Friends and Strangers

{{No plot|date=February 2024}}

• Fergus Wilson as Ray
• Emma Diaz as Alice
• Greg Zimbulis as David
• Steve Maxwell as Wes
• Poppy Jones as Lauren
• David Gannon as Miles
• Ion Pearce as Lauren's father
• Victoria Maxwell as Diana
• Jacki Rochester as Carol
• Amelia Conway as Louise
• Malcolm Kennard as Jay
• Jayden Muir as Sam
• Stefan Solomon as Patrick
• Eliza Oliver as tour guide
• Kat Try as hairdresser

Rotten Tomatoes lists {{nowrap|18 critics}} with 13 assessed as fresh and 5 as rotten. It gave the film a score of 72%.{{cite web | url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friends_and_strangers | title=Friends and Strangers | website=Rotten Tomatoes | accessdate=September 13, 2023 }}

David Stratton, writing in The Australian, gave it 4 stars. He begins "Friends and Strangers is a strikingly original new Australian film from writer, director and editor James Vaughan. Tantalisingly enigmatic, it is on the surface about the various contacts and encounters made by Ray (Fergus Wilson), a diffident freelance video cameraman."{{Citation | last= Stratton | first= David | title= Intimacy writ large | url= | periodical= The Australian | date= 19 March 2022}}

Jane Freebury in the Canberra Times gave it 4 stars. She notes "Friends and Strangers is clearly about class, generational conflict and colonialism, but writer-director James Vaughan offers up a main character who doesn't really know what he wants in life, let alone how to get it, and there is little in the way of a narrative arc."{{Citation | last= Freebury | first= Jane | title= Friends and Strangers captures the zeitgeist of a disaffected young generation | url= https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7660498/capturing-the-zeitgeist-of-a-disaffected-generation/ | periodical= Canberra Times | date= 19 March 2022}}

The Age's Jake Wilson also gave it 4 stars writing "For all its quizzical menace, Friends and Strangers is an oddly enticing film, not immune to the allure of affluence and leisure and committed to gratifying the viewer with a stream of small surprises."{{Citation | last= Wilson | first= Jake | title= Misadventures of a bumbling man-child make for one special Australian movie | url= https://www.theage.com.au/culture/movies/bumbling-man-child-out-of-his-depth-it-must-be-a-new-australian-film-20220309-p5a34d.html | periodical= The Age | date= 9 March 2022}}

Leslie Felperin of the Guardian gave it 3 stars saying "The way Vaughan and his team film and edit the movie, using lots of still long takes, suggests we’re either supposed to think it’s all comic or profound. In the end it’s neither, but not uninteresting."{{Citation | last= Felperin | first= Leslie | title= Guardian | url= https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/nov/08/friends-and-strangers-review-wanderings-around-sydney-make-for-deadpan-drama | periodical= The Guardian | date= 8 November 2021}}

Writing for RogerEbert.com Tomris Laffly gave it 2/4, saying "this ambiguously humorous film with a shaky pace and viewpoint sets forth a tough proposition: will you be patient for its 80+ minutes of running time, accept that nothing much will actually happen throughout that duration and settle for occasional jolts of rewards only?"{{Citation | last= Laffly | first= Tomris | title= Friends and Strangers | url= https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/friends-and-strangers-movie-review-2022 | website= RogerEbert.com | date= 25 February 2022}}

Reviewing in the New York Times Ben Kenigsberg gave it a NYT Critic's Pick stating "While the pieces don’t necessarily fit in obvious ways, that’s presumably the point — and part of what makes Friends and Strangers so singular."{{Citation | last= Kenigsberg | first= Ben | title= 'Friends and Strangers' Review: G'day, Mates | url= https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/movies/friends-and-strangers-review.html | periodical= The New York Times | date= 24 February 2022}}

• 11th AACTA Awards
• Best Editing - James Vaughan - nominated{{Citation | last= Zion | first= Lawrie | title= No short-priced favourite this year | url= | periodical= The Australian | date= 25 November 2005}}

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• {{IMDb title|id=13698742|title=Friends and Strangers}}

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Category:2021 films

Category:2021 drama films

Category:Australian drama films

Category:2020s English-language films

Category:2020s Australian films