All of You (dir. William Bridges)

by Jack Martin | Sep 26, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 98 mins

UK Distributor: Apple TV+

UK Release Date: 26 September 2025

WHO’S IN ALL OF YOU?

Brett Goldstein, Imogen Poots, Zawe Ashton, Steven Cree, Jenna Coleman, Alara-Star Khan, Nadia Albina, Jamie Langlands, Éva Magyar, Tariq Rasheed

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

William Bridges (director, writer, producer), Brett Goldstein (writer, producer), Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett (producers), Drum & Lace and Ian Hultquist (composers), Benoit Soler (cinematographer), Victoria Boydell (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A pair of friends (Goldstein and Poots) find their relationship tested after a scientific soulmate match…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ALL OF YOU?

[This is a slightly re-edited version of our review for All of You from its showing at the BFI London Film Festival]

Not too long ago, director Christos Nikou’s Fingernails blended old-fashioned romance with a sci-fi twist, that being the introduction of a scientific test to determine who may be our one and true soulmate. Though not a bad film by any means, it was one that tended to falter between its two radically different genres, ultimately coming out as a slightly underwhelming amalgamation of both.

Funnily enough, director and co-writer William Bridges’ All of You has a premise that is very similar – almost suspiciously so, in fact – to Fingernails. However, it has much more of an idea as to which genre it wants to stick close to when telling this kind of story, and it does so in a way that works far better in its favour than it did for Fingernails, try as much as it did.

Of course, All of You is not a complete carbon copy. Like Fingernails, it is set in a not-too-distant future where a revolutionary new procedure has been introduced that can determine via scientific testing which person in the world is your one true love. In this film’s case, it is set in London where Laura (Imogen Poots) is heading in take her test, and she is accompanied by her long-time friend Simon (Brett Goldstein, the film’s other co-writer), who despite their platonic relationship clearly harbours deep feelings for her. Eventually, Laura is matched with a nice enough Scot named Lukas (Steven Cree), while Simon – a firm cynic about the science of this popular new system – is stuck in an endless cycle of short-lived lovers, including Laura’s friend Andrea (Zawe Ashton). But soon, their relationship enters an unexpected phase, causing both of them to determine what they mean to each other in a world that dictates they’re not a direct match.

Somewhat oddly, the sci-fi component of All of You ends up being dropped fairly early on, with the test itself and its many implications barely being mentioned again, to a point where one quick rewrite could remove it entirely from the narrative without radically changing much else. This does mean, though, that director Bridges and co-writer Goldstein can focus a lot more on developing the central romance, without having to worry that much about building this near-futuristic world that everything seems to take place in. That was a smart move on the part of the writers, for the romance is given a significant amount of attention that allows it to grow and evolve at its own pace, and by the end you do feel a strong number of feelings for this couple as they experience all the ups and downs of their predicament, as well as their responsibilities to their committed relationships outside of their own.

The chemistry between Poots and Goldstein is, as in a lot of romantic films, the master key to it working as well as it does. Goldstein, in a major departure from his much more comedic work, holds up well in scenes where he gets to make emphatic love-fuelled speeches without sounding too corny, opposite Poots who has her own fair share of charming moments that are realistically played. In addition to buying them as romantic leads, you also see why they would be initially attracted to one another as friends, since the actors have such a lively rapport with one another as he makes her laugh with his jokey attitude, while she inspires him to start seeing things from a more open-minded perspective.

Beyond Fingernails, the film I was thinking about most during All of You was We Live in Time – but not necessarily as a detriment to this one. Both films heavily rely on the spark between its two leads to carry the drama, but in the case of We Live in Time it was the only thing keeping that film, otherwise burdened by its confusing and ultimately unnecessary non-linear structure, from falling apart. All of You, interestingly, also adopts a time-jumping narrative, but it is much more linear in its storytelling in addition to having, most importantly, a substantial reason for being there. Admittedly, there are a number of sudden jumps towards the future, with a couple getting together one minute and then the next they’re expecting their first child, but you’re at least able to follow it along a lot clearer, which can help you relate to and understand the drama much better.

With its complex emotional arc told with a burning passion that wisely doesn’t descend into endless genre tropes, All of You feels like both Fingernails and We Live in Time injected the green activator from The Substance, and birthed a fresher and ultimately stronger romantic movie that combines, and expands upon, the best qualities of both.

SO, TO SUM UP…

All of You is an emotional drama that wisely foregoes its sci-fi roots in favour of an effective romance, boosted by strong chemistry between Imogen Poots and Brett Goldstein, the latter co-writing a script that feels like a stronger and ultimately superior version of both Fingernails and We Live in Time.