Sans jamais nous connaître

There are certain movies that are too heavy to objectively rate and look back on. For me, All of Us Strangers is that kind of film.

The story follows Adam, played by terrific Andrew Scott, who's in his forties, living alone in a freshly-built block in London, indulging himself in his loneliness. One night, he's visited by Harry, played by brilliant Paul Mescal, and the two start a relationship, in which both open up about their insecurities. It turns out, Adam's main source of anxiety is not being able to get over grief after his parents' death 30 years earlier.

Adam writes screenplays for movies, and it turns out, All of Us Strangers seems like one of his screenplays, because he regularly visits his parents. He talks with them about his everyday life, struggles, and what has changed in these 30 years.

Now, I'm lucky enough to have both parents alive and well. Still, due to how excellent the dialogue, narration, and acting is in All of Us Strangers, I was still devastated. I can't recall when was the last time I shed so many tears during a film.

Imagine a person so lost in grief and loneliness they talk to their dead family members and acting as if their fantasies were true. All of Us Strangers brings these kinds of images alive to a great effect. Fortunately, the movie is also more than only an emotional blow. It hardly loses its narration, even when the tempo accelerates in certain moments, and the border between what's real and fiction seems to vanish.

And the acting. I won't ever understand how Andrew Scott wasn't nominated for an award for his depiction of Adam. His range in this movie is just unmatched. A lot of positives can also be said about Paul Mescal, or Adam's parents, who are played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell, but they're a background to Scott's brilliance on the screen.

It's tough to think of a story about grief and loneliness without emotional baggage. All of Us Strangers, despite its emotional overload, delivers a solid, stunning, and tough story about people who are lost. More importantly, it's a story about a lot of us, too afraid to talk about our inner battles, running away to imaginary scenarios. A truly superb film.