Mobile streaming service Quibi's newest movie, The Stranger, starts off intriguingly enough. Aspiring writer Clare pays the bills by driving for a rideshare service. But when her latest fare, Carl, pulls a knife and lets her know that he just murdered a family in the Hollywood hills mansion where she picked him up, Clare's previously normal night becomes the worst one of her life. After escaping Carl's clutches by wrecking her SUV on purpose, Clare discovers that not only does his skill-set include hacking (Of course. What internet troll/incel doesn't know his way around a computer?), but that he'd rather play a game of cat-and-mouse than murder her outright.
Just when The Stranger veers off into predictable thriller territory, Clare meets JJ, who's not only as intelligent and internet-savvy as Carl, he's also Indian-American, which is something that you really don't see very often (if at all) in these types of movies. The movie's even self-aware enough to give JJ a line about his internet know-how making him a cliche'. On the contrary, he's actually a pretty fully-fleshed out character. Even more surprising, JJ's resourcefulness and street smarts keep them alive and off the radar of both Carl and the LAPD (Carl eventually frames them for killing a cop) -- for awhile, anyway. The blonde and the Indian even bond and share an intimate (but non-sexual, of course) moment.
But then JJ is killed off. And he doesn't even go out with a fight! So The Stranger finally becomes the celebration of white feminism that it's been threatening all along (Even after a nameless Latina is murdered, at least we had JJ). By the end of the movie, the white girl who's still carrying her Yorkie (Pebbles) around in a bag outsmarts the cartoonish misogynist and leaves him for dead, finally stepping into her birthright as the film's Final Girl.
In a finale that made very little sense (it's still not completely clear how Clare caused Carl's BMW to crash), the killer is bumped off by a pack of coyotes that appear out of nowhere just in time. That car crash is a pretty good metaphor for the movie itself, to be honest.
Maybe one of these days, Hollywood will realize that slasher films (not too mention most other genres) don't have to revolve around white girls. And they certainly don't have to be the lone survivor.
Just when The Stranger veers off into predictable thriller territory, Clare meets JJ, who's not only as intelligent and internet-savvy as Carl, he's also Indian-American, which is something that you really don't see very often (if at all) in these types of movies. The movie's even self-aware enough to give JJ a line about his internet know-how making him a cliche'. On the contrary, he's actually a pretty fully-fleshed out character. Even more surprising, JJ's resourcefulness and street smarts keep them alive and off the radar of both Carl and the LAPD (Carl eventually frames them for killing a cop) -- for awhile, anyway. The blonde and the Indian even bond and share an intimate (but non-sexual, of course) moment.
But then JJ is killed off. And he doesn't even go out with a fight! So The Stranger finally becomes the celebration of white feminism that it's been threatening all along (Even after a nameless Latina is murdered, at least we had JJ). By the end of the movie, the white girl who's still carrying her Yorkie (Pebbles) around in a bag outsmarts the cartoonish misogynist and leaves him for dead, finally stepping into her birthright as the film's Final Girl.
In a finale that made very little sense (it's still not completely clear how Clare caused Carl's BMW to crash), the killer is bumped off by a pack of coyotes that appear out of nowhere just in time. That car crash is a pretty good metaphor for the movie itself, to be honest.
Maybe one of these days, Hollywood will realize that slasher films (not too mention most other genres) don't have to revolve around white girls. And they certainly don't have to be the lone survivor.
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