''All of Us Strangers'' is a 2023 British

romantic fantasy Romantic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy fiction, describing a fantasy story using many of the elements and conventions of the chivalric romance genre. One of the key features of romantic fantasy involves the focus on relationships, social, ...

film written and directed by

Andrew Haigh Andrew Haigh (; born 7 March 1973) is a British filmmaker. Early life Haigh was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. He read History at Newcastle University. Career Haigh worked as an assistant editor on films such as ''Gladiator (200 ...

, and loosely based on the 1987 novel ''

Strangers A stranger is a person who is unknown to another person or group. Because of this unknown status, a stranger may be perceived as a threat until their identity (social science), identity and Character structure, character can be ascertained. Differ ...

'' by

Taichi Yamada is a Japanese screenwriter and novelist. His real name is . Career Born in Asakusa, Tokyo, Yamada attended Waseda University before entering the Shōchiku film studios, where he trained as an assistant director under Keisuke Kinoshita. He left t ...

. The film stars Andrew Scott,

Paul Mescal Paul Mescal (; born 2 February 1996) is an Irish actor. Born in Maynooth, he studied acting at The Lir Academy and subsequently performed in plays in Dublin theatres. Mescal rose to fame with his role in the miniseries ''Normal People'' (2020), e ...

Jamie Bell Andrew James Matfin Bell (born 14 March 1986) is an English actor and dancer. He rose to prominence for his debut role in ''Billy Elliot'' (2000), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, becoming one of the youngest ...

, and

Claire Foy Claire Elizabeth Foy (born 16 April 1984) is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the young Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of the Netflix series ''The Crown'' (2016–2017) for which she won a Primetime Emmy Aw ...

. It is the second film adaptation of the novel, after the 1988 Japanese film ''

The Discarnates is a 1988 Japanese horror film directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Cast * Morio Kazama as ''Hidemi Harada'' * Tsurutarô Kataoka as ''Hidekichi Harada'' (Father) * Kumiko Akiyoshi as ''Fusako Harada'' (Mother) * Yûko Natori as ''Kei Fujino'' * Tos ...

'' directed by

Nobuhiko Obayashi was a Japanese director, screenwriter and editor of films and television advertisements. He began his filmmaking career as a pioneer of Japanese experimental films before transitioning to directing more mainstream media, and his resulting film ...

. The film premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on 31 August 2023, and is scheduled to be released by

Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century Stu ...

in the United States on 22 December 2023.

Premise

Adam, a screenwriter living in London, encounters his mysterious neighbour Harry. As their relationship develops, Adam returns to his childhood home to discover his long-dead parents are not only alive and well, but have seemingly not aged since thirty years ago.

Cast

* Andrew Scott as Adam *

as Harry *

as Adam's father *

as Adam's mother

Production

Filming was in progress in the United Kingdom when the film, then known as ''Strangers'', and the principal cast were announced on 30 June 2022. The announcement attracted inquiries on social media as to whether the plot involves a romance between Scott and Mescal's characters. ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'' found this likely since Mescal's character corresponds to a woman character in the original novel who has a romance with the protagonist, and since Haigh has previously directed acclaimed gay-themed works. The romance plot between the characters was confirmed in the August 2023 announcement of the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is ...

lineup. Haigh's childhood home served as the filming location for the house in which Adam finds his parents.

Reception

The film currently holds a

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

score of 100% based on 15 reviews, with an average score of 8.5/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film holds a weighted average score of 98 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

References

External links

* {{Andrew Haigh 2023 LGBT-related films British romantic fantasy films British LGBT-related films Gay-related films LGBT-related romance films LGBT-related fantasy films Films directed by Andrew Haigh Films set in London Films shot in London Films based on Japanese novels Film4 Productions films Searchlight Pictures films 2020s British films