Writer/Director Veena Sud Devours Toxic Masculinity in Quibi’s ‘The Stranger’

Quibi’s experimental approach to streaming television launched April 6. The Jeffrey Katzenberg/Meg Whitman-fronted mobile platform offers daily 6-8 minute snippets of what in total amounts to a short film. The platform provides filmmakers the unique challenge of not only telling a story that has to be parsed out in small increments but also is viewed on a mobile device through portrait or landscape vantage points. Writer/director Veena Sud (The Killing, Seven Seconds) welcomed that challenge as it forced her to think of filmmaking in completely different ways.

She was also intrigued to explore the relationship between people and their phones via streaming content.

“The idea that audiences may be watching in a type of format that is completely new. The vertical phone format is not how we traditionally watch or make stories on-screen,” Sun explained. “At first, I – probably along with every other filmmaker Jeffrey [Katzenberg] talked to – recoiled at the notion of a screen that small and the vertical thing – who wants that? But very quickly I became fascinated by the idea that all of humanity is connected by these devices and by the allure and rush of the text tones.”

Thus was born The Stranger.

The Stranger stars Maika Monroe as Clare, a ride share driver, who picks up “Carl E,” played by Dane DeHaan. “Carl E” quickly (this is Quibi after all) reveals himself to be a murderous stalker. The series follows her adventures over the course of a single night as she evades him at every turn. It’s a manic and absorbing thriller that propels you through its story thanks to mini-cliffhangers and the sense that you’ve not seen something exactly like this before.

New Ways to Film

Undertaking The Stranger on Quibi required Sud to modify her filmmaking process. First, the story needed to be parsed out in tiny bites that not only engaged the viewer and left them wanting more but also felt seamlessly interconnected. Cliffhangers helped, yes, but Sud knew she could not repeat any section of the narrative. Given the short viewing time and daily drops, the audience wasn’t likely to forget what happened in the previous episode.

“If we tried to do the same thing even two or three days in a row, then it would be bad storytelling,” Sud remarked. “Having written stories for many years in the hour-long format, what I started to realize was that you can retread something in a way that the audience could still feel satisfied. (With The Stranger), I had to think about the viewers’ experience and have them keep wanting to come back day after day.”

Aside from changes to a typical narrative, Quibi’s mandate that shows needed to be seen on a mobile device in either landscape or portrait modes required a new way of considering the story’s visuals. Even viewing screeners of the series on a laptop, I’m presented with three options: portrait, landscape, and a hybrid of the two running side by side. That experience was literally unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

That filmmaking opportunity proved to be the biggest – and most exciting – challenge of the show.

“The DP (director of photography) and production designer and myself worked in lock-step over every single shot of the film. We knew quickly that, if someone were to watch this entire show vertically, I don’t want them to feel like they’re getting less information,” Sud commented. “From that realization, came the story. I knew in order to take advantage of this format, I couldn’t do stories the way I’d traditionally done them. I would have to actually have a lot of physical camera and character movement through different physical spaces for the audience to feel like they’re getting new information.”

That requirement sent our heroine on a tour of Los Angeles, providing as many visually compelling spaces as possible. Case in point, the extraordinarily long apartment building hallway in which “Carl E” chases Clare was not an actual hallway. Traditional cinematic widescreen coverage of the hallway would look unsatisfying, but seen vertically, it has a surreal, satisfying visual aesthetic.

“I came up with this idea of a really propulsive story that would, content-wise, keep moving through these really fantastic locations in LA.”

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Thematically, The Stranger explores the crime thriller as influenced by the #MeToo movement and the damaging influence toxic masculinity has in the world. DeHaan’s “Carl E” is a brilliant, but egomaniacal, force. His games with Clare strip her of nearly all agency in the story. He (and, in a way, Sud herself) invite the audience to doubt Clare’s truth for several episodes.

Through several allusions and literal references to The Wizard of Oz (Clare is from Kansas and she carries a small dog – Pebbles – through nearly the entire series), the audience suspects maybe she’s dreaming this night of terror. Those Oz references, though, aren’t just there to make you doubt her story. They serve a bigger purpose thematically.

“The Stranger in many ways in a homage to Los Angeles. I was fascinated by this idea of a young woman coming to LA with the hopes of becoming a writer. I love the idea of illusion, of what lies behind the curtain of our city. Really importantly, I love the idea of going from monochromatic light into a technicolor world. I love blue light and really subtle shadows and greys and blacks and white. When I though of shooting in Los Angeles, it’s a neon city. Not only is The Wizard of Oz symbolic of Hollywood, but it’s also visually a town of technicolor everything – culture, food, landscape, architecture, to how the city looks at night. I really wanted to capture all of that. To capture Clare/Dorothy stepping into the world of “Carl E,” which is technicolor hell.”

Plus, Sud just wanted a dog who, ultimately, saves the day.

“Carl E” as a villain emerges as a hybrid of traditional villains stemming from early influences like the Wicked Witch or even the Big Bad Wolf. But his taunts directed toward Clare inevitably adopt a very modern, anti-female, toxic male air. He twice insults Clare, and really women in general, by calling her “Nancy Pelosi,” not an insult in my book but DeHaan’s delivery laces the name with contempt and sarcasm. At one point, DeHaan’s “Carl E” screams, “I’m at the top of the food chain!”

Not unlike certain prominent, white men in power…

It’s 100 percent intentional.

“I was really interested in looking at the sense of incredible rage post #MeToo and post the 2016 election. It’s no accident that, coming into an election now. It was in early 2019 when I was thinking about the story,” Sud recalls, “and I was sensing that the rage that was unleashed from #MeToo needed a place to live. There is a reason that this Trump-ish, male toxic figure is ***SPOILER ALERT*** ripped apart by wolves at the end. There was definitely a feeling of it’s time for the women to turn around, face her attacker, and unleash the wolves on his ass.”

The Stranger is now available on Quibi.