Fantasy Life

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2:15

Fantasy Life

R

Mar 2026

1h 31m

Romance

Comedy

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

83%

Tomatometer

35 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

An anxious law school dropout (Matthew Shear) stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist's three granddaughters and falls for the girls' mother (Amanda Peet), an actress in a rocky marriage. A smart, New York-set romantic comedy co-starring Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet, and Holland Taylor. Winner of the SXSW Narrative Feature Audience Award.

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Peter Travers

The Travers Take

4h

3/4

Amanda Peet fans rejoice! This tale of broken connections returns this acting sorceress to films, after 10 years, playing an aging star out to restart her career and her love life. She’s funny and fierce in all the right places.

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Thelma Adams

AARP Movies for Grownups

5h

4/5

Sometimes a great cast overflowing with character actors can elevate an otherwise modest comedy. That’s true of this charmingly offbeat rom-com.

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Kyle Smith

Wall Street Journal

1d

As a love story, “Fantasy Life” isn’t particularly original, but the low-key way Mr. Shear realizes some familiar situations is warm and human, with comic aspects and sad ones kept in an appealing balance.

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Isabella Soares

Collider

33m

7/10

With less of an emphasis on romance and more on the platonic connection between two lonely individuals, Fantasy Life is a tender reminder that having a friend to rely on in times of need is all that's necessary to carry on.

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Al Alexander

Movies Thru the Spectrum

8h

C-

"Fantasy Life" isn’t a terrible film (it won the audience award at the 2025 SXSW fest), but it’s also not a very good one. It just sorta exists without purpose or meaning, rendering it less a fantasy and more a mind-numbing hallucination.

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Leo Brady

AMovieGuy.com

14h

4/4

Fantasy Life becomes a beautifully observed slice of life- filled with humor, charm, romance, and a disarming sense of honesty. It’s a remarkable first feature.

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eli

2d

The kissing scenes and the story

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Stephen C

@bob25009 8h

Funny in 1 hour and 31 minutes.

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Michael Y.

@michaelyonis Mar 20

Absolutely horrible movie. It was so dry and boring, that I almost fell asleep in the roughly 30 minutes I watched of the movie before walking out of the theater.

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Mike K

@mike65401 Mar 19

The only redeeming quality was Amanda Peet. I'll watch any movie if she is in it. I'm not really sure how the actors got talked into being in this movie. And it didn't have an ending.... it just stopped and the credits started rolling.

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Mariah H

@RT32502740 Mar 17

I saw this less than 24 hours ago and it actually beat out the Nirvanna movie for worst movie I've seen in a while. The actors weren't the issues, it was the pointless drawn out storyline, like you were watching a boring life unfold with a lot of forced drama. The angles they filmed from were also awkward. The end felt rushed and had no definitive marker; felt like just another scene. Only knew it ended because of the credits. Hardly any laughter in the theater, so not sure how this was a comedy. Perfect movie for putting the audience to sleep, as we discovered. Definitely not worth a full price movie ticket. I would have turned the movie off if it was on a streaming service. I know indie films can be a little different, but this definitely was not worth the power, money, or film/storage used to create it.

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Teresa L.

@tlewiswatts Mar 17

I didn’t ever feel that the lead character—who also wrote & directed this boring story—had any appeal. I kept waiting for this film to pick up & do something, & it just dripped along until it finally ended! A total waste of an hour & a half I’ll never get back—except for seeing Amanda Peet, who I honestly didn’t recognize until well into the film…Holland Taylor & Judd Hirsch were great to see, as was Andrea Martin. If this is a “comedy”, then I never want to see a modern comedy again.

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Matthew Shear

Director

Amanda Peet

Dianne

Matthew Shear

Sam

Alessandro Nivola

David

Judd Hirsch

Fred

Bob Balaban

Lenny

Fantasy Life: Trailer 1

2:15

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Synopsis

An anxious law school dropout (Matthew Shear) stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist's three granddaughters and falls for the girls' mother (Amanda Peet), an actress in a rocky marriage. A smart, New York-set romantic comedy co-starring Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet, and Holland Taylor. Winner of the SXSW Narrative Feature Audience Award.

Director: Matthew Shear
Producer: Charlie Alderman, Christopher Dodds, Amanda Peet, Phil Keefe, Emily McCann Lesser, David Bernon, Sam Slater
Screenwriter: Matthew Shear
Distributor: Greenwich Entertainment
Production Co: Prospect Avenue, Burn Later Productions, Made By Limbo, AC3 Media, Charlie's Production Company
Rating: R (Brief Drug Use|Some Sexual References|Language)
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 27, 2026, Limited
Runtime: 1h 31m
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.66:1)

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