The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 27, 2019.[2] On September 23, 2019, Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired distribution rights to the film.[3] It was scheduled to be released on April 10, 2020.
Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Stray Dolls doesn't make it easy to identify with its central characters, but director/co-writer Sonejuhi Sinha's depiction of the American underbelly is compelling."[4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[5]
Jessica Kiang of Variety magazine called Stray Dolls "stylish" and "seemingly seductive".[6] Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "alternately incisive and uneven",[1] while Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times said that "despite its sense of dead-end desperation, [the film] is made worthwhile by the richness of Shane Sigler's nighttime cinematography and the consistent empathy of its tone".[7]