Andrew Haigh’s ALL OF US STRANGERS opens with one of the most beautiful shots I have ever seen and doesn’t let up from there. Lonely writer Adam (Andrew Scott) living in a near-deserted tower block in London simultaneously begins a passionate relationship with neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal) and meets the time-displaced ghosts of his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) while visiting his childhood home. As well-honed as all four performances are and as emotionally intelligent as the script is, what really makes All of Us Strangers hit as hard as it does are the questions it prompts. If you were gifted more time with someone you loved and lost, how would you use it? What would you ask them and what would they ask you, no matter how difficult the question? This is one of the most moving films of the year, one that subverts expectations in fascinating ways and speaks to all the quiet outcasts out there on a particularly profound level. SSP
Review in Brief: All of Us Strangers (2023)
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Review in Brief: Beau is Afraid (2023)
Thanks to Ari for letting us sit in on his bewildering self-therapy. BEAU IS AFRAID is best described as an epic anxiety horror. It could certainly be considered funny, but funny-peculiar. Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) is a man-child still under the thumb of his abusive real estate magnate mother (Patti LuPone) despite living hundreds of miles away from her. While preparing to visit, he receives a call to say his mother has died suddenly and his journey becomes one to make it in time for her funeral, mishap after mishap befalling him in the process. Aster’s films are certainly an acquired taste and the three hour runtime and surrealist tone of Beau certainly won’t help convert the uninitiated. But Phoenix is mesmerising, the undeniably ambitious film serves up some images you’ll never see elsewhere and at least some of you will find this hilarious. SSP
