#guy lodge

'We live in a world, it seems, where every single thing anyone ever does gets criticized and argued about no matter how absolutely fantastic and incredible things are. No matter what a company or someone does, there’s always going to be someone upset, irritated, annoyed, or whatever about the product and why is X getting a release but not Y and so forth. The conversation is simply exhausting, especially when it’s about Criterion, who have released 80+ 4K titles so far (93 by the end of the year) and not a singular release has been a miss. So, whether it is the incoming 8 ½ (1963) that is getting the 4K treatment or one of the very best of 2023 in Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, let’s just celebrate the excellence that Criterion puts out and celebrate one of the most beautifully heartbreaking films of the twenty-first century which boasts some of the best extras in a Criterion in *ages*...

The film focuses on struggling screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) while he finds a new outlet to grieve over losing his parents 30 years ago. He is drawn to his childhood home to process the loss while writing his new screenplay and sees the ghosts of his parents, Mum and Dad (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell respectively). While working on his screenplay, dealing with the grief, and revisiting his childhood home, he has a chance encounter with Harry (Paul Mescal). The two of these characters live in the same apartment complex and, during a fire alarm, start a budding relationship, one that takes off in an unexpected way. Truly a way to capture the chances of meeting a love in a chance encounter, their relationship blossoms as Adam tries to navigate his new screenplay, seeing his parents through his writing and mind, and balancing his new found relationship with Harry.

There is something simplistic and beautiful about their relationship and character builds that just strikes the heartstrings in more ways than one. However, as the film progresses, the script penned by Haigh (Lean on Pete) based on the novel by Taichi Yamada not only breaks the audience it, completely shatters them. With every word spoken, and every action taken, All of Us Strangers wiggles its way into one’s heart, nestles in there for the rest of your life, then explodes from the inside, shattering one’s heart into a literal million pieces. This movie hits the audience like a ton of bricks, and nothing can prepare audiences for the emotional devastation.

Now we dive into the nitty gritty. I first saw this as a screener provided by Disney at home, and was completely immersed and taken aback by how gorgeous this film was. I was so blown away, in fact, that I went with a friend to see it in theatres so I could audibly sob and disturb people around me with my emotional devastation. The theatre presentation was absolutely stunning and an equally immersive experience, and that was just in the small VIP (needing massive renovations) auditorium. Then, what hit me falling piano, similarly to the movie, was that this was never going to get a home release. It was a Searchlight presentation and, since their acquisition by Disney, home releases were never certain. I even *almost* bought the UK 4K because I knew I needed this in my collection, but as I was about to check out, I found out that All of Us Strangers was getting the Criterion treatment and I needed it, immediately.

The 4K on this is presented in Dolby Vision HDR and absolutely shines; astonishingly the best it has looked across all three of my watches. I know that sounds a little silly on a 2023 release, but the colors and vibrancy of this film truly shine with the warm 4K digital mastering. Another thing Criterion excels at is their bonus features, and the essay from film critic Guy Lodge may be the best essay, or at least one of, that Criterion has ever put out. If you’re not a fan of reading the essays, I cannot highly recommend enough reading this specific one. Moreover, there is more than an hour of special features on this edition, and between the conversations between Haigh and Michael Koresky and the interview with the cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay (See How They Run), every faucet of information is tapped here. Combine that with the behind-the-scenes documentary and featurettes and everything one could want to know about the making of All of Us Strangers is truly answered.

'There’s a particular kind of loneliness that director Andrew Haigh captures in his 2023 film All of Us Strangers (now in The Criterion Collection) that is both devastating and invitational.

All of Us Strangers follows a screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) who lives alone in his London apartment complex. His room is so high up in the building that his space is illuminated by natural light. The film’s cinematographer, Jamie D. Ramsay, frames these moments of Adam beholding that skyline with a haunting sense of allure; it’s isolating and beautiful. His stripped-down existence is upended when, after a fire alarm pushes him out of the building, he encounters his neighbor, Harry (Paul Mescal). Harry’s impulsiveness and forwardness both intrigue and frighten Adam; Scott plays the character wonderfully as someone who desires the intimacy of a relationship but is afraid to name that for himself. The two begin seeing each other and concurrently, to inspire his writing, Adam visits his old childhood home. To his surprise, he sees his parents, played by Toby Bell and Claire Foy, who haven’t aged since they died in a car crash when Adam was young. The film follows these two narrative strands, as Adam is caught between pursuing the excitement of a new relationship while wrestling through the stones he’s left unturned with his ghost parents.

Haigh adapts the film from Japanese writer Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel Strangers, and he masterfully finds ways to add a personal touch to the narrative. For all of the film’s dealing with the supernatural, it never eclipses the human story at its center. Rather than spending time delving into phantom logistics, Haigh mines the deep sadness that comes from the things we leave unsaid and undone from our loved ones. We all leave this world with regrets, and as Adam speaks with his parents, there’s a holy catharsis in this reconciliation. A particularly devastating moment involves his father acknowledging that he’d heard Adam crying alone in his room after being bullied. Adam initially waves off his father’s apologies, saying that it was a long time ago. Yet, his father gently presses further, repeating his regret before Adam can’t help but burst into tears. It’s the first of many scenes where Adam allows himself the grace of breaking. It’s beautiful that this healing can begin now, but tragic that it couldn’t happen when his parents were alive.

The highlight of the bonus features included in the Criterion’s two discs is the new interviews conducted with Haigh and critic Michael Koresky, as well as an interview with cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay. In his conversation with Ramsay, for nearly thirty minutes, Haigh speaks to the places where his film differs from Yamada’s novel. In Yamada’s story, it’s unclear whether Adam’s parents were ghosts or simply hallucinations. Haigh found that mystery is less interesting, hence his decision to make it clear that Adam’s parents are ghosts from the start and having the dramatic tension of the film revolve around how he responds to that reality. Additionally, Haigh shared that, while he loves the fact that a lot of queer stories revolve around queer folk gaining comfort in “found family,” he specifically wanted All of Us Strangers to wrestle around this idea that “You can want to be a part of both the found family and the own family you’ve been forced out of.” The reality of unrequited desire and community is yet another specter that haunts his film.

Ramsay’s commentary is equally enlightening. Going back to the way the cinematographer depicted Adams’ apartment, he describes how he shot the times Adam is alone as if the character was “swimming in a fish tank.” Given how high up and vast Adam’s apartment is, Ramsay explains how it “created a sense of unnecessary freedom” and how “there’s no coziness in that freedom.” Adam holds the verisimilitude of the pinnacle of autonomy, but the opulence only betrays the fact that such pleasures are fleeting. For the space to be recontextualized and made better, he’ll have to confront his past and present, as evident through his new relationship with Harry and his conversations with his parents. The 4K digital master on one disc and the Blu-Ray version also serve to underscore the intentional work put forth by Ramsay and Haigh. There are moments where Scott’s Adam character almost blends in with the sunlight, oscillating between the corporeal and the spiritual. It’s an effect that is effectively rendered through the film’s upgraded resolution.