Friends and Strangers has some really nice, thought provoking moments what makes you think about yourself, and your position in society as a person. Whether that be literally and relationships around you, or more expanded, that of what you contribute to the culture and position in your country and its history. It has the makings of a really strong debut from James Vaughan but unfortunately the difference between intention and execution is quite large and it makes for a somewhat tedious time.
The first 20-30 or so minutes do a really good job of capturing that sort of, banal, facile state of self importance and selfish pressure society and to an extent, ourselves thrust upon on us in our mid to late twenties. We have this expectation that we need to know what we’re doing, in relationships, in work, in life. There is an expectation to have your shit together and sometimes, there is a sort of sick pleasure (the tortured poet syndrome) we get if none of that is in reach. It’s such an interesting position to explore from multiple different angles because, yes, that period of time is hard and it’s crucial to self exploration and understand but it’s not the “be all and end all” we truly think it is at the time.
And then… it sorta of just descends into this weird, abstract, surrealistic comedy which doesn’t really work. It’s frustrating because there’s some nice cinematic language in there. But it just implodes on itself.
Friends and Strangers has some really nice, thought provoking moments what makes you think about yourself, and your position in society as a person. Whether that be literally and relationships around you, or more expanded, that of what you contribute to the culture and position in your country and its history. It has the makings of a really strong debut from James Vaughan but unfortunately the difference between intention and execution is quite large and it makes for a somewhat tedious time.
The first 20-30 or so minutes do a really good job of capturing that sort of, banal, facile state of self importance and selfish pressure society and to an extent, ourselves thrust upon on us in our mid to late twenties. We have this expectation that we need to know what we’re doing, in relationships, in work, in life. There is an expectation to have your shit together and sometimes, there is a sort of sick pleasure (the tortured poet syndrome) we get if none of that is in reach. It’s such an interesting position to explore from multiple different angles because, yes, that period of time is hard and it’s crucial to self exploration and understand but it’s not the “be all and end all” we truly think it is at the time.
And then… it sorta of just descends into this weird, abstract, surrealistic comedy which doesn’t really work. It’s frustrating because there’s some nice cinematic language in there. But it just implodes on itself.
