Stray

Character creation is quite effective in the early part of the movie, and I wanted to know what was going to happen to these people. However my interest was squandered by long, s-l-o-w scenes, some of them apparently quite pointless. There is little to sustain interest or sympathy with the protagonists. And the editor should have gone snip! snip! at just about every point. I finally found the way to watch the movie, which was with the fast-forward on. There's not much dialogue, so you're not missing much. The male character is an unattractive young man, and the female lead is too old and too good looking for her part. As you'll gather, I didn't like it and can't recommend it. Not a competently made movie.

I expected nothing when I turned on this movie, except a decent story. And it didn't even have that. Man, this was a chore to sit through. I couldn't even get in to the character of Jack (the male protagonist) to empathise with his pain. If I'm not feeling what a character is feeling, then the story has failed its duty. Even though the actor was solid in expressing inner turmoil, I just couldn't get in to Jack's shoes to understand where he is coming from, and what's he regretting or is traumatised about. It pretty much felt superficial to me. Only, if there was more of a reason to care for Jack, other than him being an aimless mumbo-dumbo with much depth to his character, I'd have rated the film much higher.

The female protagonist, Grace, is also a blank slate of a character who, coupled with Jack, has nothing much to do until way into an hour or so. The sexual tension between Grace and Jack, when they first meet, is released so quick, random and abrupt, that I started laughing my butt off. The only redeeming things from this would be the excellent camerawork, solid sound design, and a bravura central performance by Keiran Charnock. Other than that, this film only adds to the countless forgotten films of our world that only tell pretentious and surface level stories, with long and extended shots where nothing happens visually, narratively or thematically.

My Rating : 7/10

"Relating a person to the whole world: that is the meaning of cinema."

The reason cinema exists is to comfort the jolted and jolt the comforted. 'Stray'- the title is very deliberately both noun and verb - is an understated fable of loss, alienation, banishment and - maybe - hope. (From Stuff NZ)

The film uses glimpses one after the other to reveal itself. It's a buzz best enjoyed alone in darkness. I watched it at the Dorothy Browns Cinema in Arrowtown, a place near Queenstown in New Zealand.

Lots and lots of beautifully striking static framing.

It says a lot without elaboration of everything, why is it necessary to spoon-feed everything to the viewers?

It reminded me of a lot of movies and yet nothing at all. Maybe Bresson's Mouchette or the recent Manchester By The Sea or maybe a more Tarkovsky-esque chilly poetic touch albeit more straight forward and uncompromising?

The film ends itself unapologetically in an abrupt manner which flys in the face of conventional filmmaking where everything needs some degree of resolution. It doesn't leave anything open to interpretation either which I found superbly brilliant. It's effective. It isn't exploitative of its main characters which is quietly powerful too. A movie experience akin to something impossible to answer: What makes us human? When do many grains of sand become a pile of sand?

It leaves you perhaps with the same emotions the characters feel like with some semblance of a solution. A textbook slow-burn movie. Not for the average movie-goer.

This incredible film was created by a film-maker with a certainty of vision, executed beautifully, and without overdoing the acting and plot, it left me feeling disquieted and edgy - exactly what it was meant to do.

An exceptional piece of filmmaking. Really can see such a clear vision in the direction and loved the sense of restraint as well as the spaciousness. The cinematography was incredible too, which is to be expected with Ari!