An initial meeting at the lavish house of David (Greg Zimbulis) goes increasingly badly half-drunk when he arrives, Ray is increasingly discombobulated by the sound of a wildly chromatic Giovanni Scelsi string quartet blasted from the mansion next door. In the extended wake of a breakup, Ray is more of a mess than he realizes, but his disappointments aren’t just romantic–hints that he’s a failed filmmaker emerge when he attempts to land a wedding videographer gig. The trip goes badly, and Alice exits the film shortly after they arrive back in Sydney. At the campsite, Ray and Alice spend some time talking to an artist who reminisces about Sydney’s golden ’60s of artistic ferment.
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The title of this 2021 Rotterdam premiere gives some indication of how writer-director-editor James Vaughan’s feature debut unfolds: it takes some time to discern that Ray is the film’s main subject, as he keeps encountering new people and the film seems like it could go in any direction in pursuit of new characters at any point. In Directors, Editors, Interviews, ScreenwritersĪcquaintances Ray (Fergus Wilson) and Alice (Emma Diaz) bump into each other in Brisbane, discover they’re both about to drive back to Sydney and decide to stop along the way for a night of camping-one of the first of many unexpected detours in Friends and Strangers, a fresh, funny and unorthodox rarity of an arthouse comedy.