There are times in life when you catch up with a movie that friends passionately recommended to you, and when you finally get to see it you are so overwhelmed you could kick yourself for not experiencing it in a theater. That’s what I felt when I saw directors Christopher Radcliff & Lauren Wolkstein’s haunting, fiercely original first feature- The Strange Ones.
The film begins like a road movie of sorts, but the viewer is never allowed to get their bearings. Scruffy, handsome Alex Pettyfer plays a man driving a car down backcountry roads with a very young teenager (James Freedson-Jackson). You aren’t sure of their relationship but when they stop at a diner they are careful to avoid police officers who enter the establishment. And when they introduce themselves they claim to be brothers and give fake names. The youngster calls himself Jeremiah. There’s also this strange sexual energy in the air that seems to mysteriously infuse each scene. Whatever power dynamic going on between the two of them seems to shift from moment to moment.
The duo move into a dilapidated cabin deep in the woods. Cinematographer Todd Banhazi fills the frame with evocative, lush, verdant forest vistas but there’s a sense of menace to all of it. As the film progressed I felt this mounting dread as the real picture slowly came into focus. I refrain from adding more of the plot because what’s so unsettling, yet fascinating, is how the movie reveals itself.
I haven’t seen a film that affected me so deeply since Philip Ridley’s equally unique and disturbing 1990 feature The Reflecting Skin. Whatever you do, don’t miss this.