Fantasy Life is a 2025 American comedy film, written and directed by Matthew Shear, in his directorial debut. It stars Amanda Peet, Shear, Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet, Jessica Harper, Holland Taylor and Sheng Wang.
It had its world premiere at the 2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 8, 2025. It was released in the United States on March 27, 2026.
Contents
Premise
After being laid off, a paralegal begins babysitting his psychiatrist's granddaughters, and falls for their mother.
Cast
Amanda Peet as Dianne
Matthew Shear as Sam
Alessandro Nivola as David
Judd Hirsch as Fred
Bob Balaban as Lenny
Andrea Martin as Helen
Zosia Mamet as Jenny
Jessica Harper as Toby
Holland Taylor as Dr. Greene
Sheng Wang as Alan
Sophie von Haselberg as Becky
Release
It had its world premiere at the 2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 8, 2025. In May 2025, Greenwich Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released in the United States on March 27, 2026.
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of 71 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.70/10. The website's consensus reads: "A sensitive romantic dramedy enriched with emotional maturity and a terrific turn from Amanda Peet, Fantasy Life is refreshingly grounded in plausible reality." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
In 2025, the jury at South by Southwest awarded Peet the Narrative Feature Competition Special Jury Award for Performance.