One of my stand-out movies of 2024 was a science fiction romance called All Of You. However you wouldn't have seen it on many end-of-year lists, and that's because beyond screenings at Toronto International Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival (where I saw it), it didn't get a real release. That's due to change soon though with some exciting news.
For a while now Apple TV Plus has been listing All Of You as a movie it's set to distribute, but finally the streamer has announced a release date for the film. We now know that you'll be able to see the movie on Friday, September 26, two days after the arrival of Slow Horses season 5.
All Of You stars Ted Lasso's Brett Goldstein and 28 Weeks Later's Imogen Poots, with the former also co-writing the movie alongside director William Bridges, who's perhaps best known for creating the USS Callister episodes of Black Mirror.
The movie is set in the imminent future, in which a test can determine who your soulmate is. Simon (Goldstein), who's been in love with his friend Laura (Poots) for years, refuses to believe in the test himself... but is heartbroken when she takes the test and learns that her soulmate is someone totally different.
Over several years we follow the two through the ebbs and flows of their friendship, which changes forms as they grapple with their feelings but also with the predetermined fate which the test results lay out for them.
All Of You is perhaps the best blend of science fiction and romance I've ever seen. In the sci-fi camp it's a lovely little look at a near-future society, with London done up to feature some light holograms and sci-fi displays but mostly looking the same. No flying cars, no skyscrapers and certainly no neon everywhere, this is probably the most accurate look at how a metropolis would look in the future.
The actual treatment of the sci-fi elements is great too, doing so in the classic sci-fi sense of looking at the extrapolations of the advent of a certain kind of technology. It's not an action film, or a fantasy with a thin sci-fi veneer, but a genuine piece of scientific fiction. If you liked old-school Black Mirror before it became silly, you'll love All Of You.
Then there's the romance aspects. This isn't your Hollywood love story which sees some light conflict pull apart two people who you know will end up together at the end; this is a story that's unavoidably messy from the premise alone, and you know its leads won't necessarily come through it unscathed. Some of my favorite romance movies are ones that don't necessarily end with the lead characters together, but having changed or grown in some way from their relationship, and All Of You is as messy as others I love.
I saw All Of You at the same film fest as We Live In Time, another beloved romance movie from 2024, and found it much more engaging and heartbreaking.
Both Goldstein and Poots are fantastic, and I was surprised at just how charismatic the former can be given that his Ted Lasso character is rather gruff.
Another small consideration: if you like British films, you should watch All Of You, as it was by far the most authentic depiction of modern-day British life (or London life, at least) that I've seen in years. I'm constantly annoyed at how often people see American-made shows like Bridgerton or Sex Education and commend them for feeling British, while the BAFTA's own awards for British movies award ones that aren't even British (Banshees of Inisherin was the last winner that was even set on the British Isles). All Of You feels authentic where others don't.
When All Of You played at a few film fests and then disappeared from radars, I was upset to see this gem of a movie not get the critical or audience kudos it deserved. When it hits Apple TV Plus in September, I'm really hoping it sparks a revival of interest in this movie that really deserves to be a cult hit.
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