Film Review: Stray Shows The “Human” of Superhuman
Stray plays like a crime thriller; giving a grounded sense to its supernatural themes and characters. Of course, you come to the film for its mystic elements, but you stay for its character pieces. To Director Joe Sill, its the human part of being “superhuman” that makes the term more attractive.
Finding out you are apart of an ancient, ancestral magical force might seem “cool,” in perspective, but Karen Fukuhara’s Nori shows it takes a lot of strength to carry generational power. She is bombarded by what she can do, but shows resilience is what happens when you do not know yourself or the world. You fight for yourself through confusion: not clarity. In a way, clarity is the prize of this film and her relationship with Christina Woods’ Murphy proves this.
Nori is so meek, powerful, and quietly noble that you watch as her and Christina Woods’ Detective Murphy solve her how her mother’s murder is connected to her powers. While this is the “main story,” the true one occurs in their blossoming trust. Woods’ plays Murphy as the strongest person to hurt. She is like a wall realizing she has cracks, and her friendship/ journey with Nori is realizing it is okay to have them. Like in most “detective films,” she plays the investigator with a painful past, but adds a twist by making Murphy feel like a walking, raw wound eager to heal. It is in this, again, that Sill goes for the “humanity” of superhumanity.
Whether you can literally summon other-worldly energy or are just a smart person that is good at your job, either way, you go through pain and you need love. Stray, surprisingly, symbolizes this truth. While I love the third half of this film, especially a fight scene that is visually stunning and gritty, the film does not always elaborate why or how Nori and her family have such power. It would have been nice to know more, BUT it doesn’t matter as much because of the bond between Nori and Murphy. Strong, female characters supporting each other as they forgive the past and accept their promise! YES, PLEASE! These women feel lost, and, in some ways, are using each other to overcome a level of trauma and fear.
When you go through a tragedy or find out familial secrets, it does change you, and seeing two women/ strangers be there for each other is refreshing, particularly because of how, literally, dark the film can be. Cinematographically, this film lives in grey, which, again, plays to themes of self-healing and self-acceptance. Overall, its pace and story-telling is perfect, and makes you feel like you have taken quick dive into two lives intertwined by destiny to help each other move on. Stray comes out in theater and digital on March 1.
