All Of Us Strangers

[jivafox]

I’ve loved all Andrew Haigh’s previous stuff, and this looks quite special

 

[Logic?]

Seeing this on Sunday and very excited. His film Weekend was beautiful.

Paul Mescal up

 

[Finn]

I absolutely loved this, in a way that's only increasing the more I think about it. It does something a bit mad and it really shouldn't work as much as I think it does. Mind you, it probably helps that I'm an aging gay with unresolved parent issues living a bleak and lonely life in a soulless London block of flats

The 'in on a Friday night watching BBC Four reruns of Top of the Pops' was a lovely bit of representation for a good chunk of moopy too.

Andrew Haigh really is great. I've basically liked or loved everything he's done. At the cinema I didn't quite enjoy watching this as much as Lean on Pete / 45 Years / The North Water, but that changed once I got to the ending and it fully clicked. Although I'd worked out that Paul Mescal was in his head and it was a Fight Club situation by the time they got to the RVT. I loved the added element of the first encounter being real and Mescal rotting away in his flat ever since, though. It made it so much stronger, and dear god how heartbreaking.

Favourite bit of trivia from reading up on it is that the house used was Andrew Haigh's actual childhood home. And the picture Andrew Scott had of it is the one Haigh had, with Claire Foy superimposed.

The scenes with the parents were so well done. And I liked the full circle moment of Jamie Bell essentially playing Billy Elliot's dad in this.

9/10, will watch again.

 

[jivafox]

I was underwhelmed, but I think that was the pressure of my own expectations. I enjoyed it, though on paper this film should have blown me away but it didn’t. I think I need to see it again.

 

[jyxz]

Andrew Scott’s performance was amazing.

 

[Ellie]

Loved Clare Foy and Jamie Bell. I generally hated everything involving Paul Mescal’s character and got very irritated with them.

 

[Jocasta Clun]

Is it TERRIBLY UPSETTING, darlings? I've had a CUNT of a year and I don't want to be HOWLING IN THE CINEMA

 

[Lucille]

QUITE. Life is MISERABLE ENOUGH without paying £15 for an EXTRA DOSE.

 

[jivafox]

Oh it will finish you off.

 

[Jark]

Jamie Bell is brilliant in this. the best performance in the film for me and the one that made me emotional.

i thought it was a really good film once you realise/accept that

Spoiler

no big twist is coming (unless you count Paul being dead) and the whole film is really just a meditation on grief and loss.

B+

 

[Finn]

Loved Clare Foy and Jamie Bell. I generally hated everything involving Paul Mescal’s character and got very irritated with them.

Ellie says “Heterosexual characters only, please”

 

[Finn]

Jamie Bell is brilliant in this. the best performance in the film for me and the one that made me emotional.

i thought it was a really good film once you realise/accept that

Spoiler

no big twist is coming (unless you count Paul being dead) and the whole film is really just a meditation on grief and loss.

B+

Spoiler

Oh see I wasn’t expecting a twist - were you the opposite because you’d had it hinted at in some pre-publicity? Or did you just get a feel it was a twisty film?

The first I thought there might be more to it was the RVT scene as I say, but until then I thought the most that’d happen would be them going their separate ways after a life changing (for the older one) few days together

 

[jivafox]

I did sob at the scene between Andrew and Jamie Bell, but the woman next to me was fighting for her life during the entire film

 

[jyxz]

I did sob at the scene between Andrew and Jamie Bell, but the woman next to me was fighting for her life during the entire film

I hope you passed that ALLY a tissue or three

 

[Rowan Tree 🌳]

This was very good but made me very sad.

 

[VoR]

God this was devastating. Talk about close to the bone! When he was talking about just wanting somebody to watch old TOTP re-runs with

Spoiler: major plot spoilers

I didn't twig the gay fight club angle until the very end, but it was a perfectly realised 'twist', in the sense that my one creeping complaint was that Mescal's character seemed a a bit *too* perfect and idealised as this gorgeous and endlessly understanding new boyfriend who's a little bit broken but not in a particularly dangerous way - and then, WHAM!

The scenes with the parents predictably tore me up the most though. When he's wearing his little pyjamas

So many brilliant subtle touches too. Like, I know the RVT is a great gay club for the ageing homo but even so I was like 'this music feels a BIT naff for such a crowded London nightclub' - but then of course it all makes sense.

Did we think Adam was also supposed to be dead? I feel like it's deliberately left ambiguous, but the eerie emptiness of the apartment block, the lack of any other characters to interact with, and the way they end up "together" at the end, plus that final shot with the stars. I definitely left feeling that he probably was, even if the manner of his potential death is never explained.

 

[rhythmbandit]

This was heartbreaking! There was an elderly couple sat in front of me and they were both in tears at the end.

Spoiler

I suspected Adam is also dead, but I'm not 100% certain how or why.

 

[Sheena]

I liked it but like dear @jivafox i expected to be blown away and I wasn’t.

Spoiler: Spoiler

I guessed the twist about Harry being not real really early and then when he told his parents how he had invented and plotted intricate details about their life together after they’d died, I realised that was what was happening with Harry too. It kind of spoiled it for me- I think I’d have liked the surprise.

I didn’t cry or get too upset but Harry’s devastation at no one finding him, not even his Mum, really was the saddest moment for me.

I do think Adam was dead too. The flats were meant to be purgatory and surely that’s why he could suddenly see his parents again. It also made sense why Harry could see them and vice versa too.

 

[Sheena]

Playing I Want A Dog in the nightclub was amusing as me and Mr Sheena had been dancing in our lounge to it only a few hours before as well!

 

[Loufoque]

This was a lot to digest.

- The sterility of the new London tower block. A "perfect-looking" façade which masks gay misery and loneliness. Writ large, this is no different than gays' body fascism or need to beautify life. It all looks "successful" and aspirational to the outside (hetero-normative) world, but it's like that meme of the narcisstic (gay?) man looking in the mirror - "still dead inside"...
- The idea that we all lose our parents at 12-13 as we hit puberty and our sexuality pushes us to the "outer circle". I felt the dead parents were just a metaphor. I still haven't quite figured out if there is something to interpret in their individual deaths - that the mother's death to him was slower and involved her not being able to see, whereas the father's death was fast...
- The distant dad who knows there's something "wrong" with us, well before that. The recognition that they instinctively want to bully us.
- Adam's "it's different now" face giving away the lie that - while yes, we can get married, HIV is no longer a definitive death sentence - there is still so much misery, isolation and trauma

 

[LTZ]

saw this today in a packed cinema in Paris and it left me devastated.. so much to process.. it really is an astonishing movie , one of the absolute best

 

[cwej]

Enjoyed it but went in with such high expectations that it felt disappointing - that's my own fault though.

 

[VoR]

This is on Disney+ from today, for anyone who didn't catch it at the cinema.

 

[RJN]

All I knew about this was that it’s gay, so I thought it might be a nice thing to watch before bed last night. But actually that was a terrible decision and it caused me to spiral. I loved it though

 

[RJN]

This was a lot to digest.

- The sterility of the new London tower block. A "perfect-looking" façade which masks gay misery and loneliness. Writ large, this is no different than gays' body fascism or need to beautify life. It all looks "successful" and aspirational to the outside (hetero-normative) world, but it's like that meme of the narcisstic (gay?) man looking in the mirror - "still dead inside"...
- The idea that we all lose our parents at 12-13 as we hit puberty and our sexuality pushes us to the "outer circle". I felt the dead parents were just a metaphor. I still haven't quite figured out if there is something to interpret in their individual deaths - that the mother's death to him was slower and involved her not being able to see, whereas the father's death was fast...
- The distant dad who knows there's something "wrong" with us, well before that. The recognition that they instinctively want to bully us.
- Adam's "it's different now" face giving away the lie that - while yes, we can get married, HIV is no longer a definitive death sentence - there is still so much misery, isolation and trauma

Actually this post is what really made the movie hit home for me

 

[FetchFugly]

I decided to spend my Saturday night watching night watching this, which possibly wasn't the best idea. I kept it together rather well until

Spoiler

“I’ll protect you from the hooded claw. Keep the vampires from your door..." at the end

Absolutely loved the soundtrack.