Starring: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy
OUR RATING: ★★★★☆
Story:
Romantic supernatural fantasy drama written and directed by Andrew Haigh. All of Us Strangers (2023) centers on Adam (Andrew Scott) who one night, in his tower block in contemporary London, has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor, Harry (Paul Mescal), which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, thirty years before.
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Best Quotes
Harry: [to Adam] I saw you looking at me from the street. I’ve seen you a bunch of times coming and going with your head down.
Harry: How do you cope?
Adam: With what?
Harry: Listen. It’s so quiet. I mean, London’s out there, but we can’t hear a f***ing thing.
Harry: [after Adam refuses to drink with him] How about I come in anyway? If not for a drink, then for whatever else you might want.
Adam: I don’t think that’s a good idea.
Harry: Do I scare you?
Adam: No.
Harry: We don’t have to do anything if I’m not your type. There’s vampires at my door.
Dad: Shall we go?
Adam: Go where?
Dad: Home.
Dad: [as the front door opens] Guess who I found loitering in the park?
Mum: Is it him?
Dad: Oh, yeah. It’s definitely him. Look in his eyes.
Mum: [as she looks at Adam] Yes, it is you.
Mum: You’ve always been a sensitive boy, haven’t you?
Adam: Maybe.
Dad: It’s so bloody lovely to see you again. Weren’t sure if we ever would. Here you are.
Adam: Here I am.
Harry: I’m assuming you’re not with anyone. I never see you with anyone.
Adam: No.
Harry: No. You often single?
Adam: Am I often single? I suppose so. Yeah. Are you?
Harry: Yeah. Yeah. But not for want of trying.
Adam: [referring to his parents] I’m trying to write about them at the moment.
Harry: Is that what you do?
Adam: Yeah.
Harry: How’s it going?
Adam: Strangely.
Harry: [after Adam’s told him how his parents died] I’m really sorry.
Adam: No. Thanks. I was a long time ago.
Harry: Yeah, I don’t think that matters.
Mum: God, look at you.
Adam: What?
Mum: You were just a boy. And now you’re not.
Adam: I’m gay.
Mum: As in homosexual?
Adam: As in that. Yeah.
Mum: [to Adam] I suppose I never did know what was going on in that odd little head of yours. You were always running away. Do you remember?
Mum: They say it’s a very lonely kind of life.
Adam: They don’t actually say that anymore.
Mum: So, you’re not lonely?
Adam: If I am, it’s not because I’m gay. Not really.
Mum: Not really?
‘I’ve always felt like a stranger in my own family.’ – Harry
Harry: My nan says there’s literally nothing a hot bath couldn’t solve.
Adam: I don’t really like baths.
Harry: F*** off. Who doesn’t like baths?
Harry: You don’t need to be shy around me.
Adam: Yes. That’s easier said than done.
Harry: [to Adam] I’ve been thinking about you all week today. I was thinking about watching crappy TV with you on a Friday night. Eating takeaway on your sofa. Watching all the episodes of Top of the Pops from before I was born.
Harry: You could say that I have drifted to the edge. Or right up to the edge, almost. Over the edge.
Harry: I don’t go home much.
Adam: Does that make you sad?
Harry: No. I think it’s just inevitable really.
Adam: It’s funny. Things are better now. Of course they are, but doesn’t take much to make you feel the way you felt, back there again, skin all raw.
'I suppose we don't get to decide when it's over.' - Mum (All of Us Strangers) Share on X
Adam: I have good memories too.
Dad: Yeah. I hope so. F***. I hope so. I hope you did.
Dad: I’m sorry I never came in your room when you were crying.
Adam: No, really, it’s okay.
Dad: No. It’s not okay though, really, is it? It’s not.
Adam: Dad. Dad, I get it. It was so long ago. Stop!
Dad: [as Adam is crying] Can I hug you now?
Adam: Yeah, please.
Dad: [as they hug] You’re alright, son. You’re alright.
Adam: [to Harry] After this, I want to go out. You, and me, together, into the world.
Adam: Is this real?
Mum: Does it feel real?
Adam: Yeah.
Mum: There you go then.
Adam: For how long though?
Mum: I can’t answer that.
Mum: [to Adam] You were always scared of something.
Mum: [to Adam] I hate that we weren’t around when you needed us most, sweetheart. And I hate even more that I wasn’t there before that, not really.
'I'll protect you from the hooded claw. Keep the vampires from your door.' - Adam (All of Us Strangers) Share on X
Mum: [after Adam tells his fantasy story of them going to Disneyland] Why did we have to fight?
Adam: Because that’s what everyone did with their parents. They fought, and bickered, and pretended that they were ruining each other’s lives.
Mum: Did we make up?
Adam: No, we didn’t need to make up. We were together, so it didn’t matter.
Harry: [after Adam describes how his parents died] I can’t even begin to imagine how you felt. How lonely you must’ve been.
Adam: Yeah. But like I’d always felt lonely, even before. This was a new feeling. Like a terror, that I’d always be alone now. And then, as I got older, that feeling just solidified. Just a knot here all the time. And then losing them, it just got tangled up with all the other stuff, about being gay, and just feeling like the future doesn’t matter.
Harry: I know how easy it can be to stop caring about yourself.
Adam: This is our house. This is our kitchen. This is our wallpaper. That’s our table where we had fish and chips every Friday night, so my mother could pretend we were still Catholic.
Harry: Adam I want to go home. Let me take you home.
Adam: This is my home.
Harry: No, it used to be. It’s not anymore.