Directing: B
Writing: B-
Cinematography: B
Editing: B-

I did something new today, something that felt like a random generator of a new movie to watch even though it wasn’t really: I went to review aggregate website metactitic.com, filtered it to the year 2021, and viewed 2021 film titles (released thus far) sorted in order of the best-reviewed films. Then, I decided, I would watch the highest-ranked film I had not yet already seen, that was either available on a streaming service, or available VOD at a reasonable price. That was how I landed on Stray, today ranked 12th of the list. There are many titles ranked higher that sound very intriguing or promising, but, I do not yet have access to them—either because they are available only in theaters, which I will not return to at least until after I get vaccinated for COVID-19, or because they aren’t available at all, not yet in any general release in theaters or streaming in any form. There weren’t even any ranked higher that were available VOD at the annoyingly high price of $19.99; Stray was just the first, “best” choice, at least according to this source.

And this is how we discover that we don’t want to rely on a single source for movie recommendations—even if said source itself relies on many other sources. First of all, only 11 reviews have yet been collected for this film, which can be misleading: it’s a lot easier to gain a score of 84 when there aren’t as many reviews. Also, I didn’t read any of the reviews. I just decided the concept sounded interesting, I would check it out, and why not since the run time is all of 72 minutes?

It would seem that the Turkish people are just as fond of their stray dogs as they are their stray cats. As a cat person, it should come as no surprise that I found myself far more engaged by that previous film, amazingly now five years old, about the countless stray cats that populate the city of Istanbul, and its population’s enduring affection for them. Maybe someone should do a documentary that’s not so focused on just one species of animal; what’s with the segregation? Kedi never said anything, really, about the stray dogs of Istanbul; judging from Stray, you might think the city is mostly full of stray dogs, with only the occasional meandering cat they suddenly decide they need to chase. Clearly both films are about the city’s affection for stray animals of all kinds. Will we get a documentary film about wild bunnies across the city next? I hope not, I fucking hate bunnies.

I don’t hate dogs, though—I did actually pay to see this movie, after all. And although plenty of other dogs are seen in the course of the film, unlike Kedi’s broad focus on the existence of stray cats all over, Stray picks a specific three dogs to focus on, each of which even have names given to them. In one case there is a group of construction workers at a work site with a fondness for a nearby pack of dogs, and particularly an adorable puppy, which in turn gets affectionately snatched away by homeless teen Syrian refugees.

I’m not sure how much patience a lot of people might have for Stray, even people who really love dogs. There is no plot of any kind, no story to speak of, just a sort of surveillance for a while, of these three particular dogs. There is some memorable imagery, though. One dog lounging on the street, between a train moving one direction and vehicle traffic moving the other direction on the other side of him. He’s a very chill dog in the literal middle of hustle and bustle. Another sequence features a women’s march, in the middle of which two dogs start to mate, and a few of the marching young women joke at the male dog: “Ask her first!” The closing shot is of a dog quietly howling along to an amplified prayer call from a nearby mosque, and I must admit, something about it, to at least a minor degree, was moving.

A clear intent of director Elizabeth Lo is to depict how these dogs interact with the citizens of Istanbul, how affectionate and kind they are to these animals that most other places in the world would just be considered pests. We get snippets of the human conversations, subtitled because it is in Turkish or Arabic, even as the camera always stays at the level of the dogs even when people are around. Every several minutes, the footage switches to a black screen with white titles, either about Turkish history with animals, or ancient quotes that refer to dogs. After centuries of campaigns to exterminate these stray animals, it is now illegal in Turkey to kill or even capture them.

So, Stray is a small glimpse into that world. When it comes to how satisfying you find it as a viewing experience, results may vary.

*Facing life’s challenges as they race forward.*

Overall: B-