that should be watched - Holiday review by TB

Films that have anti-heroes can often go two ways: the characters themselves (Hannibal Lecter, Mark Renton, Tyler Durden, Jordan Belfort) become icons and are instantly identifiable and loved for their characters, or are such abrasive characters that people just dislike them and become alienated. Then when you have to spend sometimes 2 hours or more with them, this hatred will really set in and the movie cannot work for you as the viewer. I speak from experience as I am one of it seems very few people who hated and hates Jake La Motta, so Raging Bull was a very long film for me. Conversely, I love Ewan McGregor’s character Joe in Young Adam, who for most of the film is just a duplicitous and unloveable person in almost every way.

This film has at its center an extremely unsympathetic character, who whilst at first you feel sorry for, slowly you just don’t care about and in the ending, you question her entire outlook and ethos. If I was to summarise the film in a short sentence, it’s a film about a group of horrible horrible people who do horrible horrible things to each other. 

But the journey, the slow ratcheting up of tension and the way that this world is portrayed, kept me hooked. Unlike many other films which I have turned off because I wasn’t interested to stay with the characters, even if I did like them, never once did I consider that with this. This film makes you feel many different things and at the end, you do feel genuinely unsettled and thinking about it for a long time afterwards. 

This film has become somewhat infamous due to an extremely upsetting and graphic sexual assault, which has not been cut by the BBFC in this country, a decision which I fully agree with. It is there to show the depravity of the characters and also is not in any way exploitative. Whilst many feel it overshadows the film or is a gimmick, I completely disagree with this. Also for the record, the director, Isabella Eklöf, went to enormous lengths to protect the actors and shoot the scene as safely as possible. 

Finally, for a small independent film/Blu-Ray, the range of special features is a welcome sight. There is a fantastic interview with the director, who goes into great detail about the various elements both in front and behind the camera, plus also a film festival interview and other features.  

Dire - Holiday review by NS

Never has 90 minutes seemed so very long. I have had root canal work that flew by quicker than this. Nothing much happens. Nothing much is said. Characters are two dimensional, acting is poor, script is painful, credibility is low and I had no interest in what happened to any of them - not that much ever did. Not the worst film I have ever seem, but close, real close...

Chilling crime drama from an uncommon POV - Holiday review by AER

A crime drama from the POV of a gangster's girlfriend is very rare, and Holiday is a beguiling, shocking film that plays into our own perceptions of the opposite sex. The violence is short, sudden and shocking (like in real life) but on the whole this cold film is highly-stylised and unlikeable. It's a bleak and relentlessly horrible film, every scene is filled with the promise of violence. It's a tense watch and will be shocking to some, others will be killed off by the pace - however, this is a drama not an action-film. It also has an important message which I won't spell out for potential viewers, and it's a rewarding, unpredictable watch.

Do not watch it with your parents! There is a prolonged scene of unsimulated sex at the halfway mark.