We Strangers
After cleaning his office, Rayelle Martin (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) is asked by Dr. Patel (Hari Dhillon) whether she would be willing to clean his house on a one-to-one basis, outside of her agency. Eager to make some extra cash, she agrees, but the drama she becomes enmeshed in within his cul de sac upends her private life in "We Strangers."
Laura's Review: B
Writer/director Anu Valia ("Brooklyn Love Stories") opens her film with a familiar image, a black cleaning woman emerging from one of the rooms along a home's hallway (see South African horror "Good Madam," for one). The woman is Rayelle and when she enters the home's kitchen, she notices someone skulking about the outside of the house. Going to the sliding doors, she sees a woman in the backyard. Opening the door enough to converse, that woman, Dr. Patel's neighbor Jean Laich (Maria Dizzia, "Christmas Eve in Miller's Point"), simply says 'I haven't seen you here before.'
Later, when she receives her first check from the podiatrist, Ray expresses shocked gratitude when she looks at his check, but the extra money isn't the generous tip she mistook it for. Instead Patel notes that she'd met Jean, that Jean 'likes her' and would like her to clean her house as well, something he has prepaid in that check, but when she arrives across the street with her supplies, Ed Laich (Paul Adelstein, "The Menu") is clearly not expecting her and Jean, who has trouble taking a stand, tells her that she really doesn't need help, then directs Ray to start in the bathroom. It is all a little strange, Ed even getting into the act by showing Ray his wall of framed photographs of the American flag taken in twenty-seven different states. If it seems like Ed is trying to be friendly, he merely wants them dusted.
Ray, who we've already seen is something of a rock for her all female family, driving her mother (Tina Lifford) to work and her sister Mari's (Kara Young) two young daughters to school, disappears into the woodwork in that Gary, Indiana cul-de-sac, but everything changes one day as she dusts while Jean watches a self-proclaimed mystic on TV. 'I can do that,' Ray observes and Jean doesn't even pause to consider the truth of it, Ray's blackness all she needs to believe in her 'voodoo.' In the film's best scene of writing, direction and acting, Ray changes the power dynamic, manipulating Jean into a $100 fee for a 'friendly' reading and of course, she delivers, having absorbed enough information from what she's seen and Jean's surroundings to formulate an educated analysis.
Things escalate when Tracy Patel (Sarah Goldberg, HBO's 'Barry') wants in on the act, she and Jean asking for a dual reading, something Ray must navigate carefully given Jean's obvious feelings towards Tracy's husband. And when the Patel's entitled daughter Sunny (Mischa Reddy) asks Ray to take her to the store, Ray will repeat the financial manipulation she used on Jean, a bit more audaciously. The only thing is, now that she's making money driving her boss's daughter, her mother is late for work and Mari is left in the lurch. And while Ray had the upper hand behind the wheel, Sunny will grab it back with a bratty display of privilege.
Kirby Howell-Baptiste compels throughout as the actress performs a high wire act taking the disadvantages society has stacked against her and using them to her advantage, revealing truths to the two women who see her as subservient while never allowing them to see her for who she really is. And yet Valia's tale of power, class and racism also leads Ray back to herself, her assumption of capitalistic gain via dishonest manipulation leading her back to her real self amongst those who are not strangers.
Cinematographer Charlotte Hornsby ("Master") emphasizes doors, windows and glass screens as one world looks out onto or peers into another, her final overhead shot finding community. Composer Jay Wadley ("I'm Thinking of Ending Things") uses a variety of instruments for minimalist percussion which projects many moods. Valia's film takes on a lot of social themes and while her intent can be a bit ambiguous, Kirby Howell-Baptiste keeps us in the film's grip.
Robin's Review: B
Rayelle (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) works hard as a commercial cleaner but cannot refuse, at very good pay, a private cleaning job for a doctor. He then offers her another lucrative job cleaning for his mistress. Suddenly, the black housekeeper finds herself navigating in a very white world in “We Strangers.”
We meet Ray as she is helping the doctor shut his office down and clearing it out. He is so impressed, he offers the above-mentioned home cleaning job. As she finds her services more and more in demand, she takes on more work, pushing herself both physically and mentally.
One day, while having a casual conversation with one of her new clients, Jean (Maria Dizzia), the topic of clairvoyance comes up and Ray spontaneously says, “I’m psychic.” When asked what she would charge for a “reading,” her reply, instantly, is $100. The well-off white lady agrees. Now, both of her “talents,” cleaning and clairvoyance, become more than full-time jobs.
On the home front, Ray has more troubles. Her mom, Willie (Tina Lifford), was fired from her job for chronic tardiness and expects for her daughter to pay her way. Other family demands, like babysitting for sister, Mari’s (Kara Young), young kids goes wrong and Ray realizes she is drawn too thin. Of course, with Rayelle burning the candle at both ends in her life, something is bound to break and that is what the goal is for the ambitious young woman - to be free.
Ray, among other things, is our window into two very different and contrasted worlds – one white, the other black. The difference is that in one she is a stranger in a strange land and an observer, while in the other she is a participant in life. One world feels cold while the other feels full of vibrant activity.
Ray’s outsider (and employee) status is brought to bear when Jean invites her to a cocktail party for her white friends, then adds “and you can help take care of things and don’t worry, we’ll pay you.” It is not just a strange world, it is a transactional one.
I know that Kirby Howell-Baptiste has a background in TV and film but, here, she commands the camera with her assured presence – and her natural beauty does not hurt. I hope to see her get more lead roles in movies or, even, TV. She more than holds her own here.
After a limited theatrical run on 8/22/25, Quiver Distribution releases "We Strangers" on VOD on 9/9/25.
