Aftersun
At a fading vacation resort, 11-year-old Sophie treasures rare time together with her loving and idealistic father, Calum. As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye Calum struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie's tender recollections of their last holiday become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't.
- Released: 2022-10-21
- Runtime: 101 minutes
- Genre: Drama
- Stars: Frankie Corio, Paul Mescal, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Sally Messham, Ayse Parlak, Sophia Lamanova, Brooklyn Toulson, Spike Fearn, Harry Perdios, Frank Corio, Ruby Thompson, Ethan James Smith, Onur Ekşioğlu, Cafer Karahan, Kayleigh Coleman, John Stuifzand, Tyler Mutlu, Kieran Burton, Nijat Gachayev, Sarah Makharine, Erol Cengizalp
- Director: Charlotte Wells
Comments
- dimitrijemilosevic - 12 January 2023
Melancholic nostalgia
Aftersun is...different experience. One of those movies that is not as interesting as the emotion it invokes in you. It can be discussed for hours and hours. I see people write longer reviews than the script. I get it. I liked it. Some scenes really got to me. Especially the ending. But at the end of the day, i don't really know how many people, me included, would ever rewatch this? Not because it's one of those movies that is so sad and draining that you can't stand to see it again, but more because the experience itself is not engaging enough to fully justify the way it makes you feel after the credits roll. In this case, parallel reflection with our own lives is what gets us to tears more than drama on the screen. But hey, that is a fine accomplishment on its own as well.
Anyways, 2 leads are good. I really liked Charlotte Wells' direction for the most part and all of her subtle touches across the movie. I would definitely like to see what she does next.
It's a bit too A24-ish for my taste, but i appreciate it nonetheless. - hjvergara - 8 January 2023
Childhood memories can haunt us forever - a tender film
Critics and audiences have been raving about a little indie film currently on Amazon Prime called "Aftersun". The film thrives on its subtleties and ambiguities, and I think this may turn away some viewers. However, these are the special elements that give the film its edge - you are not given all the answers, but you are given enough visual storytelling to form your own judgments about an incredibly intimate and organic story of a woman reminiscing about a vacation she took with her father in Turkey when she was a young girl. The moments of tenderness, honesty, and vulnerability between Calum, played with a raw and anguished sensibility by Paul Mescal, and his teenage daughter Sophie (a very natural, curious, and wise performance by Frankie Corio) make this a true touching charmer.
Shot to look much like a shaky home video with hints of French New Wave influences, the scenes unfold quite seamlessly to make the viewers join adult Sophie in her journey of watching old video footage to deconstruct the memories of that shared experience she had with her dad. It's not so much about what Sophie discovers upon revisiting these evocations, but about what we, as the viewer, can infer or conclude based on these recollections. And these are largely based on dissections of quiet, symbolic moments interspersed throughout. Both beautiful and haunting.
