AFI Roundtable - All of Us Strangers, American Fiction, Freud's Last Session

By: Chris James, Eurocheese and Abe Friedtanzer

Reunions happen in the most unlikely of places. In this case, three The Film Experience writers ran into each other at the World Premiere of Matt Brown’s film Freud’s Last Session at the AFI Film Festival.

The fun of festivals is always to find out what are the similarities in everyone’s schedules and the differences. Since Chris, Abe and Eurocheese were all seeing Freud’s Last Session, All of Us Strangers and American Fiction during the festival, we thought it would be fun to have a round table to compare and contrast their opinions on the films. What did they love and what did they hate?

CHRIS: Hey everyone! So good to see you both at AFI. From our conversation, it seemed like All of Us Strangers was our most anticipated movie of the festival. I have to ask, did it live up to the hype for both of you?

If you heard audible crying in the screening, that was most likely me. Even with high expectations, I was bowled over by the movie’s tenderness and heart. The film follows Adam (Andrew Scott), a writer living in a depressingly quiet London apartment complex who has a chance encounter with Harry (Paul Mescal), a cute neighbor looking for company. Following this rendezvous, Adam gets inspired to visit his childhood home. While there, he gets a curious welcome from his parents (Jamie Bell, Claire Foy). Though they died 30 years prior, they now exist in this home the same age they were when they were last alive and are eager to learn what their son has become.

Andrew Haigh’s script is wonderfully soulful and empathetic, expertly dramatizing Adam’s pain and longing without ever falling into melodrama. The filmmaking is similarly impeccable. A dreamlike haze permeates most of the film, with reflections visually punctuating the layer between the living and the dead. Visually and tonally, All of Us Strangers recalls Celine Sciamma’s Petite Maman. It’s another beautiful, contemplative piece about understanding one’s parents as contemporaries, rather than authority figures. What did both of you think of the film?

EUROCHEESE: I was crying right there with you, especially in scenes involving his parents. The acting is stellar across the board in this movie, with Andrew Scott especially nailing moments of queer pain that I don't remember seeing in other films. His eyes register so much of his own insecurity, and all of the actors benefited from his wounded performance.

While all of that's true, the surreal nature of the film allowed it to head in unexpected directions, which turned it into a roller coaster for me. At times, I was sure it would be my favorite film of the year; at others, it lost me. It's a discussion piece that everyone should see and pick apart. It gave me some of the most moving moments of cinema this year, but I was ultimately a bit conflicted. Abe, did you have a similar experience or was it just me?

ABE: While I wasn't crying myself, it was certainly an emotional experience, and I could hear others around me sniffling. I think it captures the pain of loss and longing in a palpable way, and it's sure to be a difficult watch for anyone who's lost someone close to them, which I think is most people. Scott was most effective to me in the moments where it felt like he was a little kid looking to earn the approval of his parents, and I love that the film didn't distinguish between what was real and what wasn't, since that's not really important. It met my expectations - Chris, you nailed many of the reasons - and I think is probably the best film I saw at AFI Fest. The second best is another one we all saw and hopefully liked: American Fiction. This was a lot of fun. Chris, what did you think?

CHRIS: American Fiction delivered the biting satire I was hoping for. Writer/director Cord Jefferson delivers an incredibly incisive critique at the performative way that identity is used to sell books and quench white people's need for absolution. What I wasn't expecting was such a lovely, caring and humanistic personal story to bookend the heightened, absurd premise. Yes, the movie is about a struggling writer, Monk Ellison (Jeffrey Wright, doing career best work), who drunkenly one night writes a heightened tale of what people want out of a "black book," only to have his pandering joke become a bestseller. However, that's just one part of the narrative. Much is devoted to the highs and lows of Monk's family and love life. I found myself thinking a lot about the work of Alexander Payne, as Monk feels like the type of lovable misanthrope we've seen brought to life in Payne's work, but Wright makes him feel fully unique. 

Late in the film, Monk complains about work that resembles his latest hit because "it flattens and cheapens [the black] experience." At that point it hit me that we were seeing the richness of life through all of his wonderfully realized family and friend characters. One of my favorite subplots was that of his family's caretaker, Loretta (Myra Lucretia Taylor), and her late in life romance with Maynard (Raymond Anthony Thomas). A lesser movie would've made these characters jokes or punchlines, but there's such love and care for their story, even though the movie revolves around a hardened, prickly character like Monk.

Life is full of sad obstacles and moments of hope. In dealing with family hardships, Monk meets Coraline (Erika Alexander) and the two have a beautifully subdued courtship. Sterling K. Brown also steals every scene he's in as Clifford, Monk's younger brother whose life blew up when his wife caught him cheating with a man. Navigating life as a newly out, older gay man, Clifford is sowing his wild oats in the gay desert of Tucson, unsure of what life has in store for him. American Fiction is full of surprising characters beautifully rendered. These provide a warm salve around the moments of deliciously thorny satire. I could've spent many more hours with the entire Ellison clan.

It seems like you liked it quite a bit, Abe. How about you Eurocheese?

EUROCHEESE: I really enjoyed it too. Cord Jefferson came out to introduce the film, and from his excited, infectious introduction I could tell we were in good hands. As much as the clever dialogue welcomes us into Monk's cynicism, I appreciated Tracee Ellis Ross coming in as his sister to hit him with his own lack of self-awareness in his family dynamic. He felt clarity when singling out what was wrong with the world, but he wasn't able to bring the same clarity to relationships with the people closest to him. I also found the warmth of Loretta's storyline keeping him afloat, giving us the heart of the film's message. We don't get sharp satires like this anymore, but we also rarely have them paired with heartfelt introspection.

I agree with your Payne comparison, but Jefferson also seems like a unique voice that I hope we will hear from in the future. I expect Directorial Debut prizes are bound to line up for him, and I will be eager to see what he brings us next. The nature of the script will appeal to writers, relating to his conflict between frustration with inauthentic voices and the importance of finding one's own voice. Plus, it was nice to be able to have a good laugh in a festival filled with heavy topics.

ABE: I agree wholeheartedly about Jefferson's introduction. I think that really prepared audiences for a fun film, and he's got so much great personality. I hope to see both of the films we've talked about so far do well during awards season.

Now on to the last - but chronologically first - film we all attended together. Freud's Last Session posits a vigorous conversation between two incredible intellectual minds, the legendary Sigmund Freud and author C.S. Lewis, best known for his Chronicles of Narnia books. Sounds interesting, sure, but ultimately, it's just fine. There's nothing remarkable about it and it doesn't feel as if it covers that much new territory. I honestly don't have much more to say about it, which doesn't make it bad but also hardly makes it memorable. Chris, what did you think?

CHRIS: For a movie I barely remember, there are still quite a few thoughts that I have. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on the film, but I do think being that spectacularly unmemorable makes it a specific type of bad. What struck me most about Freud's Last Session were the lazy crutches it used to pad out the story to make it seem feature film length. The film careens into the past back to the titular session with full abandon and maximum eye-roll potential. C.S. Lewis will say a line like “don’t talk to me about my time in the war” and then smash, we’re back to his time in the war. Freud will remark about how “you don’t know what my childhood was like” and then we the audience are spoon-fed a flashback. Its inelegance is galling and the sheer volume of these jaunts only validates that the titular “last session” had very few interesting things to say at all. It was just a lot of pointing at each other and saying some variations of "only idiots believe in God," and "no they don't, Mr. Freud, you big meanie."

Even the potentially interesting subplots fall flat as the movie toes a strange line between pandering to modern sensibilities and not interrogating the facts of their characters. Freud’s daughter, Anna (Liv Lisa Fries), a renowned pioneer in child psychology, devoted her life to caring for her father at the expense of her lesbian relationship with fellow teacher Dorothy Burlingham (Jodie Balfour). Sigmund prevents Anna from bringing Dorothy to the house as war breaks out. Later, in his conversation with Lewis, Sigmund argues that homosexuality in men is normal but is abnormal in women and the fault for this condition lies in the Father. It doesn’t take a doctorate to understand that he’s flagellating and exalting himself for his daughter’s sexuality. The film doesn’t dig further into these beliefs, instead positioning the Christian C.S. Lewis as some purist who gets to read behind the lines and potentially support Anna (or just be less hostile). A pat ending wraps everything in a cutesy bow that the film never earns. Anna’s sexuality is a plot device to provoke more conflict, rather than an intrinsic part of her personhood that should be explored on its own.

A good two-hander can be riveting when the known celebrity of the participants is effectively mined for tension, either in their actions or in their views on the worlds they’ve shaped. Hopkins specifically did this vein of film much better with The Two Popes. However, Freud's Last Session did too little and the topics it did touch were either unmemorable or not handled with a ton of grace. 

Am I being too much of a Grinch, Eurocheese?

EUROCHEESE: There's no being too harsh on Heaven is For Real, Sigmund. I've heard dozens of theological debates in my life, but so few were proud of having nothing to say on any topic they brought up. When it comes to Anna's sexuality, the film cuts to an image of her kissing Dorothy with, I swear to God, a dangling serpent sliding down the wall next to them. Give it whatever context you like - it's aggressive homophobia. The two men make their points about "the gays" before, without any irony, telling each other, "We haven't discussed sex!" You heard it here first folks - gay sexuality is a talking point for debate, while hetero sexuality is actual sex. Good to know.

Rather than taking on topics that are sitting right in front of them - the hypocrisy of Lewis judging Anna when he has his own complicated love life that he handles terribly, for instance - the film leans on music cues and panning shots to make us believe the two central characters have learned something from each other. They haven't. The script is stroking its own ego thinking it would be fun to hear these two talk, with an undercurrent that maybe Lewis' smile-and-act-above-everyone act is appealing. Goode seems a bit lost in the role, which makes sense given the writing. Hopkins hits the right notes for his lines, but why are we supposed to care?

If Chris is the Grinch, I guess I'm the Devil on this one. Spend your money on better films, like the other two we reviewed.

ABE: I definitely didn't dislike Freud's Last Session nearly as much as either of you, but I don't need to endorse something that anyone found harmful or hurtful. For me, it was just an unmemorable film that could have been so much better given the premise and the talent involved. I did think that Fries was the standout of the film, though I would have liked to see more from Balfour, who was a great part of the final season of Ted Lasso as Jack Danvers.

Overall, we're evidently in alignment on the first two films and none of us thought the third was great. The experience of being at AFI Fest - and running into fellow badgeholders from The Film Experience - was a delight, and I know that we all hope to be back next year covering films that hew much closer to the quality of our points of agreement. 

When you have a chance to see these films, dear readers, let us know what you think!

Grades:

• All of Us Strangers: A (Chris), A- (Eurocheese), A- (Abe)

• American Fiction: A- (Chris), B+ (Eurocheese), A- (Abe)

• Freud’s Last Session: D (Chris), F (Eurocheese), B (Abe)

More from the AFI Film Festival

Follow along with The Film Experience at the AFI Film Festival. Other coverage pieces are below:

• AFI Fest: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s ‘Evil Does Not Exist’  by Abe Friedtanzer

• Chris Diary Day 1: The Bikeriders, Quiz Lady, Terrestrial Verses by Chris James

• AFI Fest: “Perfect Days” and “La Chimera” by Eurocheese

• Chris Diary 2 - AFI Film Festival - Four Daughters, The End We Start From, The Summer With Carmen by Chris James

Comments

[Tony L]

I’m curious if anyone has read the novel Strangers that All of Us Strangers is loosely based on. I read it about a month ago to gear up for seeing the movie and just wondering if anyone had an opinion on the adaptation aspect of the film.

[Michael R]

I am starting to think Andrew Scott can grab that fifth slot in Best Actor. As of right now I have:
Murphy
Giamatti
Cooper
Wright
Scott

Right behind them I have :
DiCaprio
Domingo (does anyone else fee that Netflix is hiding this film?)
Keoghan

[Wae Mest]

I liked ALL OF US STRANGERS but boy does it tip over into mawkishness at several moments.

[eurocheese]

Tony - I'd be curious to read the book but unfortunately I haven't.

Michael - It does seem like Netflix is backing Cooper more than Domingo. I still feel like Scott will end up just outside, but I'd love to see him snag a nod.

Wae Mest - The moments that don't work pull me out, but as I've sat with the movie, the great moments just stand out even more. All the moments with the parents worked for me.