The West Bend Current

Few experiences have ever tormented me quite like sitting through a movie where a 20-year-old’s dialogue was written by a 50-year-old.

That is, unfortunately, a necessary evil in an industry such as Hollywood, where to become such a high-ranking writer one must have experience, which requires time and therefore age. However, there are always a few paragons of young talent poking around the indie movie scene. Two of them are Tyler Rugh and Fernando Andrés, who both wrote (and the latter directed) “Rent Free,” a buddy road-trip comedy about two young men trying to last a year without paying any rent in Austin, Texas.

The story manages to be a funny, lighthearted adventure while also tackling themes of homophobia, economic inequality and the unflattering nature of a very digitized modern world. One of the best running gags introduced right after the film starts is that the location titles label not just a home’s location, but its number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the cost of living there. 

Despite a few moments of odd editing and a plot that lacked proper setup, “Rent Free” was one of my favorite films of the entire festival. This is mostly because this is the first live-action comedy that gets Generation Z right. The way the characters talk, the decisions that they make, the values they embody, and everything down to the way that they use their phones feels realistic to modern young adults. Each character seems to struggle with motivation and finding meaning in their lives, while also struggling to coexist with a placeless world. An early scene makes a special point of this, with Ben (Jacob Roberts) bemoaning modern Austin for its “lack of culture” compared to New York, a sentiment hilariously shared by other Austin residents later in the movie. These characters all know where they want to be and how to get there; they simply lack the means to arrive.

It is refreshing to see such an authentic depiction of the modern youth from rising star filmmakers. Usually the spirit of youth during a certain period can only be accurately depicted with the aid of hindsight, but “Rent Free” impressively manages to capture Gen-Z as it is now.

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Down two theaters and about 30 movies, viewers may assume that the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival would be weaker this year, and they would be wrong. This year I saw seven films, each ripe for discussion regarding a different element of filmmaking. To analyze each film’s strength I will offer seven separate analyses.

(Image courtesy of Milwaukee Film.)