Strangers, film on Disney+: plot, cast, review, duration

Fear of loving, spirits of the past who return in the flesh, nocturnal excesses and sentimental torments… From a novel by Taichi Yamada (ed. North), Strangers Of Andrew Haigh it is an anomalous, dreamlike and unpredictable work.

A Apple tree gay – without “tearfulness” – lysergic and haunted by real and dialoguing ghosts. Two notable protagonists, Andrew Scott (Ripleyon Netflix) and Paul Mescaland a nice soundtrack from the Eighties and Nineties (from Frankie Goes to Hollywood to Blur).

One of the most interesting cinematic releases of the season arrives in streaming on Disney+.

One night in London, in a modern residential complex inhabited by a few people. After a fire alarm, forty-year-old gay screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) reluctantly goes down the street. From there she sees a neighbor who has not respected the safety regulations and observes him from the window of the house. Shortly after, returning to his apartment, Adam hears a knock on the door. The man finds himself confronted by his neighbor, Harry (Paul Mescal), a young homosexual and exuberant musician, who makes him clear advances. The two will begin a relationship.

When Adam heads to his childhood home outside London, he meets his parents (Jamie Bell And Claire Foy). Having died long ago in a car accident, they appear in the form of concrete and tangible ghosts. After hugs and displays of affection, the man begins to dialogue with them. Adam thus focuses on when he, still twelve years old, shortly before the death of his parents, realized that he was homosexual…

A dreamlike, complex and unpredictable gay love story. From the first sequence Strangers It has nocturnal and hallucinated atmospheres. Everything, every vision, every abstruseness seems possible and understandable. Understanding each other immediately with a stranger, talking to deceased parents who look like they did when they were young, therefore the same age as the protagonist…

The work oscillates between magical realism and the anti-realism of a waking dream. It addresses the awareness of identity without didacticism, but through the chaos of emotional, painful memories and the difficulty of reconciliation with parents and with oneself.

Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 years old) has the advantage of never overdoing the “revelations” or explanations. The protagonist Adam is writing a screenplay about parents: is it all in his head? You will find out only by seeing the film.

Good boy Andrew Scott to “speak” even just with a wounded and tormented look. Equally good Paul Mescal to give body and identity to the libertine and wild neighbor. Adam’s (Scott) “young” parents are also perfect, Jamie Bell (effective choice also symbolic of ex Billy Elliott) and Claire Foy.

The parents struggle to accept their son’s homosexuality, but the film tells the story of the difficulty and duplicity of affections well. Strangers it’s a Apple tree at the same time cryptic and decipherable. Some drug and sex scenes may offend the sensibilities of viewers.

The original music of the film is signed by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch. It is a rather classic score, nocturnal, suggestive, never redundant or emphatic. It can be listened to in full here. If you want to listen to the compilation of the songs ofantan of the film you can find it at this other Spotify link.

We go back to the 1980s Frankie Goes to Hollywood (The Power of Love) And Pet Shop Boys (Always on My Mind And I Want a Dog), up to the Ninety Gods Blur (Death of a Party)…

We advise you to recover some cinema classics queer as Happy Together (1997) by Wong Karwai with Leslie Cheung And Tony Leung Chiu-wai (streaming on CG Collection and Paramount+), Brokeback Mountain (2005) by Ang Lee with Jake Gyllenhaal And Heath Ledger (streaming on Nexo) e Adele ‘s life (2013) by Abdellatif Kechiche with Adèle Exarchopoulos And Léa Seydoux (Sky Cinema and NOW).

Also worth seeing Petite maman (2021) by Céline Sciamma (streaming on Prime Video and Mubi), The sixth sense (1999) by M. Night Shyamalan with Bruce Willis (Infinity and Infinity+) e Ghost (1990) by Jerry Zucker with Patrick Zwayze And Demi Moore (Sky Cinema, NOW, Infinity and Infinity+).