No assembly RequireD

There is often no point in moving on from the past because the past will always stay with you. While many may view moving on as a way of processing one’s own trauma or grief this can never truly be done as the person we become is shaped and continuously redefined by who and where we came from. Andrew Haigh’s latest ALL OF US STRANGERS is what happens when reality moves away and the process of looking back on the past blends into our every movement in the present. It is a film so devastating that it is quite impressive how beautiful it is every step of the way. But thus is life that notion that beauty and pain often go hand and hand. Anchored by a quad of performers each holding up their own in magnificent ways, ALL OF US STRANGERS is not the film that is hard to shake, but rather one you want to stay with you to remind yourself you may heal from the past, but the past doesn’t always do the same.

Adam (Andrew Scott) is lonely. He stays up late watching old music videos of Frankie Goes to Hollywood in an eerie new London apartment building that appears only he inhabits. Scott who blew up onto internet fame thanks to the television show “Fleabag” speaks volumes here with his somber and pained eyes. He stares into the television, eats biscuits and barely budges when the day turns into night. That is until a fire alarm causes him (and only he) to walk of the building and notice one other apartment light on and a shadowy figure overlooking him. That figure is Harry (Paul Mescal) the only other person supposedly in the building who also happens to be queer like Adam. After stumbling to his door and being rejected from Adam, Harry seems to fade away just a quick incident in Adam’s life but one that while he seems to move away from is already intrigued and afraid from any future possibilities. Adam a screenwriter is much more focused on his next project that may or may not be a story of his parents. Haigh doesn’t hide anything from us early on, but he chooses not to spell out every detail as we follow Adam to the countryside where a welcoming man (Jamie Bell) invites him to a house where he claims, “she’ll be so happy to see you.” The woman (Claire Foy) and man with their warm embrace are easily guessed as Adam’s Mum and Dad. But this reunion and Adam looking older than both of them give a paranormal presence but one that does not seem like upset spirits. No instead Haigh’s script (adapted from Taichi Yamada’s novel) allows for Adam to feel uncertain but never afraid. Here is a family reunited and on the surface feels loving and accepting. ALL OF US STRANGERS basks in the idea of getting to see our parents again not just back from the dead, but with us now as adults speaking to them trying to explain all that has happened in our lives. Adam, who we learn lost his parents to a car crash at age twelve doesn’t quite feel like he has much to tell them, as he believes his life is far from an accomplishment. But Bell and Foy play their characters less as spirits wandering in some form of purgatory but instead two people well aware of the gift they have just been given. Don’t expect any insidious behavior from these spirits instead Bell rocking several comfortable 80’s sweaters, that you’d now have to pay sixty bucks for at Urban Outfitters, wants to be playful with his son. The same goes for Foy as Mum who is so proud to see the physical man her son has become. But in life even a second chance may not always work out.

Haigh rejoices in the notion of having Adam getting to see his parents again, but with the script also heavily inspired by his own life, Haigh brings in the necessary theme of coming out to your parents in this world when in reality you never had the chance. Haigh’s films have always been driven by elements of being a gay man who has seen the world change in its acceptance of queer stories and people sometimes for the better other times not so much. As Adam decides to give Harry a chance one and they began a physical relationship there is a generational difference of what it is to be a gay man who lived through the eighties and nineties versus one ten years younger. As Adam explains growing up he was afraid to have sex, it comes with confusion from Harry who did not live through the same AIDS fear propaganda that Adam was forced to. This plays greatly into Adam coming out to his parents with his Mum being worried about the world her son will have to live in, not knowing the changes that have come over several decades. Her acceptance of it is hindered but him not being able to get married or have children since that idea existing in commonplace might as well be lightyears away from her. It is a heartbreaking scene on top of many that also plays into Adam telling his father who does more than his best at asking for forgiveness from his son for not being there for him when he would hear Adam cry as a boy or trying to man him up to avoid having a son who gets made fun of.

But all this as it did before continues to shape Adam. Scott’s performance is both commanding and somber throughout. This somberness allows for beautiful moments as he gets to breathe a sigh of relief as he gets closer to Harry as well as reliving a childhood full of dancing, Christmas decorating and lots of photos that now include smiles instead of frowns. But even with all this excitement the past stays with Adam always. The film which heavily integrates its eighties and nineties soundtrack uses songs such as Blur’s “Death of a Party” to be a less than subtle way of displaying the chaotic mindset Adam is going through even when trying to enjoy a drug infused night out at the club with Harry. Edited with a blend of surrealism and Disco-Tech, Jonathan Alberts is able merge scenes together that feel like the reshaping of someone’s entire being not just their mind, but also their heart. Haigh with this song and others from Pet Shop Boys and the continuous use of Frankie Goes To Hollywood allows for a genre of music that have been a lifeboat for many queer men. They allow both Adam and decades of silenced queer people to scream their pain sometimes (and unfortunately) into an empty void, but Haigh knows that someone will listen eventually. Haigh’s queer stories are also always filled with passion even amongst the sadness and with both its editing and Mescal’s performance allows for STRANGERS to not just be a story of family past, but also one lover helping another with both sexual desire and late night discussions. Haigh who has never feared away from heated sex scenes brings Adam and Harry together first through intense oral pleasure that gives off the emotional feeling that while Adam has been out for many years has lived too many of them not enjoying himself. The two actors have such natural chemistry and their scenes as steamy as they are (and they really are) feel so pure and comforting to one another in a time when one or both may be more lost than they realize.

ALL OF US STRANGERS knows it is a heartbreaker as well, and never lets you forget it. I can’t imagine any person watching who has lost their parents will make it out with dry eyes. Even as a child of adoption this critic found himself a weeping mess as the film clearly deals with the chance of getting to tell your parent who you never really got to know all that you’ve become after they are gone. And while Adam may not feel he has accomplished much, his father reminds him that “he lived through it, he made it through and that is more than enough.” It is a reminder that many of us need and so few of us actually get from our parents. The film is not saying our parents were or are bad people, but they are human nonetheless and often two people who cannot imagine the trials and tribulations their kids go through. This can be due to their own choice of not diving in more but how many of us could say we will do better if and when it is our turn to take care of another. ALL OF US STRANGERS may have a lot to say about the ghosts of our pasts but thankfully Haigh and his core four of tremendous actors know that it is better to welcome them in and allow them one last chance to speak. After that the rest is up to us on if we fade away into the silence or if we bring them forward with us no longer strangers.  

A

ALL OF US STRANGERS SCREENED AT THE NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL. IT WILL BE RELEASED IN THEATERS DECEMBER 22