New Things #6: All of Us Strangers

There are two reasons why it’s tough to discuss “All of Us Strangers”.

The first issue is that the film is almost too surreal for its own good but without the surreal element, the film doesn’t really exist. “All of Us Strangers” is about a writer who is penning a script about his parents who died when he was 12; when he goes back to his family home, he finds his parents there, back as they were before they died. The writer, a gay man, then gets to talk about his childhood and being gay with his parents whose perspective is still from the 80’s.

All of the moments of Andrew Scott’s character talking to his parents are amazing. Scott’s both timid and childlike but strong-willed. His parents, played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell are top notch as they deal with reconnecting with their son who is now the same age or older as they are (despite last seeing him when he was 12.)

And while these conversations are tremendous, there is a layer of WTF?! hovering over it because none of the characters seem stunned by what’s going on. Nobody really questions how it is happening and all of the emotions (before the conversations begin) is muted. In doesn’t take away from the very real conversations in the surreal setting but it’s just a bizarre way to kick things off.

The second issue is the ending. Obviously,I won’t go into it but I just didn’t think the film stick the landing. I’ll leave it at that.

The film is still worth checking out but it’s one I’d recommend to wait to watch at home. Yes, I want to support smaller movies like this and if possible, people should see them in the theater but, speaking realistically when my most of my friends have jobs and/or kids that limit their free time, I can’t really say that this film is what they should spend that time on. It’s quite good but I’d almost call this a Tik Tok film; you can watch three or four scenes on TikTok and pretty much get the best parts of the film.