Film

Perfect Strangers

Name: Perfect Strangers
Genre: Drama
Released: 2016
Cast: Giuseppe Battiston, Anna Foglietta, Marco Giallini, Edoardo Leo, Valerio Mastandrea

Other titles called Perfect Strangers: the 1945 film, the 1986 series (ABC).

Social drama

Six friends gather for dinner and make a pact: every text, call, and message gets read aloud to the group. What seems like a harmless game of radical honesty becomes excruciating, then devastating. A brilliant Italian chamber piece about how well we really know the people closest to us, and what we're willing to sacrifice to keep them.

TMDb rating

3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy talky, closely observed ensemble pieces where a single premise slowly peels back the polite surfaces of old friends, and you like sharp Italian dialogue that turns uncomfortable without tipping into melodrama.

Skip it if you want plot momentum or a lot of visual variety, since nearly all of it unfolds around one table and the tension comes entirely from what people say to each other.

What it asks of you: Ninety-seven minutes of mostly seated conversation, with the mood shifting gradually rather than in jolts, so it rewards steady attention more than restless channel-hopping.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?1966

Albee's masterpiece about marriage and friendship tested by wine, games, and truth-telling. Like Perfect Strangers, it turns a single room into an arena where civility collapses and we see what people actually feel.

But It's relentlessly bleak and loud—two hours of intelligent people being deliberately cruel. Some find it exhausting rather than cathartic.

Manchester by the Sea2016

Another film about secrets slowly poisoning relationships. It has the same quiet devastation as Perfect Strangers: the realization that people we love have been carrying unbearable things in silence.

But Very slow, very sad, very American-quiet. Some find it so restrained it becomes remote. You have to meet it halfway.

Force Majeure2014

A family's vacation erupts when an avalanche reveals something about the father no one expected. Like Perfect Strangers, it uses a single event to crack open a marriage and ask what honesty actually demands.

But The central moment is almost absurdist, which some viewers find tonally jarring. It's also bleak in a Swedish way—meaning people mostly sit with discomfort rather than resolve it.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Perfect Strangers

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Glue2014

Both are about groups held together by closeness rather than happiness, and the moment when silence becomes loyalty and loyalty becomes damage.

A British miniseries about four working-class teenagers and the friendship they're desperate to preserve despite everything pulling them apart. It has the same DNA as Perfect Strangers—the belief that honesty should matter, and the devastation of realizing it doesn't always save you.

But Very bleak, very British, sometimes almost incomprehensibly regional in its slang. Some found it exploitative in how it treats its young characters' trauma. It's also only three 40-minute episodes, so if you don't connect immediately, it's over.

A Bigger Splash2015

Four people, one Italian lake house, one unwelcome arrival. Watches like a pressure cooker where charm and sexuality are weapons. Same claustrophobic ensemble energy as Perfect Strangers.

But The tonal shifts are extreme—suddenly darkly funny, then menacing. Some find it uneven. The sexual content is frank and not always comfortable to watch.

The Dinner2017

Two couples meet for dinner and the evening unravels to reveal something terrible their children may have done. It's a more explicitly noir version of the same premise: what happens when civility cracks?

But Tonally it's much harder and meaner than Perfect Strangers. The twist is divisive—some find it clever, others feel manipulated. The characters are difficult throughout.

Locke2014

One man in a car on a phone for 85 minutes, his life disintegrating through conversations we only half-hear. About secrets, consequences, and how quickly truth can detonate everything.

But It's extremely minimal—just Tom Hardy and his steering wheel. If you need narrative momentum or visual variety, this will feel punishing. Some find it a stunt that overstays its welcome.

The Dinner Game1998

A French comedy where a dinner between two people spirals into elaborate lies and performance. It has the ensemble energy and the way conversation becomes a minefield, though played for laughs rather than tragedy.

But It's lighter and broader than Perfect Strangers, which some viewers find trivial by comparison. The comedy is very French, which doesn't always land internationally.

Son of Saul2015

A Holocaust film told in close-up, following one man through unbearable circumstances. Like Perfect Strangers, it's about the gap between what people show and what they're actually capable of carrying.

But This is not escapism. It's brutal and intimate and relentless. If you watch it at all, you're committing to something genuinely harrowing. Not for a night when you need to feel okay.

Four Rooms1995

Ensemble cast, one night, escalating chaos. The structure—people revealing themselves through pressure—echoes Perfect Strangers, though this one leans into absurdist comedy and New Hollywood excess.

But It's wildly uneven; some sketches land brilliantly and others don't. It also feels very much of its 1995 moment. Some find it dated or self-indulgent rather than insightful about human nature.

Stalker1979

Both films trust that the deepest truths about people emerge not from confession but from recognizing what they refuse to say.

Andrei Tarkovsky's science-fiction meditation on desire, faith, and what people will lie about. On the surface it's nothing like Perfect Strangers—one's dialogue-heavy, one's nearly silent. But both are about the chasm between what we say we want and what we actually want.

But It's 163 minutes of slow camera movement and philosophical discussion. Tarkovsky demands patience most viewers don't have. It's not a movie; it's an endurance test that may not feel rewarding.

Funny Games1997

Both use hospitality and intimacy as a framework for exposing lies, though Perfect Strangers is tragic and Funny Games is accusatory.

An Austrian home invasion film that turns the audience into accomplices in real time. Like Perfect Strangers, it's about civility as performance and what happens when someone calls you on it—though Haneke is far more aggressive about implicating the viewer.

But It's brutal, sometimes unwatchably tense, and aggressively unpleasant. Haneke is punishing you as much as entertaining you. Some find that pretentious. Others think it's the point—but it's not a comfortable evening.