Common Sense Media Review
Vibrant musical-based movie has sex, drugs, cursing.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Rent
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 7 parent reviews
Based on 41 kid reviews
Kids say the movie is a deeply emotional experience that beautifully addresses themes of friendship, love, and life's struggles, despite its heavy content involving drugs, sex, and death. While many appreciate the captivating music and the solid performances, they suggest it is more suitable for mature audiences, particularly teens who can process the complex issues presented.
- emotional impact
- themes of friendship
- suitable for teens
- mature content
- captivating music
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
What's the Story?
Based on the hit Broadway musical (which, in turn, was based on Puccini's La Boheme), RENT focuses on eight artist friends who struggle to pay their rent and contend with disease, addiction, violence, and love in a gritty New York City neighborhood. From aspiring filmmaker Mark (Anthony Rapp) to heroin addict/exotic dancer Mimi (Rosario Dawson), each character has his or her own challenges to deal with and demons to face.
Is It Any Good?
An energetic rock musical, Rent features one big number after another. Chris Columbus' movie version of Jonathan Larson's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning big doozy rock musical took nearly 10 years to reach the screen. It focuses on the resilience of a new generation of oppressed "types," assorted victims of prejudice, poverty, addiction, and disease. Featuring six of the original eight stage cast members, Rent is beset by awkward transitions between numbers (song ends, fade out, next song), and exposition conveyed by lyrics. The performers sing their stories and desires, framed by cheesy hooks, sing-talking them when the language just becomes too cumbersome for crooning. (This device, too familiar from Andrew Lloyd Webber works, is either wearying or rousing, depending on your tolerance level.)
Still, Rent does offer up real ideas about class hierarchy. Everyone here is concerned with property -- intellectual, amorous, and geographic -- and no one seems able to work for money, save for Mimi, who spends it on heroin. Mark eventually takes a job with the "sleazy" tv tab show Buzzline, where he learns (as expressed in the song "What You Own"), "When you're living in America / At the end of the millennium, / You're what you own."
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the many topics this movie addresses. How are these topics as relevant today as they were when the musical first came out in the mid-1990s?
How does the movie address the importance of a tight-knit community, and what community means for these characters?
What do you think the challenges would be in adapting a hit Broadway musical to the silver screen?
Movie Details
- In theaters : November 23, 2005
- On DVD or streaming : February 21, 2006
- Cast : Anthony Rapp , Jesse L. Martin , Rosario Dawson
- Director : Chris Columbus
- Inclusion Information : Queer Movie Actor(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Black Movie Actor(s) , Indigenous Movie Actor(s) , Latino Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Columbia Tristar
- Genre : Musical
- Topics : Arts ( Music and Sing-Along )
- Run time : 135 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : mature thematic material involving drugs and sexuality, and for some strong language.
- Award : NAACP Image Award - NAACP Image Award Nominee
- Last updated : February 2, 2026
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