[SXSW 2024] WE STRANGERS -- Class Satire Is Familiar but Amusing

Review by Sean Boelman

Credit: Charlotte Hornsby.

We Strangers is the feature debut of writer-director Anu Valia, who has had a prolific career in the television industry (including on last year’s SXSW selection The Big Door Prize). Unlike a lot of directorial debuts, Valia’s is incredibly lean. Although it does have some flaws, it’s more than interesting enough to herald Valia as one to watch.

The film follows a commercial cleaner who takes a job as a housekeeper for one of her clients, at which point, she enters a web of lies that begins to spiral out of control. From the first few moments of We Strangers, it’s clear that this is another “eat the rich” satire, and the end is telegraphed, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable of a ride.

Valia doesn’t add anything particularly new or insightful to the conversation around the exploitation of the working class by the wealthy and mostly avoids the more contentious implications of her script — like its racial politics. This definitely had all the makings to be a much more cutting satire.

Still, We Strangers feels brisk and entertaining at every beat. It’s fun to watch as the protagonist slithers her way into the lives of her upper-class employers and wreaks havoc, resulting in a few truly hilarious moments. Although it all feels somewhat familiar, Valia does a great job of creating the atmosphere to keep the viewer engaged.

However, the script unfortunately runs out of steam in its final act. Like the volcanoes that serve as a motif throughout the movie, you’re waiting for the film’s conflict to erupt. But when it finally does, it’s not quite the explosion you expect, but a slow trickle of lava. The parallelism is clear, and the social implications are obvious, but it doesn’t lend itself to the most satisfying ending.

The character development in We Strangers is cut from the same cloth as Saltburn and Succession. Although the protagonist isn’t exactly a “good” person, the enjoyment comes from seeing the *worse* people get what they deserve. For most, rooting for the working-class woman exploited by the upper class will immediately be easy, even when her decisions aren’t likable.

The performance by Kirby (the relatively recent mononym for actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste) is really intriguing. She plays it mostly reserved, only to strike with the force of a viper in a few shocking scenes throughout the movie. It’s the type of performance that’s not immediately flashy but will creep under your skin and stick with you for a while.

We Strangers doesn’t reinvent the wheel narratively or thematically, but it’s well crafted and entertaining enough to be intriguing. Although one will wish she had stuck the landing a bit better, Anu Valia manages to avoid many of the most common trappings of the first-time feature director and should at least be praised for that.

We Strangers is screening at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival, which runs March 8-16 in Austin, TX.

Rating: 4/5