Welcome the Stranger

Alice (Abbey Lee Kershaw) arrives unannounced at her estranged brother Ethan (Caleb Landry Jones)'s mansion. He reluctantly allows her to stay overnight. The siblings have a mysterious mommy issue with their late mother. Ethan's girlfriend Misty (Riley Keough) arrives.

"Hey, stop acting weird.", Ethan tells Alice in front of Misty. That's what I want to say to this movie. Writer/director Justin Kelly is trying really hard to be arthouse worthy with close-ups, mumblecore, a portal to nowhere, and a strange psychosexual mystery. It's trying too hard and being too weird. Abbey Lee has the haunted emaciated look of a supermodel. Caleb looks like a creepy serial killer. They're acting strange for the sake of the movie. It's play acting. It could still be saved by an amazing ending to wrap it up. Instead, it does the amateur move and does it without the kinetic energy to drive it home. This is a slow, long tease to a hollow ending and doesn't explain some of the more weird elements.