Aftersun - Review

 

When reflecting on childhood, it’s easy to see things that went completely ignored or unnoticed as a child. The ways people acted around you, the ways your parents acted, the various emotions and difficulties that tumbled around, just outside your young mind’s realm of focus. “Aftersun”, the debut film from writer/director Charlotte Wells is an introspective look on exactly those kinds of feelings.

The film follows Calum, played by Paul Mescal (“The Lost Daughter,” “Normal People”), and his daughter Sophie, played by Frankie Corio, as she travels to see him and the two of them take a summer vacation to Turkey. Along the way, Sophie films the vacation and asks her dad questions about life, as the pair of them each grapple with their own internal struggles about growing up.

Mescal is absolutely phenomenal. His quiet performance is a powerhouse of understated love and care. The balance on display as Calum struggles with putting on a show of warmth for Sophie while also dealing with his own demons is not only a great winkle to this coming-of-age story, but is also a display of heartbreaking emotion from Mescal. Corio is also fantastic, mixing her childlike wonderment and innocent love of her father with the burgeoning interests in boys and the exploits of kids older than her. But arguably eclipsing their individual talents is the chemistry between the pair when they’re together. Its not only one of the best acted films of the year, but its one of the most open and honest portrayals of a parent child relationship we’ve seen in a very long time.

Within this relationship is a very clear longing from both of them. What that longing actually is might not ever be directly stated, but Wells uses tons of fantastic visual metaphors and simple camerawork to get at the heart of it all. There’s an almost liminal sense to the film, a melancholic detachment that is both extremely engrossing and also heartbreaking to see. Part of that is due to Mescal and Corio, but it also comes from the film’s setting. We never see a map or overhead of this unnamed Turkish resort, and it can feel fairly confusing, but always on purpose. It perfectly communicates that childhood feeling of visiting a place and enjoying it, but never really grasping it as a place itself.

Melancholic is the perfect way to describe this film, not just because of the emotions and liminal sense of the locations, but also because of the pacing. This is one of those movies with quote-unquote indie movie speeds, meaning it meanders quite a bit but never without purpose. It’s slow and feels it, despite capping out at less than 100 minutes. This will likely be a turn off for many as it can make it hard to sit through. This is one of those movies that’s easy to get invested in if you know what you’re getting into, but can easily feel like there isn’t much immediately happening.

If a slower paced film is your cup of tea though, then you’ll likely adore “Aftersun”, an undeniable strong first feature from Charlotte Wells that makes stars out of Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio. It not only has their fantastic chemistry at its disposal, but the film’s liminal and melancholic feeling creates an atmosphere of undeniable distinctness. It’s a coming-of-age film where it isn’t just the child realizing things about themself. 4/5