The Strange Ones

Name: The Strange Ones
Director: Lauren Wolkstein
Released: 2018

2018

Synopsis

Mysterious events surround the travels of two brothers as they make their way across a remote American landscape. On the surface all seems normal, but what appears to be a simple vacation soon gives way to a dark and complex web of secrets. This is the feature film version of the 2011 short film going by the same name.

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Recommendations

83
IndieWire
Its atmospheric sophistication holds strong throughout, channeling a wonder for the natural world reminiscent of Terrence Malick with an air of existential dread straight out of Andrei Tarkovsky.
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)
The arty but suspenseful drama The Strange Ones is a perfect demonstration of how the craft of storytelling is also the craft of withholding — of revealing as little as possible in carefully parceled-out amounts.
74
Paste Magazine
The Strange Ones is a solid movie on first watch that becomes a seriously good movie on second watch. Maybe that’s a poor framework for an endorsement, but the film is more than the shock of its climax.
70
Los Angeles Times
It’s an artful, boundary-pushing debut from Radcliff and Wolkstein, with breakthrough performances from Freedson-Jackson, and Pettyfer, perhaps signaling a new direction in his career.
67
The Film Stage
Well-acted by lead James Freedson-Jackson, the film takes its subject matter more seriously than it takes its plot. It’s one of those films that captivates in the moment until it all falls apart.
63
RogerEbert.com
The film is worth seeing because, regardless of things that I wish had been done better or differently, it feels like the beginning of a major filmmaking career, and because Pettyfer and Freedson-Jackson are so strong.
50
The Hollywood Reporter
However nuanced and artful, the nightmarish unease is laid on so thick that, in combination with the cryptic narrative, it gradually turns to murk.
38
Slant Magazine
The film's mixture of sensationalism and self-conscious artiness is experimentally disingenuous at best.