All of Us Strangers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Andrew Haigh
Screenplay by	Andrew Haigh
Based on	Strangers by Taichi Yamada
Produced by	Graham Broadbent Pete Czernin Sarah Harvey
Starring	Andrew Scott Paul Mescal Jamie Bell Claire Foy
Cinematography	Jamie D. Ramsay
Edited by	Jonathan Alberts
Music by	Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch
Production companies	Film4 Blueprint Pictures TSG Entertainment
Distributed by	Searchlight Pictures
Release dates	31 August 2023 (2023-08-31) (Telluride) 26 January 2024 (2024-01-26) (United Kingdom)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$1.6 million[1][2]

All of Us Strangers is a 2023 British romantic fantasy film written and directed by Andrew Haigh, and based on the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. It is the second feature adaptation of the novel, after the Japanese film The Discarnates (1988). The film stars Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, and Claire Foy.

All of Us Strangers premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on 31 August 2023. It was released in the United States on 22 December 2023 and is scheduled for release in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2024, by Searchlight Pictures. It received critical acclaim and was named one of the top ten independent films of 2023 by the National Board of Review.^[3]

Plot

Lonely London screenwriter Adam is flirted with by his drunk neighbour Harry, whom he rebuffs. He visits his unoccupied childhood home and finds his parents, who died in a car accident when he was twelve. Returning to his apartment, he reciprocates Harry's interest and they have sex. Adam comes out as gay to his mother, who accepts him but reacts with concern. He has sex with Harry again, and then Harry describes his own feelings of distance from his family.

Adam talks to his father during his next visit, who accepts him for who he is and tearfully reconciles with him over the bullying he faced as a child. Adam and Harry go clubbing and do ketamine together, causing Adam to imagine a long-term relationship with him, then black out and wake up in his parents' house on Christmas. Unable to sleep, he gets in bed with them and tells his mother about how he was sent to stay with her mother after her death, but they are interrupted by Harry appearing in bed with them.

Adam wakes on a train and pursues Harry onto another, seeing a vision of his younger self screaming in the reflection of the window before waking in his bed, Harry having taken him home after he panicked while high. He tells Harry about how his father died instantly but his mother lingered for several days, though his grandmother kept him from seeing her, and how their deaths grew into a great terror of being alone. He decides to show Harry his parents but finds the house empty, though Harry catches a glimpse of them as Adam breaks a window to get in.

Waking the next morning with no wound on his hand, Adam's parents explain that Harry left and tell him that he needs to let them go and move on to be happy. They take him to his favourite childhood restaurant, where he tells them they both died instantly when asked. They reaffirm their pride for him and love for each other as they vanish.

Having accepted the loss of his parents, Adam goes to see Harry but finds him long dead in his flat's bedroom, holding the same bottle he was drinking from on the night they met, now empty. Outside the room, Adam assures Harry's distraught ghost that everything will be all right and takes him back to his flat, where they get in bed together and Adam plays "The Power of Love" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood when Harry asks him to choose a song.

Cast

• Andrew Scott as Adam
  • Carter John Grout as young Adam
• Paul Mescal as Harry
• Jamie Bell as Adam's father
• Claire Foy as Adam's mother
• Ami Tredrea as Waitress

Production

Graham Broadbent and Sarah Harvey of Blueprint Pictures first pitched the project to Yamada in June 2017. Later that year, Haigh and Film4 Productions came on board. Haigh described his adaptation of the novel as "a long and sometimes painful process". He said, "I wanted to pick away at my own past as Adam does in the film. I was interested in exploring the complexities of both familial and romantic love, but also the distinct experience of a specific generation of gay people growing up in the 80s. I wanted to move away from the traditional ghost story of the novel and find something more psychological, almost metaphysical."^[4]

On 30 June 2022, the film, then known as Strangers, and the principal cast were announced.^[5] The announced plot was brief and vaguely worded, and attracted inquiries on social media as to whether the film involved a romance between Scott and Mescal's characters.^[6]

Filming was in progress in the United Kingdom when the announcement was made.^[5] Haigh's childhood home served as the filming location for the house in which Adam finds his parents.^[7][4] Nightclub sequences were shot on location at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.^[4]

Release

The film premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on 31 August 2023, and played at the 2023 New York Film Festival on 1 October 2023. It also made it to the main competition of the 68th Valladolid International Film Festival.^[8] Cork International Film Festival chose the film as its International Gala film, acting as the Irish premier, on 19 November 2023. The screening was held at the Everyman Theatre to a packed house. The QCinema International Film Festival hosted three screenings of the film on 19, 20, and 24 November 2023.^[9] It began a limited release in the United States on 22 December 2023 and is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2024.^[10][11][12]

Reception

Notes

References

External links

• All of Us Strangers at IMDb