When Fantasy Life begins, it seems to have a strong sense of what it is – a critical trait for any movie. Matthew Shear, who writes, directs, and stars as Sam, opens the film with his character suffering a series of embarrassments in quick succession, and his easily panicked eyes are all we need to get a grip on him. The tone of the comedy and the rhythm of these early scenes are in sync, and allow the actors to alternate between building character and going for a laugh at their own leisure. The style was loose, but I nonetheless felt, and appreciated, the storyteller’s guiding hand. That sense of confidence doesn’t last long. Sam somewhat shrinks into the periphery of the story to make way for Amanda Peet’s Dianne, whose tonal world is welcome, but certainly different. Rather than hold things together, Shear the filmmaker seems to step back, too. The result is a film that only exists in moments: sometimes funny, sometimes interesting, always lacking the cohesion necessary to add up to anything. Peet’s performance is Fantasy Life’s most successful throughline and the strongest reason to watch it, but mileage may vary on whether that’s enough to come away appreciating the film as a whole.
Fantasy Life’s Storytelling Undermines A Film That’s Funny & Touching In Moments

Sam’s life has taken a bit of a tumble. He’s fired from his job as a paralegal; has a panic attack in public, which even leaves a mark; and has to awkwardly explain his inner life to Fred (Judd Hirsch), a therapist and friend of his parents. (Hirsch is, unsurprisingly, great in this scene.) Somehow, this skid lands him a babysitting job; Fred’s wife, Helen (Andrea Martin), offers it to him in the waiting room just after their session. Their musician son, David (Alessandro Nivola), needs someone to watch his three daughters for the night after unexpectedly getting an exciting gig. Sam accepts, and finds himself outmatched almost immediately. Even so, that doesn’t seem to have deterred their parents, and Sam becomes a regular presence. Whether the girls like him much isn’t really of interest to the film; after his first night watching them, we hardly see them together. Instead, we’re focused on his relationship with their mother. Dianne was once a successful Hollywood actress, but had to step away for a few years after struggling with her mental health. Though she’s ready to attempt a comeback, she has to slog through the sinking feeling that the industry has passed her by. In other words, she and Sam are kindred spirits, and it doesn’t take him long to fall for her. That’s how it looks from our perspective, at least. Fantasy Life has a habit of cutting across significant swaths of time, sometimes indicated only by a title card announcing a change in season; months pass between Sam’s first night with this family and our first time meeting Dianne. On the one hand, I can see the appeal of this strategy. Sam is someone who naturally tends to turn small problems into big ones, and Shear captures that feeling in the filmmaking – but when those problems are suddenly left behind, often before they resolve, they lose their power. It’s hard to get hung up on an awkward or failed interaction when everyone involved has probably forgotten it happened by the time you see them next.

Dianne giving a slight smile while seated in a diner booth in Fantasy Life

On the other hand, I think this story structure is the film’s greatest mistake. Shear is interested in the emotional lives of his principal characters, but intentionally or not, these leaps in time develop the individuals at the expense of the context of relationships around them. Dianne and David’s marriage is only sketched out, and where they stand with their daughters is almost completely ignored. Sam’s position in this family is sometimes played for laughs, as when Dianne’s father (Bob Balaban) repeatedly advocates for his firing, but we don’t really know what they think of him, or what he thinks of them. Without that understanding, his romantic feelings for Dianne (and what he does with them) don’t feel all that consequential. Similarly, Fantasy Life is too willing to let things happen off-screen. It’s somewhat obvious about skipping the moments that a less off-beat version of this story might’ve centered around, including another panic attack that happens while Sam is minding the kids, which drives the third act despite being depicted only in its aftermath. This strategy has the effect of heightening the one explosive scene Shear does include, which Peet makes a meal of, but there must have been a way to accomplish that without rendering the rest of the movie less interesting as a result.

There are memorable touches worth carrying forward, most of them clever or poignant bits of writing that the actors deliver with just the right tone. But Fantasy Life feels like less than the sum of those parts. After it ends, without more lasting connective tissue, whatever there was to hold onto slowly dissolves. Fantasy Life releases limited in New York on March 27 before expanding to theaters nationwide on April 3.

Release Date

March 27, 2026

Runtime

91 minutes

Director

Matthew Shear

Writers

Matthew Shear

Producers

Amanda Peet, Charlie Alderman, Chris Dodds, David Bernon, Emily McCann Lesser, Sam Slater, Philip Keefe