''The Strange Ones'' is a 2017 American thriller

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Christopher Radcliff and

Lauren Wolkstein Lauren Wolkstein is an American film director, writer, producer and editor. She is known for directing, writing, and editing the 2017 film ''The Strange Ones'' with Christopher Radcliff and serving on the directorial team for the third season of ...

, and written by Christopher Radcliff. It is a feature-length adaptation of a

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

directed by Radcliff and Wolkstein in 2011. The film stars

Alex Pettyfer Alexander Richard Pettyfer (born 10 April 1990) is a British actor and model. He appeared in school plays and on television before being cast as Alex Rider, the main character in the 2006 film version of ''Stormbreaker''. Pettyfer was nominated ...

, James Freedson-Jackson, Emily Althaus, Gene Jones, Owen Campbell, and Tobias Campbell. It was released on

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

on December 7, 2017, before arriving on

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

and in theaters on January 5, 2018, released by

Vertical Entertainment Vertical Entertainment is an American film distribution and production company founded by producers Richard B. "Rich" Goldberg and Mitch Budin in 2012. History In 2012, Rich Goldberg & Mitch Budin founded Vertical Entertainment, a film distribut ...

Plot

The film opens as a house fire sends a teenage boy, Sam, and a twenty-something man, Nick, on a road trip across rural America. As they head towards what Nick believes could be a second chance, they tell people at diners and rest stops that they're brothers Nick and Jeremiah and on vacation. Seeming jealousy on Sam's part over anyone spending time with Nick soon suggests that a darker relationship exists between the two males. Sam has difficulty interpreting the difference between reality and dreams. Nick tells him that it doesn't matter and that Sam can turn his dreams into reality.

Cast

as Nick * James Freedson-Jackson as Sam * Emily Althaus as Kelly * Gene Jones as Gary * Owen Campbell as Luke * Tobias Campbell as Jeremiah *

Marin Ireland Marin Yvonne Ireland is an American actress. Known for her work in theatre and independent films, ''The New York Times'' deemed Ireland "one of the great drama queens of the New York stage". Her accolades include a Theatre World Award and nomina ...

as Crystal * Will Blomker as Robert * Birgit Huppuch as Dr. Faller * Olivia Wang as Sarah

Production

''The Strange Ones'' is based on a 2011 short film of the same name co-directed by Wolkstein and Radcliffe. The short centers on a man and young boy who arouse suspicion from others at a roadside motel. It features

David Call David Steven Call (born August 14, 1982) is an American actor. Personal life Call was born in Issaquah, Washington. He is a graduate student of the Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. Acting career Call's ...

, Tobias Campbell (who appears in the full-length film), and

Merritt Wever Merritt Carmen Wever (born August 11, 1980) is an American actress. She is known for starring as a perennially upbeat young nurse in ''Nurse Jackie'' (2009–2015), an intrepid widow in the Netflix period miniseries '' Godless'' (2017), and a de ...

Release

The film premiered at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

on March 11, 2017. On May 20, 2017,

and

acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released on DirecTV on December 7, 2017, before its release on video on demand and in theaters on January 5, 2018, by

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 55% based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 5.70/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

David Edelstein David Edelstein (born 1959) is a freelance American film critic who has been the principal film critic for ''Slate'' and ''New York'' magazine, among others, and has appeared regularly on NPR's ''Fresh Air'' and ''CBS Sunday Morning'' programs. O ...

of ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'' wrote the film "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."

Matt Zoller Seitz Matt Zoller Seitz (born December 26, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and film-maker. Career Matt Zoller Seitz is editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for '' New York'' magazine and Vulture.com, as ...

of RogerEbert.com described it as "One of those take-it-or-leave it movies where you either surrender completely to the mood and style of the filmmaking or start questioning what it's leaving out, covering up, or glossing over."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Strange Ones 2017 films 2017 drama films American drama films American thriller films 2017 thriller films 2010s road movies Films about kidnapping in the United States Features based on short films 2017 independent films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films