I recently had the pleasure of watching the latest Andrew Haigh film All of Us Strangers at the Savannah Film Festival. I am SO glad I did because it is a beautiful story, but you may be wondering what you can expect to see from this gay story by a gay director starring the openly gay Andrew Scott falling in love with Irish pretty boy Paul Mescal. Well, let me tell you!
First of all, All of Us Strangers is a moving film based on a Japanese novel. It does have the pacing of a Japanese film in which there is a slow and steady build-up to emotional climaxes at the end. Prepare to bring your tissues! For your eyes, not so much for your...you know. That is because while there is a sex scene, you really don't see too much.
Seeing as how Paul Mescal is starring, I really hoped for full-on dick. He's done it before! There was no dick, but there were very sensual scenes with peaks of skin. These two clearly love each other.
In fact, director Andrew Haigh was at the screening and he said that the pair are good friends who hang out to this day. He said there was such immediate chemistry between the two of them. Perhaps that's why Paul is no longer engaged to Phoebe Bridgers. Did he fall in love with co-star Andrew Scott? I don't know! That's a bit of wishful thinking, but the film certainly has me convinced there is real love between the two.
That just goes to show you how good these two are at acting. They are both fantastic in this trippy love story that has you wondering what's real and what's not as Scott plays a screenwriter writing a script about his deceased parents. In doing so, he visits his childhood home where he finds them living exactly as they were 30 years ago. Meanwhile, he falls in love with his neighbor played by Paul. Both of these storylines show us the depths of love and it is so so so sweet.
The sweetness overrides the sexual activity. That said, this is a very good romantic story and I am so pleased to see a film about adult queer joy. Look, I like Heartstoppers and Love, Simon just like all of you - but why do only gay teens get to experience love and romance? Finally, we see a gay story about lust and love and the security one feels in love. It's sweet, it's sexy, and it's for adults. I appreciate that SO much that I will even excuse a little lack of nudity in lieu of a good gay story.
Haigh is good at that. He is, after all, the one responsible for giving the world Weekend in 2011. At least Weekend had a lot of sexy scenes that featured dick, balls, and buns from actors Tom Cullen and Chris New. These scenes are still SUPER sexy.
But, hey, would it hurt these guys to go nude? No, not at all! I certainly hope they each return to nudity and do it soon. I'm looking at you, Paul - and I'm looking for your penis.
