PalCinema Review: Rent Free

A pair of Gen-Zers struggle with adulthood

June 26, 2025

FILM: RENT FREE

DIRECTED BY: FERNANDO ANDRES

STARRING: JACOB ROBERTS, DAVID TREVINO, MOLLY ADELMAN

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

By Dan Pal

I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence but there seems to be a slew of new films and TV series focusing on the difficulties Gen-Z is having adapting to adulthood. Do we blame it on social media? The pandemic? I don’t know. I’m currently enjoying the FX/Hulu series Adults which concerns a bunch of twentysomethings sharing a house. It’s a big, broad, and often very funny comedy. All of the characters have issues with jobs, money, relationships, etc. However, they happily have each other while living in the home of one of their rich friends.

Now comes Rent Free which follows Ben and Jordan, two long-time friends, who can barely scrape the funds needed to pay the rent in their friends’ New York City apartment. For a legitimate reason, they get kicked out and end up back in their home town of Austin, Texas. The guys come up with a plan to save money by living with friends rent free for a year before they make their next big move. (Well, that sounds like a good plan…) Based on what I’ve seen on Adults, Gen Z’ers are pretty generous and supportive towards their peers who are attempting to accept the harsh realities of adult life.

The film takes us from crash place to crash place, providing on screen details as to the costs of the various residences. With few exceptions, their friends seem to be struggling but find plenty of time to drink, get high, and have sex. Along the way characters push the boundaries of their friendships, sometimes leading to anger and frustration. Ben is gay and Jordan is bisexual. They’ve never been intimate before so it seems their relationship symbolizes the deep and personal connection between two friends that have fairly similar values.

You might wonder if they have jobs. Well, Jordan is a photographer which, of course, is not the most in demand job. Ben attempts to make money as a food delivery driver where tips are the keys to success. I’m sure many of us can relate to the difficulty of finding a path towards financial independence in the years after college. It’s tough. Their connections to their families aren’t much better. Jordan’s mother tries to get him to sell crystals. Ben’s father and brothers are firefighters in small town Texas – not the best place for gay Ben. There’s not a lot emotional support on either side.

So, Ben and Jordan keep plugging along. The film as a whole emphasizes their struggle but there is also plenty of humor to be found even when the revolving places to stay become a bit repetitive plot-wise. One might even chuckle at the notion of one friend being laid off his job at a library and another discussing his job evaluating disturbing content on Facebook. The kinds of jobs these people have (and lose) say a lot about the job market for young adults in the U.S. today. Generally, the film seems to be commenting about the state of the country in the 21^st Century. Characters wear t-shirts which proclaim “we’ll never forget 9/11” or “proud to be a firefighter.” Yet, another features the figure of death, labeled as “El Muerte,” and another which says “Screw the world” where the planet seems be destroyed by some outside force. They’re certainly conflicted about what they’re experiencing in the U.S. right now.

So, what is the film (and Adults) saying about this generation? Is it lost in a conflicting world? Is it incapable of settling down? Are they unable to sacrifice immediate gratification? With all of the references to God and Jesus, is spirituality missing? Are these issues particular to only this generation or has it always been a struggle to make it through one’s twenties? A former professor of Ben’s tells him the generation is “all restless and doom” yet even he seems to have problems with personal boundaries. We can look back to similar independent films in the 1990s such as Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming and Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused which suggest younger generations are regularly depicted as having difficulties adjusting to adulthood. We can even go back to 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause and 1967’s The Graduate to see even earlier examples of this struggle.

In the end though this is a film about the friendship between two young men who “get” and need each other as this point in their lives. They also need to work harder to find more serious routes to making it as an adult.

Rent Free arrives on VOD and digital platforms tomorrow.

What are your thought about Gen-Z? Are they experiencing something different than previous generations?