Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

All of Us Strangers 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 10, 2025

Note: It's well nigh impossible to discuss All of Us Strangers coherently without at least hinting at plot elements which might be considered nearing spoiler territory. Those averse to such revelations are encouraged to watch the film before reading this review.

A rite of passage that many will not forget is the death of parents, and that rite is probably especially traumatic if the parents die under violent circumstances when their children are still relatively young. That's the contextual background to All of Us Strangers, or at least one part of what might be called a two track plot. The parental angle was front and center in Strangers, a short Japanese novel by Taichi Yamada which I admittedly have not read but which I've read about courtesy of a lot of online information, as I wanted to dig into the source for the film version, one which writer - director Andrew Haigh freely admits he appended some more quasi-autobiographical bits to which were not in the original version. While a central plot point of a lonely adult writer kind of traipsing into magical realism land by "visiting" his long dead parents was culled from Yamada's piece, a gay romance and perhaps a final "sting" may have been invented by Haigh (that last bit is up for debate, as several articles I read about the novel mention a final "twist" without revealing what it was, and so perhaps it's at least similar to a late development offered here).

From what I've been able to glean from online reportage about Yamada's novella, Strangers may not have exactly been what we might call "J Horror", but it was at least a bit closer than this patently strange but still quite affecting amalgam turns out to be. One way or the other, there's a dreamlike quality to the narrative here, even before any quasi-ghosts enter the picture. Professional scenarist Adam (Andrew Scott) is shown lounging around his high rise apartment, perhaps suffering from writer's block, with a fire alarm suddenly providing a ready excuse to exit the building, at least for a moment. When outside, Adam gazes up and sees a solitary figure staring out of a window about halfway up Adam's apartment building. That turns out to be Harry (Paul Mescal), and while there's some initial reserve on the part of Adam, the two ultimately embark on a rather passionate relationship. It may or may not be salient to note that Yamada's original formulation offered a woman apartment cohabitator and also added an evident hint that the novel's focal writer and this woman were the only two inhabitants of the building, adding to a spooky ambience that is admittedly still on tap here, even if depictions may not be overt.

As Adam and Harry get to know each other, a simultaneous plot thread starts unspooling when Adam decides to visit his childhood home. It's slowly revealed that his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) were killed in a car accident when Adam was quite young, and so it's somewhat ambiguous as to whether Adam is having a mental breakdown or actually experiencing some kind of paranormal phenomena when he amazingly ends up being able to "reunite" with Mum and Dad in the former (?) familial residence. These two plot strands end up getting more and more tangled as the story evolves, with things arguably finally tipping into at least a bit more of a ghost story element in the final few moments, though even there, Haigh hedges his "J Horror bets" and tends to concentrate on the emotions behind what might be called A Beautiful Mind adjacent revelations rather than any actual ostensible scares.

If there are ghosts aplenty in this tale, they're not really there for any perceived "fear factor", but instead kind of as evanescent symbols of grief and loss. There is therefore an undeniably melancholic and elegiac quality to Haigh's film, and it is unusually powerful in offering a portrait of anxiety and sadness. I'm frankly not sure Haigh really needed to change and/or add elements to the story, as while the gay romance and some of the isolation Adam feels as a gay man are evidently culled from Haigh's own personal experience, they may not be particularly germane to Yamada's underlying themes.

All of Us Strangers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc in this package.

All of Us Strangers is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. Kind of interestingly, this is the rare release from Criterion that really doesn't offer any information on the transfer other than a generic "director approved 4K UHD and Blu-ray" along with "4K digital master" on the back cover. Also perhaps interestingly, this is an honest to goodness shot on film endeavor that had a 4K DI (the latter data point courtesy of the IMDb), and this 4K version offers a really sumptuously organic viewing experience that proves that grain does not have to look ungainly in the increased resolution this format offers. Yes, there is some rather swarm like grittiness that can be spotted "crawling" through brighter backgrounds in particular, and probably much less subliminally than in Criterion's excellent 1080 presentation, but on the whole grain is very tightly resolved and adds to the viewing experience rather than detracting from it. Fine detail levels can also see some noticeable improvements from the already precise looking 1080 version. Once again, though, it may be the palette that will strike many eyes as offering the biggest differences from the 1080 version courtesy of Dolby Vision / HDR. The film has some really interesting grading and lighting choices, and some of the glowing orange and burnt umber tones in the film are more resplendent in this version. Some of the hallucinatory material toward the end after some drugs are ingested also have new vibrancy in this version.

All of Us Strangers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All of Us Strangers features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The film's almost hypnotically dreamlike atmosphere is part of the sound design as well, with cues kind of wafting in and out and ambient environmental effects similarly ebbing and flowing through several "interstitial" or maybe more accurately liminal spaces where it's not quite clear whether Adam is maybe having a "vision" or experiencing some kind of breakdown. All of the music (including quite a few diagetic cues) is typically robust sounding (Frankie Goes to Hollywood gets "featured" status). The source cues Haigh chose for this effort are interesting in and of themselves, and if some may quibble here and there (wouldn't "Love Resurrection" have been a better Alison Moyet tune to feature?), Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Power of Love" does provide a suitable epigram for the film. In that regard, however, those with jaded senses of humor who will be reminded of the band courtesy of this soundtrack may want to check out the hilarious mockumentary Cunk on Britain for a killer punchline about "Relax". Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

All of Us Strangers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The 4K disc in this package sports no supplementary content. The 1080 disc offers the following bonus items:

• Andrew Haigh with Michael Koresky (HD; 26:35) is an interesting 2024 conversation, with Haigh offering some biographical bits and how he approached adapting the novel.


• Jamie D. Ramsay (HD; 24:35) features the film's Director of Photography.


• Behind the Scenes offers three interesting pieces with quite a bit of candid footage and some good interviews:

  Television Documentary (HD; 22:34)

  
  

  Roots of the Story (HD; 6:37)

  
  

  Building Adam's World (HD; 6:10)

• Trailer (HD; 2:26)

A fold out leaflet contains an essay by Guy Lodge.

All of Us Strangers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

All of Us Strangers, has a somber tone that is one of its most distinctive elements. I'm frankly not quite sure what Haigh (and/or Yamada) may have been "going for" with regard to a final reveal here, which perhaps suggests, yes, enduring love can provide a buffer of sorts against the emotional upheaval death inevitably brings, but which may also weirdly and no doubt unintentionally hint at necrophilia. That's a passing qualm in an otherwise rather moving meditation on loss and grief. Technical merits are solid and the supplements on the 1080 disc enjoyable. Recommended.