All of Us Strangers

I feel empty after watching this, in both the ways the film intended and perhaps also in ways it didn't. I really appreciate Haigh for taking a swing here and making something so stylistic and otherworldly, not sure if it's the marketing or the press Mescal and Scott have been doing but I did go in expecting a standard gay drama, but having some fantasy in here was a real welcome surprise.

It allows for the film's best moments, which are hands down, Scott speaking with his parents. I feel like this will be all too relatable for any queer person, no matter their relationship with their parents, contending with emotions of confusion and hurt at such a young age really is heartbreaking when you're having to look at someone else going through it. I though Claire Foy and specifically Jamie Bell did a wonderful job as Scott's parents and managed to play such odd characters with ease, floating between this love for their son who they did not see become the man he is and having to dela with the fact that he isn't the man they thought he would be, there's one scene with Bell which was just unbelievable.

I did have my issues with the story, however. I feel like you could feel the writing in this film, none of it felt as natural as I'd hoped it to be. Perhaps it was also in the acting, I did enjoy Scott and Mescal but there were moments where it felt as if they were acting. Perhaps this was also intentional, but it drew me out of the story. I think the stuff with Mescal was by far the most least interesting of the film, there was one scene which stuck with me - a scene about the generational language of gay and queer - but I felt like his character had zero development or depth past his sexuality and even then, it was surface level. I don't think this would bother me as much as it did were it not for the ending hinging on his character. I really did not enjoy the ending. The film is quite dark and dreary and I feel like it is necessarily upsetting but just when you think there might be some queer joy, it goes deeper into this queer tragedy which is all too often shown, again I don't think I'd have as much of an issue with this were it not for hinging on Mescal who serves as a plot element rather than being a fully fleshed out character himself. I guess it just didn't work cause I wasn't as invested in their love, I didn't get enough from them to believe in. The resolution just didn't work, I think the film was contending with two halves which didn't entirely merge and ended up feeling like many queer trauma films. Honestly since I wasn't fully invested in their relationship, the last moment came off as a bad attempt at ending it on queer love