We knew from the moment we first saw All Of Us Strangers all the way back in January that Andrew Haigh’s film, a haunting queer romance centred around Andrew Scott’s isolated writer Adam and the connection he makes with Paul Mescal’s sad-eyed drifter Harry, was special. Is it a ghost story? A fever dream? A tangible construct formed of a grieving man’s subconscious? We didn’t — and still don’t truly — know, but by God we felt every exquisite moment of its magnetising melancholy, its smouldering sensuality. So much so that when we came to write Empire‘s ‘Best Movies Of 2024 (So Far)’ list in June, Haigh’s movie sat comfortably in podium place on the list. And now, a full twelve months since the movie first released stateside, All Of Us Strangers has taken root even deeper in our hearts — and soared right to the top of our Best Movies Of 2024 list.
“This is so cool,” says director Haigh when Empire shares the news that his latest has just been voted our film of the year, “I’ve read Empire literally since it first came out.” And for the Harrogate born filmmaker, whose past works include the likes of Looking, 45 Years, Lean On__Pete, and Weekend, the recognition still being given to his sixth feature offers an opportunity for reflection. “The idea that I could ever be even involved in film, let alone be a director, was so out of my imagination, so it’s very cool to now be here. I appreciate it,” says Haigh. “When I made the film, I was never sure if it would find an audience. So it’s been the biggest joy that it has found that audience, and continually finds that audience. The fact that people still even talk about it a year later is really meaningful. It really seems to have resonated. You can’t ask for any more than that. It’s pretty exciting that it’s number one after all this time.
One of the things that has really All Of Us Strangers stand out among its peers in what has been another exceptional year for cinema is just how intensely personal its story of love, loss, and soul-deep longing truly is. Even now, Haigh finds himself wrestling with just how much of himself he poured into this one. “I’m not a particularly extroverted person, and the fact that there is now this kind of personal story about me out there, I’ve found that a little bit hard,” Haigh admits. “It’s taken me, actually, a little bit of time to deal with that. Even the fact that I shot it in my [old] house.”
But if putting his heart on the line for his art was a huge and, at least for a time, difficult step for Haigh, then it was also one that ultimately felt worth taking. “The want of most filmmakers is to be able to say something about how they see and understand the world, and allow that out into the world, to resonate with other people,” the director explains. “So it is really quite a powerful thing, when you are sharing your own personal philosophy of life, and something based on some element of personal experience, and then have that speak to other people. And I can’t tell you how many people have come to me to tell me their own stories, whether it’s about losing a parent, or whether it’s about growing up gay, or whether it’s just about feeling alone in the world. That feels special.”
Reflecting on the outpouring of pure emotion All Of Us Strangers has been met with now, almost a full year since it was released into the world, Haigh is as philosophical, poetic, and honest as his work. “If a piece of art can make you feel less alone, even if it’s desperately sad and melancholy, if it allows you to feel like, ‘Oh my God, I am not the only one that suffers in the world’ — that’s a very powerful thing,” he shares. “Because we often don’t express how we feel, even to those who are closest to us. And art can tap into that shared loneliness that we all experience in the world. It’s also quite unusual sometimes: I’ve been in places and someone will start talking about the film and they’ll start crying. That’s quite a powerful thing to have to experience. Sometimes you don’t know what to do. You’re sort of, ‘Okay…’ Pat them on the shoulder. ‘I’m sorry for you…’ I literally could not have asked for more for this film. It’s more than I ever dreamed.” That’s the power of love, right there, people. And the power of All Of Us Strangers, Empire‘s film of the year. *Dissolves into the cosmos as Frankie Goes To Hollywood plays us out*