Do you ever leave a movie theater just thinking, God I’m glad movies like this are made? A film that makes you appreciate the art form itself. I am a loud supporter and enthusiast of movies, so I understand this appreciation isn’t a universal experience, but I also think many people deny themselves of this gratitude by not going to see movies like “All of Us Strangers.”
If it doesn’t have a glamorous name or superhero in it, people just won’t see it. But they should, and I think this movie is a prime example of that. There were parts of this movie in which it was hard to breathe simply because I didn’t have time to comprehend the visceral emotion and melancholy constantly being thrown at the viewer’s face. This is a formal warning for the emotional damage this movie will cause you.
The film follows the lonely life of a single screenwriter, Adam (Andrew Scott), in London who has a strange encounter with his neighbor (Paul Mescal) that changes the course of his incredibly mundane routine. This encounter generates past trauma in his life to make a sudden return in the form of quite literally making a return to his childhood home, where his parents are the same age. The uncertainty of these returns being visceral flashbacks or some supernatural occurrence creates the magic of this movie.
The loose structure of memories and recollections contrasted beautifully with the scenes portraying his current life. The derived meaning of his homecoming displays the character shifts he’s undergone since his youth, so the stark disparity between the two settings of his childhood home and his contemporary London flat visually mirrors this emotional conflict.
This film was made with the intent of everyone being emotionally distraught after viewing it. I can’t think of any person who wouldn’t find some level of relatability in this movie. Themes of growth and acceptance coupled with debilitating tragedy make it a guaranteed tear-jerker for just about anyone. This was an aspect I didn’t go in expecting to be conveyed in such a universally empathetic way. You would assume with such a particular narrative, it would have a certain limitation in emotional capacity, but it continued to find ways to strike new chords and portray new emotional themes that were shocking.
If this wasn’t convincing enough to stop whatever you’re doing and purchase a ticket for this movie right now, there’s a prodigious twist at the end of the movie that I’m sure will entice you to see it. For such an emotional film, I wasn’t expecting an obvious grand plot twist like this, but I don’t think it took away from the emotional depth or greatness of the film at all. I had never seen anything else from the director of the film, Andrew Haigh, but I can say I will now be viewing his entire filmography, based on the genius of this movie.
