All of Us Strangers (2024)

[Bentpitch]

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[Minami Minegishi]

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I thought that was really lovely.

[Waking Life]

This was great. On the theory of

Spoiler alert

him also being dead, it's a bit undermined by the scene at the Whitgift Centre. The waitress is only interacting with him, suggesting he is ordering too much for one, and his parents pointedly telling him they don't have an appetite. That said, I thought the fire element was a big hint too, although not sure if that was a bit of a nod towards Grenfell (new builds also have the cladding problems)

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[Bentpitch]

I thought that was really lovely.

Thanks. Suddenly felt a bit silly and deleted it (obviously). I haven't seen much in the way of queer cinema that has spoken to me so directly before and reflected so much of my own emotional experiences.

In Adam it managed to capture that experience of being slightly too young to have been through that first wave of AIDS deaths of lovers and friends but still be dealing with the fact that wider culture had woken up to AIDS and was almost consistently expressing in the most cruel and frightening ways what it thought of gay people, how worthless and damaged we were. I feel like I actually did a reasonably good job of holding my own self-image and worth together at that time,  but fuck me,  it was exhausting to be 15 and churning away inside like that every day.

When Adam talked about not feeling like having a future, I cried. That was 14,15,16 year old me, with no role models, no messages out there to contradict the endless condemnation. It carried on to my 20s with every sexual encounter riddled with anxiety. 

It is still there, that knot in the stomach, but it's definitely loosened through a few years of therapy. I think it's why I can't take much of the gender critical "debate" - as Adam says, it doesn't take much to take you back. Skin is still raw. I especially don't understand gay men my age who are so ready to condemn trans people given what they themselves must have gone through.

Anyway it was an incredibly beautiful film, even if I felt beaten up afterwards.

[Minami Minegishi]

Thanks. Suddenly felt a bit silly and deleted it (obviously). I haven't seen much in the way of queer cinema that has spoken to me so directly before and reflected so much of my own emotional experiences.

I assumed so, and felt compelled to let you know.

Through much of the film I kept thinking about some of my gay friends who are around my age (50), growing up in the 80s. I was involved with Outrage and Tatchell as I was very politically active. I hadn't planned to protest a single issue politic but Section 28 and AIDS meant it become a bit of a frontline fight. Especially in London.

I got so much from the film and I kept thinking 'holy shit if I was gay this would leave me even MORE emotionally wrought.'

[Blinder Data]

this was very good. got me tearing up big time. great use of music.

billy elliot was surprisingly effective as macho 80s dad.

Spoiler alert

was ghost Mescal meant to be a twist? it seemed obvious to me from the get go

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also did i miss the spaff consumption?

[holyzombiejesus]

billy elliot was surprisingly effective as macho 80s dad.

I saw this last night and was really taken by his performance. Thought there were a couple of bum notes - there was a montage bit in the middle that felt a little jarring, and the stars to The Power of Love at the end seemed to be reaching for something that didn't really fit, but otherwise loved it. So many bits that really moved me and am still thinking about it now.
Also, should be noted how essential C&B has become as part of my post-viewing processing.

[jonnyunitus]

Yeah felt like Jamie Bell quietly stole the film with his performance. The one to one scene with Andrew Scott and the Christmas tree scene being particular highlights. He seems to have the same kind of relatable charisma as your James McAvoy or Ewan McGregor. Loved this film overall, achingly beautiful,in places, and encapsulates the woozy hauntological feeling you get when you go back home, as an adult. Slight criticism but the very end (last 5 minutes or so) felt a little atonal and seemed to try and force emotion. But by that point the film has earned enough goodwill to let it slide.

[Norton Canes]

Is it as good as

Spoiler alert

Last Christmas?

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[jonnyunitus]

Is it as good as

Spoiler alert

Last Christmas?

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Ha not a film I'm familiar with but after having a quick look I reckon I've got a pretty good idea what the "twist" might be

[Blinder Data]

can't believe they cut this scene from the original script - would have added so much...

Spoiler alert

Paul mescal and the blowjob ghost from Ghostbusters arguing about who gives the best head from the spirit realm

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[Mister Six]

Spoiler alert

was ghost Mescal meant to be a twist? it seemed obvious to me from the get go

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I don't know what you mean by a twist, but I wasn't expecting

Spoiler alert

Mescal to kark it, although once he did, his return seemed inevitable. I thought they did a good job of playing out his return without it dragging on.

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also did i miss the spaff consumption?

Apparently. After the first time they sleep together, Scott has some cum on his chest. Mescal licks a drop of it up, and then they kiss.

[Blinder Data]

I don't know what you mean by a twist, but I wasn't expecting

Spoiler alert

Mescal to kark it, although once he did, his return seemed inevitable. I thought they did a good job of playing out his return without it dragging on.

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Spoiler alert

Mescal was dead from near the beginning though, no? after andrew scott knocks him back the first time, mescal goes back to his flat and presumably ODs. in the scene near the end when he asks if he is in the next room, he is wearing the clothes from the first scene and carrying the same bottle of liquor. so he's been dead practically the whole film - scott's relationship with him is a kind of repentance for knocking him back the first time and bringing him safely and happily to "the other side"

there were hints along the way: mescal said he's "drifted to edge [of his family]" and the way he reacted to seeing scott's parents in the house suggested fear of what would happen to him.

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[jonnyunitus]

Sorry was referring to the twist in Last Christmas

[Mister Six]

Spoiler alert

Mescal was dead from near the beginning though, no? after andrew scott knocks him back the first time, mescal goes back to his flat and presumably ODs. in the scene near the end when he asks if he is in the next room, he is wearing the clothes from the first scene and carrying the same bottle of liquor. so he's been dead practically the whole film - scott's relationship with him is a kind of repentance for knocking him back the first time and bringing him safely and happily to "the other side"

there were hints along the way: mescal said he's "drifted to edge [of his family]" and the way he reacted to seeing scott's parents in the house suggested fear of what would happen to him.

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Hm, I hadn't thought of that. But

Spoiler alert

you see Mescal flirting with a bloke in the gay club, and I think the dialogue says he died after running from Scott's house. Also the body isn't nearly decomposed enough for the several weeks (months?) they spent together, and Scott's parents are aware they're dead in a way Mescal isn't. I'd need to watch it again to be sure though.

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[lb99]

I definitely took that he died the night Adam said he couldn't come in.

[Waking Life]

I thought they'd made it pretty explicit that

Spoiler alert

Mescal had died after that knockback in the dialogue after his body is discovered. He talks about how he really needed to be with someone that night as a means of explanation. There were also the scenes of Andrew Scott chasing him and Mescal disappearing on the train and in the club.

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[Mister Six]

Aye you're probably right. I like that a bit less though.

So was it another ghost in the gay club then?

[Waking Life]

It's a good point as

Spoiler alert

I didn't think that the revelation quite held up with the club scene either (although I seem to remember Mescal randomly 'disappearing' from Andrew Scott's view post-flirt, after someone passed in front of the camera). Also unclear how he got home, assuming he did have the drug induced meltdown.

I didn't think the internal logic was particularly strong, but suspect that wasn't a priority.

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[El Unicornio, mang]

Spoiler alert

I assumed that the club scene was just something he imagined, a fantasy club based on what he had seen on TV/movies rather than real experience. Although Mescal giving him a drug he was unfamiliar with (due to the generation difference) kind of throws a spanner in the works.

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[Memorex MP3]

I liked this, like it a bit less the more I think about it but still overall positive.

Not at all convinced by Andrew Scott though, I don't vibe with his acting at all in anything.

[Minami Minegishi]

I liked this, like it a bit less the more I think about it but still overall positive.

Not at all convinced by Andrew Scott though, I don't vibe with his acting at all in anything.

I've never seen him in anything before and I really enjoyed his naturalism and sadness. I do think it helped that I don't associate him with any other part. With Mescal, I had to stop thinking about Aftersun which was hard at times.

[Mister Six]

I thought Scott was great in this. I only know him from Sherlock and little camoes in stuff like 1914 though.

[johnnyhandsome]

About the theory that...

Spoiler alert

...Adam is dead. In my opinion the direction does seem to suggest this repeatedly. Obviously with the fade to the stars at the end, but also with a few sudden short cuts to black when he returns to the flat. Whilst this could signal the change between worlds or the transition from sleep to waking, I think it indicates the darkness of the afterlife, especially when paired with the overall spooky darkness of the flat block. There were also a lot of tracking shots of the building, which would pan up until none of the city below is visible; the camera would then pause with the focus on only the top of the building, juxtaposed against the sky above, implying that they are in the heavens. In the parent scenes, Adam's character makes a number of suggestively vague and sweeping statements to the effect that "everything is different now." Finally, the scene that really hit me in the gut was the one with Adam screaming on the tube. He becomes sort of blurry and warped and distorted, which maybe suggests he is a spirit, without solid human form, perhaps an imprint of strong emotion.

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[flotemysost]

Got round to seeing this tonight - went in not really knowing anything about it (other than the possibility of some spurious accent backpedalling), and jeez, wasn't expecting it to be quite so intensely and relentlessly moving.

Really loved it though - so tender and dreamlike, big Aftersun vibes for sure (and not just because of Mescal). Not sure what I make yet of the various theories about

Spoiler alert

Scott's character also being dead

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(which admittedly didn't properly cross my mind until reading this thread afterwards, as obvious as it seems in hindsight).

Some great thoughts in here too btw - thanks @Bentpitch for sharing that, I'm actually a bit choked up again from reading your post.

Reminded me a little bit of the Inside no. 9 episode "The 12 Days of Christine" at times.

I hadn't thought of that, but can see what you mean (and likewise that episode unexpectedly floored me). I think both definitely have that "theatrical" quality where you have to sort of suspend your disbelief and work a bit to figure out what's real, if that makes sense.

I probably have loads more thoughts on this film but I can tell it's going to stay with me for a while.

On a lighter note, having also

Spoiler alert

accidentally k-holed in the Royal Vauxhall Tavern once, when that scene came up I was like ahaha MATE

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[holyzombiejesus]

I liked this, like it a bit less the more I think about it but still overall positive.

Me too. Thought they were trying to make the FGTH song 'a thing' too, and it felt a bit forced.

[flotemysost]

^ agree re: the ending feeling a bit forced/tonally at odds with the rest of the film; there was part of me throughout that kept wondering "how the hell is this going to wrap up" and I guess it was an attempt at something approaching a resolution that didn't quite land for me. Still didn't detract too much from how powerful I found the rest of it, though.

As a couple of others have mentioned, I liked how it showed that queer sex can be a bit clumsy and giggly and vulnerable too, not just the cold performative pneumatic carry-on it often gets represented as, especially between two lads. I guess Mescal's reputation for relatable, human bedroom scenes precedes him what with that being one of the main talking points around Normal People, but yeah I rated that.

Spoilering as more of a rambling tangent rather than actual spoilers, but

Spoiler alert

been thinking about how there's lots of examples of narratives dealing with, well, death/loss/change, in that playful dreamy "magic realism" type way (a few mentioned in this thread), and how almost without fail I find it immensely affecting. I think it's possibly because it brings back how in childhood these difficult, frightening, confusing, adult subjects are often couched in sort of mollifying padding that's designed to protect you from the harsh realities of life, but ultimately leaves you feeling a bit like you're being lied to in a way; you're not getting the full story from the grownups, you don't really understand why these sad unfamiliar frightening things are happening and nobody's telling you. Which would make sense in the context of Scott's character, I guess.

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Re: the possibility of

Spoiler alert

him being dead and the empty apartment being some sort of limbo, I'm inclined to think that he's actually just lonely and isolated and numb to his own feelings; whether or not the building really is empty, it definitely stirred up a potent, oppressive sense of being completely cut off and adrift and devoid of emotional connections or support.

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Interesting that someone mentioned Grenfell and the cladding issue, that came to mind when I was watching the film too. Whether or not it was an intentional direct reference, I think again it definitely highlighted the vulnerability and danger of isolation and loneliness.

[DrumsAndWires]

Not at all convinced by Andrew Scott though, I don't vibe with his acting at all in anything.

I kinda felt this way about his performance in Hamlet, it felt a little too over the top - not in taste with how I'd associate that character.

But I thought his acting in this film was brilliant. He played Adam heartbreakingly well ...

Spoiler alert

that fucking scene when he's saying goodbye to his Mum...there was a slight change in his expression that felt so real it felt like a gut punch

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[El Unicornio, mang]

This is now streaming in the US on Hulu/iTunes/Prime (so is also "available").

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

This was good, but I wasn't blown away by it. I didn't find Andrew Scott's performance particularly remarkable, but he wasn't utterly terrible like on Sherlock, so that's good. I thought Paul Mescal was better (and he didn't need some blink and you'll miss it explanation for his accent). I was a bit confused by them talking about generational differences, but then I checked and it turns out Scott is almost 20 years older than Mescal.

Spoiler alert

If Adam is alive, how does he let himself into Harry's flat at the end?

But if Adam is dead, why does he need to let go of his parents? They can't hold his life back if it's already over.

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