Two Distant Strangers (2020)

Two Distant Strangers Review

Two Distant Strangers is a 2020 live-action short film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. It’s a cheap movie.

It examines the deaths of black Americans during encounters with police through the eyes of a character trapped in a time loop that keeps ending in his death. This right off the bat felt cheap to me and rather exploitative. I liked the central character and the actor played him really well, but the cop character was just horrendously written as this stereotypical racist white man who simply felt unrealistic in his one-note demeanor.

At first, it was somewhat interesting to see a time loop done for a serious subject matter such as this one, but it quickly got tiring and senseless. The car drive sequence is the best one in the film as it was wonderful and refreshing after everything that came before it, but even that one was ruined with the aftermath being so damn implausible and dumb that it infuriated me. It’s a manipulative movie that simply does not work.

Two Distant Strangers is a cheap time loop drama with some good moments and fine performances, but the entire storyline rubbed me the wrong way.

My Rating – 2.5