THE STRANGER MOVIE REVIEW

Who doesn’t love a good true crime story? Grizzly encounters with sociopaths or serial killers. Dark, slow, suspenseful, and based on true events. Netflix has so many murder shows and movies, those of you who fall asleep to Forensic Files or whatever the new cult docuseries is, will never have a sleepless night. And then there are the based on true event murder movies, which while plentiful, are often not as intense or as captivating as the documentaries lulling you into slumber. And this is exactly the conversation Rae, Neil, and T.C. had after watching The Stranger. This film is inspired by the 2008 murder investigation of Daniel Morcombe in Queensland, Australia. Morcombe’s disappearance was one of the most extensively investigated crimes in Queensland’s and in Australia’s history. This film follows the final stages of the investigation. Mark (Joel Edgerton) and Henry (Sean Harris) have just met. They appear to be complete strangers and begin to get involved with illicit dealings. They go on tense, largely silent drives where they meet with men of questionable morals in parking lots and motels. Over time, Henry begins to trust Mark, which is exactly what Mark needs, as he is, in fact, not who he claims to be. He is an undercover police officer attempting to determine if Henry is the perpetrator of the kidnapping of a teenager years earlier. But, before you decide if that sounds like an intense and engaging story, this description just might be more thrilling than the movie itself.

WATCH HERE

DIRECTED BY: Thomas M. Wright

STARRING: Joel Edgerton, Sean Harris, Jada Alberts, Cormac Wright, Steve Mouzakis, Matthew Sunderland, Fletcher Humphrys, Alan Dukes, Ewen Leslie, Gary Waddell, Brendan Cooney, Jeff Lang

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

T.C. De Witt (Screener Squad)

T.C. De Witt is a multi-awarded writer/director originally from Wisconsin and now based in Los Angeles. His life has been devoted to the arts since he was a child. He’s been a stage performer, playwright, stand-up comic, film and television actor, radio DJ, podcaster published author, recorded musician, and comic writer/illustrator. He is now a professional screenwriter and has been thriving for the past decade, regularly offering his talents to production studios in LA, Chicago, Milwaukee, and internationally in Sydney and Poland. He’s provided content for Amazon Prime, Netflix, and several YouTube partners. His films have screened internationally, and his stageplays have been performed across the country. In the last ten years, he has directed 57 films, 23 episodes of his series The One Minute Rewatch, 300+ episodes of podcasts, and his multi-award-winning short film Screen: Righter screened at the Festival de Cannes in 2016. He has released two feature films, The Princess Knight and A Christmas Sunset. He thrives on collaboration and the thrill of sharing stories in all forms.

 

 

Lyrae Anderson (Screener Squad)

You can call me Rae. You can also call me a film lover. I’ll watch it all — small screen; big screen, and everything in between. I have attended and worked for Fantastic Fest and South by Southwest for many years. I married a film geek as well. While we don’t agree on everything, we agree on our love of movies.

 

 

 

Neil Anderson (Screener Squad)

I first got hooked on movies when I saw Star Wars at a drive-in theater as a kid. Growing up in a small, rural town meant not having access to a lot of movies. In college, that all changed. I couldn’t get enough. I love it all — flicks, films, movies, and cinema. I still have that wide-eyed wonder of that kid watching movies from the back of a pick-up truck at the drive-in.