Stray

I have never bothered to review a movie on IMDb before but I am fuming at the reviews and score given to this movie. So much so that I feel the need to contribute my own review so that people pondering watching this movie can have some real information on it. Lord only knows it's 90mins of my life I cannot get back.

The movie starts okay with an intriguing opening 3mins but then descends into a turgid, embarrassing mess of a movie to such an alarming extent I genuinely thought I had switched channels by mistake. For starters, the overall level of acting is absolutely woeful. Whilst the widower in the opening scenes and the main protagonist can perhaps move on from this movie without terminal damage to their careers, the rest of the screen talent do not get off that easy and I do not expect to see them on that side of the camera again. To say the acting is wooden is an insult to wood.

As for the direction, I've seen better skills showcased at school nativity plays. With the children directing. I'm not really clear on the script and where it was heading but I suspect it started off as a reasonable idea which was much in need of rework but instead it's been thrown onto the screen and implemented in such an amateurish fashion as to kill the idea stone dead.

I would not normally drop such a viscerally negative review (even though it's all true). But for this movie to languish within the otherwise superb IMDb website on a 6+ rating makes a mockery of the whole scoring system. Upon further reading of the other reviews, it blatantly appears that the other 'critic' reviews are either a) bought off by the movie makers b) the actual movie makers or c) quite simply are thinking of another film and are unfortunately confusing this movie with another one. The reviews I've seen are littered with references to Hitchcock and 'film noir' classics but to associate this movie with anything like that is embarrassingly fake. Moreover, to comment that the actress playing the mother was 'refreshing' and the music (I simply do not recall there being any) 'built tension' simply lend themselves to options a, b or c above and nothing else whatsoever.

If this review irritates those involved with the movie, then quite simply you deserve it for accepting the scandalously misleading and false reviews before this one.

To potential viewers, stay away from this movie and beware movies with less than a 100 reviews as it appears quite possible to artificially inflate a movies score regardless of the quality of the movie.

Awful. This "movie" earns all of it's one star glory on IMDb's rating scale with 1 being awful.

I watched, as it dragged along, thinking it will get somewhere. Maybe. 3/4 of the way in to the go nowhere script I stayed to figure out if this was a Lifetime movie about a crazy bee otch, like they all are from that network. I assume it is by the commercial breaks interspersed throughout and the awful acting - if that's what you would call it.

I was successful in figuring out the person who reviewed this before me was obviously involved or related to someone in this abortion. The acting left a LOT to be desired. As for the cinematography described by the other viewer as being so good, well I busted out laughing reading the review. (Hint: if you're going to write the review as a favor, next time dummy down all the Oscar worthy dialogue.) The script was laughable. A sophomore in film school could've done better. The reference to Psycho by the other reviewer was another clue they're involved in the making. This isn't even in the same ballpark!

Do yourself a favor...don't waste any time on even pushing the play icon on this drivel. To exercise even that much inertia is more then "Stray" deserves.

There are only 71 rates on here, so you know there are a lot of fake reviews bumping it up. It has a very low budget feel. The acting wasn't great, but not terrible either. With better directing and production value, it would've hidden many of the actors shortcomings. The story was slow and hard to take seriously. Not the worst I've seen, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Stray is a really interesting indie film. I watch indie films for unique storytelling that you might not see in traditional (and often repetitive) Hollywood movies, and Stray delivers. Director Nena Eskridge and team have created a very complex and meaty role for the lead actress here (Gabrielle Stone I believe is her name) and she gives a good performance. Stray deals with a number of really interesting issues and themes such as vulnerability, violence, and a yearning for family and comfort. The film is tense at many points and definitely had my attention throughout. I'd definitely recommend Stray for those looking for a quality indie suspense film!

After reading some of the positive reviews, I honestly don't think we were watching the same movie. The idea was somewhat interesting but there was no flow to the movie. It just bounced around and you had to guess what happened in the intervals - which there were many. Also, this had to be the worst acting from any of the characters that I have ever seen in my life. It's almost like they pulled these people off of the streets, gave them a script and the next day they just showed up. I don't even want to get into the ending , it was that bad.