All Of Us Strangers - Review: A Twilight Zone-Tinted Romance

 

The world of film can allow for such insane and wild scenarios to play out on massive, grand scales. You’ll believe a man could fly, as they say. The world of independent film likewise can also achieve some wild and varied feats, just on a smaller scale with smaller budgets. That’s where something like “All of Us Strangers” comes in, a film that is both a quiet, pensive, dialogue heavy, atmospheric, gay indie drama and also a movie involving ghosts and supernatural elements that wouldn’t be out of place in a “Twilight Zone” episode. 

Based on the novel “Strangers” by Taichi Yamada, the film follows Adam, played by Andrew Scott (“Fleabag,” “Pride (2014)”), a screenwriter living in solitude in London, who meets his neighbor Harry, played by Paul Mescal (“Normal People,” “Aftersun”), and the two eventually begin a romance. All the while, Adam begins to visit his childhood home where he begins to see and interact with his deceased mother and father, played by Claire Foy (“The Crown,” “Women Talking”) and Jamie Bell (“Rocketman (2019),” “The Adventures of Tintin”) respectively. 

It’s not fair to call it a weird plot, as most of the film’s weirdness is disguised within its somber tone and subtle performances. Scott and Mescal are great together, and there’s an air of mystery and unease to Foy and Bell’s performances that make them extremely captivating. Writer/director Andrew Haigh (“Lean on Pete,” “Looking”) crafts an extremely fascinating and infectious vibe to the entire film that certainly makes it more interesting than one might expect from other movies like this that might get broadly labeled “indie” movies. 

Yet as fascinating as it can be, the film is also painfully slow throughout. It is clearly part of the point and vibe of the events, and the craft clearly shows that Haigh wanted to make a very deliberately paced movie. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that it is, indeed, simply extremely slow. The music from composer Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch (“Censor,” “Living (2022)”) doesn’t help this, as it can sometimes invite sleepier tendencies, as if the movie is a celluloid lullaby, paired with gorgeous visuals from cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay (“Living (2022),” “See How They Run”). 

It can just feel like a very placid film, where weird things happen in mundane ways to supplement the story, rather than to enhance or be an integral part of it. For example, we’re shown very early on that Adam’s visits with his parents aren’t in his head. They’re legitimately seeing him from beyond the grave. Why is this? Why not just use memories? Why go for this more supernatural tone? It can feel unfair to judge the film for these choices or to even question them, but by the movie’s end, they don’t feel like they were necessary choices to tell this story. They just happened to be the ones used to tell it. 

If that all sounds too negative, don’t fear because the film itself is still a remarkably atmospheric experience led by its phenomenal cast, visuals, and music. It’s just a bit frustrating from a conceptual standpoint. But if you turn your mind away to those thoughts, and simply exist in the vibe and sense of it all, you’re left with a remarkably compelling and gorgeous little indie drama that certainly takes a unique approach to its subject matter and story. 3.5/5