Sonejuhi Sinha

(On Cable TV, September 2020) You may go in Stray Dolls expecting another exploitation film in which two downtrodden women take up arms against bad boyfriends and The Man—I certainly did, based on the logline and an incorrect assumption that the title was referencing “Straw Dogs.” The truth, as the very first few moments make clear, is considerably more nuanced. As writer-director Sonejuhi Sinha makes clear, the film is in a grimmer, more superficially realistic tone. As an Indian immigrant (played quite well by Geetanjali Thapa) finds a job as a maid in a seedy hotel, she is forced to befriend a rebellious American girl (Olivia DeJonge, in full trashy demeanour) and quickly gets swept up in a succession of escalating crimes. Drugs, sex, not much rock-and-roll: Taking place in the depressing reality of ultra-capitalistic lower-class America, Stray Dolls goes through the fatalistic descent into hell that marginalized characters are forced into. There’s a decent amount of character development along the way: our Indian immigrant, for instance, if far from being the immaculate flower that other movies could have shown—scar and special skills betray a troubled past, and makes her introduction in the underworld of rural New York State easier than you could imagine at first. I can’t say that I liked the film—It’s dirty, deliberately made to be as un-fun as possible, and the fleeing-to-Canada ending seems like what was left on the table after better ideas were taken away. But Stray Dolls does introduce a few new actors and filmmakers to watch. I do like its willingness to remain serious about a topic that could have spun into exploitative fantasies, and even the grimy settings have their reason in the context of the film.