OUR MOVIE REVIEW:

Strangers on the A Train deals with one of modern society’s most prevalent and troubling issues: podcasts. 

Whether they be self help guides on “being a bro” or overly paranoid true-crime exposes, these pleasurable time wasters certainly entertain, and occasionally inform. But what, posits writer-director Rachel Kerry, these little nuggets of Wi-Fi frivolity compel the listener into illicit action. Or even murder. 

Otherwise timid Ben (Hagen Mounkes), sulking in a skullcap and sneakers, gains strength from the coaching voice from his earbuds and decides to approach Jessica (Alice Lussiana Parente) while commuting on the subway. Maybe he can ask her for a drink. Or at least her Snapchat username. Of course, the also-quiet Jessica is listening to a true crime episode detailing terrible murders against lone women… on subway trains. Ben meets Jessica and their podcast fantasies take over.

Kerry puts together a fun story of relatable what-ifs. She breaks up the will-he/won’t-she scenario with clever POV editing. And in a short amount of time, Kerry successfully gives both aching Ben and worried Jessica distinguishable personalities. However, that same shortness moves any suggestive terror into slapstick relief. The well-lit train and corridors reek of blandness, not dingy horror and both Mounkes and Parente could easily slip their characters into a rom com. 

Strangers on the A Train might be more suspense than horror but, like any good podcaster, Kerry gives her viewers exactly what they want: a little blood. A little more, though, could have presented a bigger splash.