Parents' Guide to The Strays

Unfortunately, this disappointing thriller reinforces common stereotypes about Black men and Black mothers. Despite being based on a true story, The Strays, at best, tries yet fails to comment on unjust racial inequalities that led to people making bad life decisions. At worst, this movie can be understandably seen as irresponsible for the ways it depicts Black men and Black mothers. The first half of the film is accompanied by a near constant and ominous score that's meant to dramatize what Cheryl/Neve is feeling inside, which is presumably terror that her past (as a "real" Black woman) will be found out in her current affluent and White environment, but this treatment only reinforces the tired and racist alignment of Black women with being "crazy." The film also doesn't address in a smart way how all the White people in the film seem unbelievably rational, calm, and perfectly fine, while any time "Blackness" appears (like in the form of a Black man), ominous music plays, threatening shots jolt the viewer, and violence happens almost instantly.

This is particularly offensive when the former children of Cheryl/Neve do actually appear (beyond her initial "crazy visions" of them). Inexplicably, the now-adult man and younger sister (that Cheryl/Neve abandoned to a "bad, abusive father" back in her past life) actually return with menace to terrorize their mother and her new family. With venom and violence, the man teaches his stepbrother how to smoke cigarettes, get high (weed), and commit violence (by beating up a racist peer). This man is often shown angry and violent, ultimately torturing and killing the White father, which only further emphasizes how Blackness "equals" criminality and violence. Many children are abandoned but don't grow up wishing violence and terror on their abandoners. Why tell this story? Why tell it in this way and from this perspective? What does the viewer come away with? For some this movie will be simply a failure in that it's a thriller that builds up to an unsatisfying and empty climax, but for others, this movie will be straight up offensive, racist, and irresponsible.