Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein | The Strange Ones / 2011

the conundrum

by Douglas Messerli

 

Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein (screenwriters and directors) The Strange Ones / 2011 [14 minutes]

 

Screenwriters and directors Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein have crafted a purposefully illusive tale in The Strange Ones, the kind of story that too often appears in newspaper headlines, where suspicion, doubt, and reality rub up together enough to make one fear an unknowable world where truth is nearly impossible to discern.

    A man (David Call) and a boy (Tobias Campbell) traveling together in a car find their auto stalling out, the elder of two telling the boy to grab his stuff, as the two are forced to hike it to get help.

     Before long, the two, sharing a large container of water, grow weary and worn out, particularly the boy, who finally sits, refusing momentarily to go further. The man gently tells the boy: “I know this sucks. But we just have to go a little bit further, and we can get a ride and we won’t have to walk anymore.”

     Soon after they spot a motel. After checking it out there seems to be no one else around, so the boy strips and enters the pool. For a moment there seems to be a real rapport between the two, the boy admitting to the man, “I didn’t mean that before. I was just kidding.” The man responds with a smile, “I know.”

    A cleaning woman (Merritt Wever), possibly the motel manager has by this time spotted them, and approaches the man, obviously ready to kick them out.

     After a dive, the boy rises to see the man talking with the housecleaner.

     The man has evidently explained to “the nice lady” that the two of them, younger and older brothers, are on a road trip to see their mother.

     “I was just telling her how we’re going to visit mom in the hospital,” the man seemingly coaches the boy.  

    The cleaning girl suggests that when she finishes up that she can give them a ride to the tow company that’s not to far away, the man seemingly appreciative, while the boy interrupts the conversation to declare that he’s thirsty.

     The helpful lady points to a machine in the back, and the man goes over to get a can soda.

     Meanwhile, the boy shares a story which immediately changes everything. She wonders where the coming from, the boy responding “nowhere.”

      “I thought he told me you were coming from Cantonment.”

      He’s lying, insists the boy. “If that’s what he told you, he’s lying.”

      “Why would he lie?”

      “Because he’s a liar.”

      “That’s not really a very nice thing to say about your brother.”

      “He’s not really my brother. He’s a kidnapper. And a drug addict. And a rapist. He kidnapped me and molests me all the time. He says we’re in love.”

      She looks back at the man pounding the stubborn machine.

      He talks further about there having been on TV, that his parents are looking for him and they hired a psychic “She said I was dead. You know, you should probably get out of her before he comes back. …I mean he’s probably planning on killing you. And raping you. And stealing your car. I mean we’re lost right now and he’s getting kind of desperate.”

       She looks back again at the “brother.”

       “You should probably run.”

      Then, just as suddenly, the boy adds, “Just kidding,” the very same words he earlier said to the man.

        Neither she nor the audience now as any ability to know what is true. Is the child disturbed, creating a reality that he has heard from TV or the internet. Or is he attempting to reveal the truth, asking in a roundabout way for help?

      The woman rises and walks off.

      The man, returning, wonders what he said to her.

      “Nothing,” declares the boy. “She just left.”

       “She was going to give us a ride.”

       “Yeah, well she was gross, and she made me sick.”

     The last sentence is perhaps the most revealing of all, suggesting the boy is, in fact, mentally disturbed.

     But what follows is even more shocking, as the man immediately slugs the boy in the face. Obviously, he is violent, reacting in such a manner with a child in unforgiveable, even if the boy might be living in a deluded reality.

      Looking out from the closed motel door, the cleaner sees the man grabbing up his duffel and pulling the boy away. She observes the man seemingly kissing the boy several times in order seek his forgiveness, as the boy turns back, revealing a blood have dripped down from his nose to his lip.

      Something is obviously going on between the two, and we can only hope that she might call and report their odd behaviors.

      This short film is self-evidently not about LGBTQ behavior, but concerns possible pedophilia which coincidently involves male on male sex. It is important not to confuse the two, although as I have often argued previously, it is a necessary topic in the large picture of queer behavior.

 

Los Angeles, October 10, 2024 / Reprinted from My Queer Cinema (October 2024).