2024 Top Ten List #2 All of Us Strangers

Writer/director Andrew Haigh

Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott

Haigh on the set with Paul Mescal

Haigh with cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay

ALL OF US STRANGERS                  A                                                                                 Great Britain  USA  (105 mi)  2023  ‘Scope  d: Andrew Haigh

Little things I should have said and done, I never took the time.                                                  —Always On My Mind, The Pet Shop Boys, 1987

British-born writer/director Andrew Haigh, creator of Weekend (2011), 45 Years (2016), and Lean On Pete (2017), has crafted his most mature and compelling work, a haunting meditation on loneliness that offers more than a few surprises, emotionally raw and deeply connecting, expressing a unique vulnerability that is brilliantly told, feeling very grown up, where nothing else like it comes to mind, as it really establishes its own unorthodox path, where the reflective originality is literally off the charts without using any cinematic trickery.  What truly stands out is just how achingly personal it is, where every single moment feels heartfelt, and the title tells all, poetically revealing how we all revolve around each other’s lives, like planets in alignment, reminiscent of that spectacular opening sequence in Béla Tarr’s WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES (2000), Werckmeister Harmonies (Opening Scene - GR-EN sub) YouTube (10:12).  The degree of complexity in this film is surprising, as it starts out simple enough, with nothing out of the ordinary, where the realist aesthetic becomes ingrained with viewers, setting the tone for what follows, providing the building blocks of an intense theatrical exploration of memory and identity, loosely adapting Taichi Yamada’s 1987 Tokyo-based novel Strangers, the first recipient of the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize, changing the central character to a gay man with the blessing of Yamada (who died recently at the age of 89) and his family, who were incredibly respectful of Haigh’s vision of finding hope in dark places.  At the center of the story is Irish actor Andrew Scott as Adam, a reclusive writer working on a story that has to do with his past and his deceased parents, currently living alone on the 27th floor of a block high-rise building with a panoramic view of the London landscape below, where the clouds on the horizon offer a contemplative vantage point, recalling Sofia Coppola’s far-reaching hotel room vista in Lost in Translation (2002), or the quiet perch in Spike Jonze’s futuristic Her (2013), where the window in each case is a barrier to the world outside.  Despite the massive size of what appears to be a new building, it is strangely deserted, where it comes as a surprise that he is the only one exiting during a fire drill, an incident that allows Adam to spot his only neighbor in a window, Harry (Paul Mescal from 2023 Top Ten List #7 Aftersun), who pays him a visit afterwards in an excessively awkward flirtatious gesture that reveals his off-putting drunken state, with a half-empty bottle of Japanese whisky in his hands, ALL OF US STRANGERS | “Do I Scare You” Clip | Searchlight Pictures YouTube (54 seconds).  He’s younger and more gregarious, but Adam declines the invitation, as he’s largely a solitary figure, but has second thoughts afterwards, believing there’s something there, and a short time later the two reconnect as gay lovers, where the awkwardness of an initial sexual encounter is everpresent, yet there’s also a heartfelt connection that bonds them together, some of which comes from sharing the difficulties they each encountered from the realization they were gay.  Both are estranged from their families and share the same feeling of alienation and not belonging, with Adam confessing he lost his parents in a car crash thirty years earlier just before he turned twelve years old, with Harry sensing that kind of pain never goes away, leaving Adam suddenly flooded by memories of his past, while Harry is himself trapped by his own struggles with drugs and alcohol.  Rising to the surface are grief and loss, with elements of warmth, melancholy, loneliness, and sorrow, opening a dialogue between the past and the present, something that was previously explored in Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman (2021), or more recently Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka) (2023).  But this is something different altogether, a profoundly moving experience that may leave some emotionally shattered, becoming a deeply philosophical Proustian essay on the power of love and the power of remembrance.   

Andrew Haigh films are known for being quiet, intimate, well-acted, and intensely real, where the root of them all is an emotional honesty expressed with extraordinary tenderness, where his eloquent use of music and camera movement feels effortlessly fluid and graceful, a bit like Xavier Dolan, luring us into an emotionally devastating fictional world that viewers are suddenly thrust into, as if we’re living it ourselves.  Premiering at the Telluride Film Festival, this is another LGBTQ story with a surreal aspect to it, bearing some resemblance to Enys Men (2022), as each is a brilliantly original exposé on loneliness, but things are expressed quite differently, conveyed largely through conversations, with regular bursts of humor in highlighting the absurdities of the situation, where it’s such a deeply personal and imaginative vision that it takes us places where we’ve never been, much of it stemming from the unique architectural blueprint from the Yamada novel.  While stuck on a page that simply reads “External, suburban house, 1987,” this film leaves audiences continually off-balance, as we question what we’re seeing, wondering just what to make of it all, taking place in a netherworld of memory and the imagination, where there’s a textured, indelible sense of pathos running through the entire film, which feels more like a metaphysical experience.  The overall weirdness may not work for everyone, but this is a director at the height of his powers pressing the artistic boundaries in pursuit of something completely different, where it’s a bit of a challenge to keep up with the dizzying turns in the road, but the place he takes us is something to be cherished.  Some twenty or thirty minutes into the film, Haigh pulls the rug out from underneath us, leaving us floating on air in a state of suspended incomprehension and disbelief, where it doesn’t matter if it defies all rational logic, as he instead creates an immensely satisfying alternative universe, with no explanation, and simply leaves us there to fend for ourselves.  While off on a long walk, Adam encounters a strange man (Jamie Bell) and follows him into the suburban neighborhood of Croydon, where we thoroughly expect an anonymous sexual encounter, but once they get to the door, the man happily introduces Adam to his wife (Claire Foy from 2023 Top Ten List #1 Women Talking), only to discover they affectionately call him their son, someone they haven’t seen in a long while, which is an alarming development, ALL OF US STRANGERS | “Hi” Clip | Searchlight Pictures YouTube (30 seconds).  Viewers are quick to think they may be stepparents, or foster parents, yet the strange thing is there appears to be little difference in their age as they immediately rehash childhood memories, which are in no way idealized or romanticized, but presented matter-of-factly, exposing the obvious discomfort that generation either failed to recognize or ignored.  As mind-blowing as this seems, blurring the boundaries of reality, they’re actually picking up their relationship where it left off decades earlier (“Is this real?” he asks), having conversations with his parents that he never got to have, where they all seem perfectly comfortable with the visit afterwards, as if it was a cathartic experience, which only elevates the emotional authenticity of the reconnection, a very unusual way to tackle the haunting memories of grief and death, like traveling through an invisible portal.  In this ghost story, however, Haigh leaves out any horror or supernatural elements, and rather than being about the dead, it’s about the living communing with the dead, tapping into feelings people didn’t know they had.  In a subsequent visit with just his mother at home, ALL OF US STRANGERS | “You Were Just A Boy” Clip | Searchlight Pictures YouTube (2:00), Adam confesses he is openly gay, which hits her like a ton of bricks, not really bringing herself to believe what she hears, as it’s not what she ever envisioned, yet this is the moment every gay kid has with their parents, and it’s completely relatable.    

One of the unlocking keys to the film is viewing the album cover of Welcome to the Pleasuredome by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, a pivotal 1980’s album that exploded onto the music scene in a wave of controversy, where the blatant sexuality was groundbreaking, dangerous, and exciting, along with its immersion into gay culture during the AIDS epidemic of the 80’s which took so many innocent young lives.  This film is caught in a time warp, carrying the distinct experience of a specific generation of gay people growing up in the 80’s, battered by the relentless homophobia of the Reagan and Thatcher era where they were meant to feel ashamed and abandoned, as no one cared, where it’s not nostalgia, which can often hide the truth, but the burden of alienation and self-loathing still carried around by generations of grown-up gay children who have been traumatized from the harm done by an unsympathetic mainstream that was not inclined to question or reshape the world around them but simply accept the status quo.  Moving away from the traditional ghost story of the novel, Haigh creates something more psychological and distinctly metaphysical that is intentionally abstract in its revelations.  While the film takes place in a contemporary setting, the sequences when Adam returns to his childhood home to see his parents returns us to a 1980’s version of their world, where time has literally stopped, which has the effect of stepping into a dream, or a hazy, nostalgia-induced memory, where one of the more haunting sequences is a Christmas they spend together, with his mom humming along to an old Elvis tune as they decorate the tree, yet the cover version heard on TV with a gay lead singer has a completely different, more heartbreaking connotation for Adam, Pet Shop Boys - Always on my mind (Official Video) [4k Upgrade] YouTube (5:12).  In order to accentuate the realism and deep personal connection, these scenes were actually shot in Haigh’s childhood home, beautifully expressed on 35mm by cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay, with rich colors and evocative lighting, exacerbating a feeling of being out of time, or in spaces inhabited only by the mind, while the eerie, mind-altering electronic musical score was conceived by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch.  Haigh explores the complexities of both familial and romantic love, with Harry and Adam, in a moment of joyous abandon, heading out into the world together as a couple, where one of the film’s memorable sequences takes place in a nightclub, shot on location at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, an iconic queer London institution which is entrenched with local history and culture, where the neon-lit color scheme immerses viewers in the richness of a drug-induced experience, ALL OF US STRANGERS | “Will You Look After Me?” Clip | Searchlight Pictures YouTube (55 seconds), which is a dizzying and terrifying turn, set to the music of Blur’s Death of a Party (2012 Remaster) - YouTube (4:33), where their loneliness mirrors one other, two men adrift, lost souls brought into each other’s lives, trapped by invisible scars that continue to inhibit their ability to connect with others.  Easily one of the more original and important films seen in a while, as it speaks to something that simply isn’t being told elsewhere.  There are wow moments in this film, achieved through exquisite writing and tender emotional restraint, where some of the most stunning moments come from quietly intimate deliveries, where the vast majority of the film’s complexities rest firmly on the shoulders of Adam, where much of the emotional punch comes from the tender, heart-wrenching, and healing bond between Adam and his parents, leading to one of the more powerful finales in recent memory, exemplified by a moment of infinite beauty and the majestic quality of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Frankie Goes To Hollywood - The Power Of Love - Remastered - 4K - 5.1 Surround YouTube (5:05), suggesting that more than anything our lives revolve around the transcendent importance of relationships and the power of love.       

Andrew Haigh Answers All of My Burning Questions About ' ...  engaging Evan Ross Katz interview from Shut Up Evan, November 7, 2023

Rocketman

Taron Egerton, Elton John and David Furnish (left to right) on the set of Rocketman

Elton and Bernie

Sir Elton John singing ‘Candle In The Wind’ at the funeral of Princess Diana, September 6, 1997

Elton and his leading man, Taron Egerton

the director on the set (right) with his leading man

ROCKETMAN                      C+                  

Great Britain  USA  (121 mi)  2019 ‘Scope d:  Dexter Fletcher                    

Official website (USA)

While documenting the typical rise and fall of a rock ‘n’ roll artist eventually consumed in drugs and booze, using a musical fantasia to tell the story of his hyper instability in what might be described as the 70’s, his young and miserable years, which might work better as a Broadway show, where an electric energy can build between performer and audience in an intimate setting.  As is, this is a fairly typical Hollywood embellishment, premiering on the red carpet as the opening film at Cannes, receiving a standing ovation afterwards, though demonstrating little directorial flair or prowess behind the camera, feeling more like extended music videos, with a wall-to-wall musical soundtrack that accompanies one hyper-embellished production number after another, where the emphasis is on exaggeration and overkill, playing fast and loose with the facts, basically created for mainstream consumption, where if the idea is to generate a hit, making gazillions of dollars, which is the Hollywood standard, then it will be considered a success.  As for distinguishing itself with any artistic originality, the film falls short, feeling overly formulaic, made by the same director who was brought in to finish BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (2018) after the only credited director Bryan Singer was fired for undisclosed reasons with two weeks of shooting left.  That film was lambasted by critics yet went on to earn over $900 million dollars, winning four Academy Awards, including a prestigious Best Actor for Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury, earning the director another bite of the apple.  While there are a few moments that do stand out, most come early in the film, where the view of Elton’s childhood, meeting songwriter Bernie Taupin, and breaking into the music industry are all an exhilarating rush of youthful energy and excitement, but it quickly goes downhill after that, becoming a greatest hits montage, with little thought to what makes this artist uniquely compelling or universally beloved.  Instead overnight success leads to instant money and fame, squandered on drugs and alcohol that nearly destroy his soul, portrayed as a substitute for the love he never had, where his out-of-control lifestyle becomes a wrecking ball of self-destruction, viewed in a dizzying descent into loneliness and emotional isolation, cutting off all healthy relationships, finding himself desperately alone, and only then does he reach out for professional help to get clean and sober, with the film eventually running out of gas, overly laden with cliché’s and spiffed-up fantasy tributes that all look the same after a while, where the real surprise may be that the featured artist onscreen is still living happily and apparently doing fine, as he’s now nearly 30 years sober and in a loving relationship with partner David Furnish and two adopted sons. 

At the outset, a door is thrown open revealing a near mythical figure dressed in a bright-orange-feathered sequined garb with two horns coming out of his head and heart-shaped glasses, walking his way down the hallway before interrupting a meeting in progress, where he’s a spectacle to behold, utterly outrageous, to be sure, but this is his initial entry into group therapy, introducing himself as an alcoholic, cocaine addict, sex addict, shopping addict, and a bulimic, where the entire film is told in flashback, recalling what he describes as a happy childhood, yet it’s anything but, offering a stark contrast of continual emotional neglect, where he’s an innocent kid, but under appreciated.  When his character (Taron Egerton doing his own singing) throws off his headgear and breaks out into song at the therapy meeting, all bets are off, breaking out into “The Bitch Is Back,” Soundtrack #1 | The Bitch Is Back (Introduction) | Rocketman (2019 ... (YouTube (1:55), initially sung by his 5-year old self, Reginald Dwight (Matthew Illesley), with instantaneous eruptions into song and dance routines (where his neighbors appear as back-up dancers) revealing a stream-of-conscience narrative.  Raised in an atmosphere of indifference, where his overly fashion-conscious mother Sheila (Bryce Dallas Howard) does not wish to be disturbed, remaining argumentative and prone to dark moods, seemingly more interested in cocktails and occasional quickies while the husband is away, not really lavishing attention on young Reginald, basically ignoring him while her coldly disinterested husband Stanley (Steven Mackintosh) is away in the Royal Air Force, himself overly strict and emotionally remote, trying to lay down the law at home each time he returns, only to see it undermined by his own wife who has little use for him.  The two squabble away their unhappy differences, continually heard fighting over Reginald, where’s he’s often to blame for their “unfortunate” circumstances.  The only one in his corner is his grandmother (Gemma Jones), who instantly recognizes a prodigious musical talent, registering him for study at the Royal Academy of Music where he demonstrates a remarkable ability to play back exactly what he hears for the first time on the piano, note for note, quickly enrolled in a classical repertoire.  But his tastes lie elsewhere, developing a passion for early rock ‘n’ roll figures, dropping out of school after five years and playing in local bar bands, including a back-up band for touring American R& B reviews, with one of the male singers offering a provocative kiss on the lips, opening the door and shedding light on a closeted existence he was in denial about.

His career only gets going when he meets songwriter Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), two shaggy-haired individuals brought together by manager Ray Williams (Charlie Rowe, who managed Elton for his first five albums), with one having a gift for writing songs while the other composes melodies for those lyrics almost instantaneously, working together as a team, where watching him pick out the first notes to “Your Song” on his living room piano is particularly poignant, (https://youtu.be/WEyxkgXjBuo) YouTube (3:01), with Dwight choosing the stage name Elton John, bringing with it a flair for flamboyant outfits, giant spectacles, and an electric stage presence.  Getting their first start on an American tour at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, the rush of energy is presented in a dreamlike montage of the surreal, with Elton literally floating in air, but the audience ate them up, singing along in the chorus, growing wildly enthusiastic, invited to an after-hours party at the home of Mama Cass, where their dreams literally come true, becoming an overnight sensation, recording hugely successful record albums, playing to sold-out venues, suddenly living in high style like rock ‘n’ roll royalty, with Elton having his first affair with a man who would later become his manager for the next 25 years, John Reid (Richard Madden), with an overly tame gay sex scene in bed, yet breaking a barrier, as this is a first from a Hollywood studio film.  His lifestyle choices, however, soon veer out of control, partying like Hugh Hefner in his own Hollywood mansion, two-timed by his manager, which leaves him devastated, walking out the door uttering, “I’ll still be collecting my 20 percent long after you’ve killed yourself.”  This longtime relationship appears much more amicable than what is presented here, as John sued Reid after 25 years, claiming mismanagement, a suit he lost in court, yet he was still offered a hefty out-of-court settlement afterwards.  This is a film where all the money and drugs and all the success in the world can’t buy him happiness, as he’s still that shy kid in the corner who couldn’t get his parent’s attention, feeding himself pills to dull the pain, growing paranoid from the drug consumption and wasted from the alcohol, simply throwing his life away until it becomes so unmanageable that he grows suicidal, without a thought in the world of the consequences, growing deliriously unstable until he literally bursts into that therapy room asking for help.  While there’s a happy ending, the film is meant to be a rollicking ride, though it pales in comparison to Julie Taymor’s ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (2007), for instance, which uses lyrics from Beatles songs to actually move the narrative throughout the entire movie, a much more astute visionary experience with utterly brilliant artistic design, with Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge (2001)  equally comparable for bringing all the razzle dazzle.  This isn’t in the same stratosphere, with a director displaying musical flourishes that feel so ho-hum in comparison, rarely altering mood or style, using fairly standard choreography, nothing that’s ever eye-popping, though many seem to be enjoying the glitz and glamor of it all.  You’d think Hollywood of all places could produce a smashingly original gay musical fantasia, one that rises to new heights, like an anthem for gay culture in all its glory, mixing stellar choreography with wildly inventive visual expressiveness, yet sadly it was not to be, as they didn’t go all-in for the best gay talent, using instead a non-gay lead actor and director, for instance, which is just the tip of the iceberg, feeling like a lost opportunity.