Stray Dolls (2020) | Film Review

When we first encounter Stray Dolls’ Riz (Geetanjali Thapa), she’s a seemingly timid and naïve Indian immigrant, desperate for a job in her new home, America. Finding work cleaning rooms at a seedy motel run by the dubious Una (a rather ominous Cynthia Nixon), Riz wants to keep her head down and find her way toward the American dream. When she finds herself bunking up with a conniving drifter in Dallas (Olivia DeJonge), Riz becomes enamored with her and begins taking chances that will lead her further and further off the path of her pursuits.

Shades of a noir-fueled thriller with a hint of 1996’s Bound, director Sonejuhi Sinha’s Stray Dolls is a tale of misguided choices and the consequences they earn. While we have seen similar plot structures countless times before, blending the immigrant experience into the fold offers a unique perspective to the surroundings. An original take on an old trope about fresh starts.

Riz longs to escape her past and begin anew, selling herself as a meek goody two-shoes unwilling to bend, even spending ample time phoning her mother to share this glorified version of her striking new life in America. At the same time, Dallas’ casual abrasiveness in defying the rules entrances Riz, it awakens her darker side. Thapa perfectly captures the essence of her character, imbuing Riz with equal parts virtue and cold-blooded determination. Thapa manages to veer from wholesomely innocent to shockingly dangerous in the snap of her fingers, and the strength of this performance carries the film.

While DeJonge does an admirable job, Dallas is vastly underwritten in comparison to Riz. Holed up in this dumpy motel, Dallas initially comes across as a liar and a cheat from the get-go, and that impression truly never dissolves. Moments of humanity and vulnerability arise from DeJonge’s portrayal, as Dallas attempts to side-step and manipulate her drug-dealing, sleazy boyfriend Jimmy (Robert Aramayo) into selling a stolen brick, yet ultimately her character’s arc never truly evolves into anything deeper than a lost girl longing to escape.

Riz and Dallas’ relationship grows while pursuing the freedom they envision in Niagra Falls, and the plot thickens with their pursuit as the two women grow more callous and violent while simultaneously careening off the rails of morality. Sonejuhi Sinha displays a firm grip on her vision of Last Stop America, and by the end of Stray Dolls we bare witness to a clever parallel of the dream many face when attempting a new life in the states. A false hope that never comes too easy, and is stacked with many of the same strings Riz struggles to pull at for herself.