All of Us Strangers (Digital 4K Review)
Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers made a splash at the Telluride Film Festival in the summertime. It became an immediate critical hit for audiences and was quickly purchased for distribution by Searchlight Pictures. The film is itself a remake of a Japanese film The Discarnates which is itself an adaptation of the 1987 Japanese novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. This tale of love found and dealing with grief may have been a critical smash, but does it hold up for us mere mortal film fans? Find out below and be sure to give it a watch on Hulu or make a digital purchase wherever you buy digital films!
Film 
Adam (Andrew Scott) is a TV screenwriter living in an apartment highrise in London. He is visibly lonely, clearly struggling not just with his writing but something else. What is that you say? Adam lost his parents when he was very young. While he is now somewhere in his 40’s, Adam is still trying his hardest to find ways to cope and move on. When a fire alarm goes off in the building, Adam sets his eyes on a handsome young neighbor, Harry (Paul Mescal), who asks him if they can spend some time together. Adam says no, and then interestingly, Adam begins to “visit” his parents. They see him as his adult self, but his parents seem to be frozen in time, apparently not far from their age when they died around 1987.
After seeing his parents in a dream or hallucination, Adam happens upon Harry again and this time, they strike up a conversation that leads to sex and the connection is secure and comforting. Harry has his own secret, which we don’t learn until the end of the film, and I won’t give away here. In their time together, Adam frequently sees his parents at his old home, and is warmed by the memories and their conversations as they get to know the adult Adam. They accept his as a gay man, learn about his new love and help Adam build his own coping mechanisms as he goes through his days.
All of Us Strangers is an interesting character study. The film plays out in ways of vision. Adam, still un-recovered from the grief he has experienced since his parents died. He survived the rest of the 80’s, had a career in the 90’s and 2000’s and then now in modern times, he is alone, missing pieces of a complete life. Harry comes to him disheveled and mysterious. He looks lost even if he’s where he’s supposed to be, and even seeing Adam in his own lost state, together the pair are very much in sync together. As their relationship evolves, Adam has to figure out how to let his parents move on from their limbo state, and he has to also learn to live with that loss so he can keep on living.
Video
Stills are provided for promotional use only.
The 4K digital presentation of All of Us Strangers is an excellent one. I watched the film via AppleTV and immediately was taken with how gorgeous the color grading is on the film. Filmed on 35mm with a 4K DI, the film looks tack sharp and is framed beautifully in 2.39:1. Andrew Haigh is a thoughtful filmmaker, and he has treated this film with love throughout. The colors are beautiful, the detail is immaculate, and the skin tones are natural, right down to the ruddiness of characters who are touching one another with intensity. There are no instances of noise in the digital transfer.
Audio
Audio is offered in English 5.1, and French with available English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Dynamically speaking, it’s a streaming mix, so even if it’s supposedly lossless, there will be moments where the sound degrades naturally. There isn’t a great deal of surround activity, with those rear channels mostly grabbing ambience and music. Dialogue sounds excellent as that’s the main draw of the audio mix, and the subwoofer comes to life when music comes into the fold.
Extras
Extras for All of Us Strangers are short, totaling 12 minutes in length. Roots of the Story is a quick piece on the creation of the film’s roots, from novel to screen and how the changes made for this version are personal to the director. Building Adam’s World takes the first piece a step further and we learn that scenes with Adam’s family are filmed in Haigh’s childhood home. These two featurettes are interesting, but far too short.
Summary
Overall, the film is a varying movement on emotion. Loss and grief play a huge part in the story and love and acceptance do too. The story is sometimes muddied by the dreams or hallucinations of Adam, and we feel for him as he continues to grieve 36 or 37 years later. Loss doesn’t have a timeline and Adam’s story proves that. All of Us Strangers is a sad film. There are fleeting moments of happiness, but knowing Adam is speaking to the spirits of his parents is sad and the reveal at the end could be gutting to viewers. But even in sadness, you can find beauty, and Andrew Haigh has done that in this film.
