This unnerving and frustratingly opaque drama focuses on a teenage boy (James Freedson-Jackson) who distrusts his own memories and present reality. The first half shows him traveling with a man (Alex Pettyfer) through upstate New York; when they stop for food, gas, and temporary lodging in a motel, they pay cash and use fake names. There are implications of sexual abuse, as well as flashbacks to a house fire that the pair calmly left behind. The film’s more elliptical second half deals with the boy’s struggle to comprehend his trauma; however, cowriter-directors Lauren Wolkstein and Christopher Radcliff, expanding on a 2011 short, seem more concerned with building an eerie mood around the boy than with revealing what actually happened to him. Ambiguity can be effective for difficult subject matter, but here it ultimately feels like copping out on effectively telling a story.
The Strange Ones
R • 1 hour 21 min • 2018
