Aftersun (II) (2022) User Reviews (377)

A significant message in a film that's like navigating fog with landmines

[cetaylor3 · 8/10 · 15 December 2022]

It's been years since posting here and never before for a reason that entails major spoilers, so this is a serious alert: If you haven't seen the film and don't want major spoilers, wait til you've seen the film to read this. I myself went into this film, as i typically do, knowing nothing of what to expect (reading no reviews) and that surely accounts for much of the unprecedented degree of "fog" throughout my viewing (although the terrible audio we had, missing lots of dialogue, was also part of the fog), such that as we left the theater, baffled, i couldn't have imagined giving it an "8" or even writing here, but that's where the "landmines" come in ... After getting home, reading many critics' reviews, I began to see the film through such new eyes that i suddenly made sense of its plotline and meaning that went way beyond what any critic was saying. I just finished every 'user review' here too and it has persuaded me to write this because i don't see anyone interpreting it in the way I'm here to propose:

I now believe that adult Sophie is (re)watching the camcorder that she has kept for 20 years with this one life-puzzle tape in it and now watches it (yet again?) with added poignancy and purpose for her now being the age her father was then. I believe she has probably rewatched this film many times searching for clues in her father that she didn't fully comprehend at the time. "Aftersun" may allude to a metaphorical "sunburn" she was left with from that trip and is forever dogged by.

While for Sophie that trip meant reconnecting with a dad she loves and misses (wishing at the end that they could stay on together in hotels forever) and, despite all her hesitant inquisitiveness seeking to know dad better and how he sees the world, she had not at all perceived the ultimate purpose of the trip for her dad. In retrospect, he telegraphed the purpose of the trip for him in ways we viewers in the moment also didn't fully "get" as to their "landmine" potential: Especially when he teaches Sophie how to defend herself physically, to hold up her arms just right, etc., he becomes agitated that she isn't taking it as seriously as he wishes and urges upon her just how important this learning is. (Only he knows that he won't have future opportunities to teach her these things.) In other scenes, he's relaying life lessons about being true to herself, etc. For me the landmine only 'exploded' an hour after the film - to realize that Dad knew this was how he'd chosen to spend his last days, doing all he could think of to leave life lessons and self-protections for his beloved daughter's future life.

We don't know what oppresses and depresses her father - and I believe two key scenes are in reverse-chronology (plausibly as adult Sophie's memory evokes them in that order): we see him enter the ocean and never return before we see him sobbing naked on the edge of the bed. (Of course, neither of those scenes can be from her watching the camcorder tape, i.e., they couldn't have been taped, but instead are either from adult Sophie's imagined scenes as to how some of her father's actions played out after she boarded the plane or from just the third-person narration stance that the film did often incorporate.) I believe a reason we'd seen dad fall asleep naked on the bed previously was background to give context when he sits naked and sobbing - and he's alone in the room. This is the truth of what happened after he left the airport through the double doors. He had planned this exodus but it filled him with grief nonetheless - a grief he'd been carrying since childhood when parents didn't remember his birthday(s) and he felt unimportant, untreasured, unloved - which would have given every reason for lifelong depression but we also could have been seeing a dad who was confronted, say, with a terminal illness or other reason besides "simply" depression. For whatever reason, I believe he bought the rug knowing it would be a tactile connection to him that he would be leaving for her (in his personal effects that would be sent to her). I believe he drank more at the end because as her departure grew close so did his intended plan to let the ocean take him away and he was drowning his sadness at leaving his daughter's world as he'd already decided to do. I think doing karaoke with her again was perhaps just too wrenching now that it was the eve of their final time together.

I also believe that his saying "I love you" to Sophie's mom, that made her confused and curious could well have happened if, say, their marriage had ended because of his depression but there was still caring and love.

I believe all this 'emotional history' of her two parents that she gets random clues about during that trip have become core pieces of a puzzle of who Sophie is to herself and yet adult Sophie still looks at the camcorder for more clues about what she might have missed in her father's words and actions during that trip.

I think the 'disco shards' of memory that intervene in the film at times are adult Sophie's ongoing bombardments of puzzle pieces about her heritage - her parents' relationship that brought her into existence and what they were like ... given that at least one parent was capable of sheltering her from the full truth of his (suicidal) intentions.

I myself find all these thoughts to be in the realm of over-interpretation, and I lay them out here partly as my own reality-check whether anyone else did see or could see the plotline and message in this way? Since none of the dozens of reviews I read tonight broached any of these readings of the film except for one commenter here who, almost as an aside, thought Sophie's dad at the end either a) went for cigarettes and disappeared or b) committed suicide, which the commenter sort of dismissed with an "eek."

My own view entails no "eek." And if anything, especially reading all kinds of reviews that used the word 'vulnerability' to describe what her father seemed uncomfortable with. That made me think of Brené Brown's work (on the power of vulnerability - if you're not familiar google that on TED talks and join the 60+ million people who've watched her talk; many a suicide results from the shame of vulnerability) and how one possible message in this film could be a kind of outcry from an abandoned daughter, 20 years later, wishing her father - as she keeps rewatching him on the 'eve' of his suicide - might have not despaired to the point of ending his life because of shame or a sense of failure that may have undergirded his depression. And indeed some of young Sophie's questions of her dad on that trip can be seen as her probing to understand her dad's inner radar and (painful) life experience and learning.

Please forgive my excesses of verbiage here or of what may seem off-the-wall over-interpretations. I write them largely to elicit whatever connection any reader might make and share to any of these notions of the film's message. Thanks.

Understanding takes effort

[benjaminskylerhill · 9/10 · 21 December 2022]

Aftersun is a film that I wasn't sure I understood when the credits started rolling. Then, as I sat and thought about everything I had seen, I came to believe more and more that it's kind of genius.

What the movie lacks in overt substantive plot it more than makes up for in authenticity and subtle placement of character-building images and dialogue. In the moment, these often feel like tangents and the overall picture isn't clear.

While it can make for a frustrating first viewing, the clarity that comes with the film's final shot suddenly puts everything into perspective and I felt an overwhelming flood of emotion for the two central characters.

Suffering happen more often than not in silence, and it's the cumulative of this film's many quiet moments that drive home one of the most effective, nuanced messages of compassion that I've seen all year.

This is a masterpiece of subtlety, arguably slightly to a fault, but it's refreshing to see it in the age of "hammer over the head" messaging in movies that we're currently living in.

A study of loss and regret.

[PlutoZoo · 8/10 · 29 January 2023]

This film seems pedestrian at first and for a long while into the story. Rather slow and mundane, it requires patience to allow yourself to settle into what might seem laboured and boring in that it's a rather simplistic story about a father and daughter doing the routine stuff we've all done on a package holiday. I'm not surprised some find it odd that the praise is so high for this film and for the acting because there isn't much overt straining of the acting chops here and nothing is addressed directly. I was sceptical until the last 40 mins or so. However, I realised that it is a film which exploits the art of storytelling from that place of reticence we all feel at times, when it's just too overwhelming to say how we're feeling and as a study in depression and regret it turns out to be very poignant and real in the end. Many have said they need to see it again to fully grasp the nuance here but I find that I will remember it for a good while and that is testament to the story and it's accomplished acting and direction, albeit very slight, almost whispers on a hot breeze. So, I'll set out how I understood it here, don't read on if you haven't seen it.

His self loathing is revealed when he--mid normal conversation--spits at his own face in the bathroom mirror while maintaining a pretence at normality - talking to his daughter beyond the bathroom door. It was perhaps the first outright confirmation that he was depressed, full of a lack of self-worth and steeped in self beratment - actions which often accompany depression.

Earlier, there were signs as he danced in silence on the balcony while smoking that his mental health wasn't great because it was off-kilter, an inappropriate moment to dance in silence, and to dance oddly as if self-comforting, nearly talking to himself, but not quite.

The dim strobing scenes of dancing with Sophie as an adult flash glimpses of what she can now see, as an adult and mother, what she couldn't see then, a very serious and somewhat unhinged man, the reality of his state of mind she failed to see as a child. This is contrasted very well with the fond memories of her last holiday with him and there is one moment she recalls when he failed to wake and let her into their shared room, she was locked out, perhaps metaphorically and emotionally but gained access and found him naked on the bed. Perhaps this particular memory is her only clue as to his odd behavior that she recalls, but she sees him here vulnerable at last, perhaps clearly, and she pulls the sheet over his body as if to comfort and protect him while she keeps watch from the balcony.

I found the place of his death unclear although I don't think we're meant to know exactly, some believe he stayed in Turkey, however I thought he handed her over at the airport in London (there was a sign marked London Luton) to a Chaperone. There is a non-contemporaneous shot earlier where he walks into the sea at night in Turkey, a clear signal as to his intentions, or perhaps the past when he committed suicide, just not maybe the exact place. This is confusing but doesn't change the sense of loss in this film.

There is a palpable feeling of regret and he exhibits lingering love still for his daughter's mother and there's a sense that this is one-sided as alluded to by the daughter. Why say you love her if you're no longer together? There is also the picture of a man who hasn't been able to cope in the world and to succeed, as happens more than we care to dwell on ... the pressure on men to succeed and provide contributing to high rates of suicide in men. This is confirmed when his daughter berates him for offering to pay for singing lessons when she knows he can't pay for them. His shame is evident here.

It's easy to just see this film as a mundane telling of a father & daughter on a typical holiday, however if you grasp his inner turmoil from the outset, that knowledge transforms the experience and culminates in a formidable and profoundly sad story of regret and trauma as a daughter, too young at the time to see the subtleties of depression in the man who was the father she loved so much, looking back and suffering, living with the loss and angst so many feel about not noticing that a loved-one was at that awful stage of being about to take their own life, but they didn't notice. There's huge guilt left behind as a consequence.

In the end, this film is real cinema and reminds me very much of French cinema. It is accomplished and it is profoundly sad and moving.

Woman struggle to clarify memories of troubled father

[maurice_yacowar · 10/10 · 26 January 2023]

Like the very best art, writer/director Charlotte Wells's film MUST be seen more than once to be appreciated, fully felt and understood. Like the fragmented family it depicts, the film requires of its viewer connection, engagement, commitment.

For example, on first viewing one wouldn't know the dark-haired woman dancing is the the adult Sophie, whose memories of a holiday with her father 22 years earlier make up the narrative. That dance montage recurs several times and at the end. On the last night of the Turkish holiday young Sophie declines her dad Colum's invitation to dance, but we see her adult version dancing and then the girl herself. Charactreristically, even when he's dancing with them he is dancing alone.

The ending winds back to the beginning too. The film opens with Sophie filming a playful interview with her father two days after his birthday. That scene repeats later. At their airport parting Colum films young Sophie's playful ducking, posing and wide-grinned wave. A still of that grin freezes as a wall blow-up, from which Wells pans through the adult Sophie's flat, showing the pensive woman on her own birthday. That pan continues back to our (and Sophie's) last view of Colum, pausing his camera, walking back, down a hall and disappearing behind distant doors. The last-shot doors define hie absence.

Like that last long pan through three sets, the film constantly plays with time. Instead of a throughway narrative we get the discontinuity of experiences remembered, shuffled, re-examined. The memory muddle explains the frequent asynchronicity, where the sound and image are at odds. We hear Colum on the phone in one position while we see him in quite another, tucking Sophie into bed. Sometimes he wears his cast, sometimes he doesn't.

The key ambiguity is the shot of Colum walking fully-dressed into the night sea. It's an explicit suicide out of A Star is Born. In the next scene he's back in the hotel room. In a linear ploy he would have returned from the shore. But in a narrative that makes jumble and uncertainty its key principle that scene suggests his suicide. Not within that narrative period, but at some point, leaving adult Sophie searching her memories to deal with it.

The film's central irony is that in this rare extended visit the young girl proves to have the poise, character and maturity of an adult, while her father reveals the weak, troubled helplessness of a child. Frankie Corio's performance of Sophie is miraculous. Her every look suggests a profound complexity of feeling. Freeze a frame and read. When she's locked out of their hotel room Sophie coolly sleeps in the lobby, then tries to assuage Colum's guilt. When she covers her father's naked body on her bed she's the adult tucking in the kid.

Sophie is unruffled by overhearing two young girls discussing their sexual activity, the sexual play of the teens she meets over a pool game, the teens' later heavy drinking, even her spotting two gay men kissing in a doorway. The latter may shade Colum's "new thing going with Keith." Matter-of-factly, she tells Colum of her having kissed young Michael.

When Colum tells her that as she grows up she should feel free to tell him anything, the shot has them on a small float in the distance, against a wide expanse of water, hills in the background. The scale conveys the futility of Colum's promise, his helplessness to support her.

In an early shot we hear Sophie's steady breathing, asleep in the foreground, while on the balcony behind Colum labours through tai chi exercises - while smoking! The deeply troubled Colum is reading about meditation and tai chi. He's at loose ends, between girlfriends and jobs. Through Sophie's description of her fatigue the camera shifts to show his face registering a far more profound exhaustion.

He is also in money trouble. Just before we see Sophie gifted an All-Inclusive resort bracelet, Colum picks up a cigarette butt to smoke. He overreacts to Sophie's loss of a swimming mask. He complains that the hotel room provides less than he paid for. He and Sophie skip out on a restaurant bill. In a rare impatience she asks him why he keeps promising things (i.e., singing lessons) that he knows he can't afford. His purchase of an expensive carpet seems to deny that - but he buys it in a spirit of gloom, not joy. We're glad to see it in the adult Sophie's flat.

Over Colum's unseen heavy breathing we see the adult Sophie rise from bed, then assure her woman partner that she'll tend to their crying baby son. A blurry montage of Colum leads to his wakeup call for the day trip that celebrates his birthday. Young Sophie enlists the tourist strangers to serenade him. Cut from that "jolly good fellow" to Colum sobbing helplessly, naked, alone in a dark room.

At their last supper Colum pays for a polaroid snap of them together. While Sophie wistfully wishes they could stay at the resort forever we watch the photo slowly developing, firming up to clarity, a miniature of the slowly revealing montages we have been absorbing.

And so to the title. My (wise) wife Anne suggests Aftersun sounds like a catchy name for a sunguard lotion, something to treat burns. We see Colum applying protective balm to Sophie a few times. Her cascade of memories are an attempt to salve that emotional sear. Aftersun also seems an inflection of Afternoon, the halfway division of the day so by extension a pivotal point in Sophie's complicated memories of her dad.

This Movie Hurt

[evanston_dad · 10/10 · 1 December 2022]

Oof, this movie hurt.

"Aftersun" is a slow build to a climax that left me openly weeping, to the point that I had to sit in the theater for a bit after the end credits were over just to compose myself.

It doesn't even seem to be about very much for a while, just a melancholy story about a dad and his pre-teen daughter trying to enjoy a vacation at a run-down resort. But man, that ending comes along and wallops you, and you realize all at once that the movie is about so much, and that's it's been gradually revealing its layers to you all along.

I seriously can't even think about this movie without tearing up. I think about that ending, about how the dad just wants to give his daughter a fun vacation while sinking into a black hole of depression, and the daughter, too young to fully understand the depths of her dad's despair wanting as an adult to go back in time and help him, and I want to bawl.

Easily one of the best movies I saw this year. If movie awards were to be taken at all seriously, this film would be nominated all over the place.

Grade: A+

A delicate and emotional insight into depression

[LSUK · 9/10 · 2 January 2023]

While Aftersun doesn't necessarily dive deep into the main subject matter, I think this works in its favour.

Delicately unravelling the story of the two characters as they spend a holiday together in the 1990's. Scene by scene, we are given clues into Calum's mental health, and how he's subsequently battling with depression.

What really makes this special is that it primarily plays out from the perspective of Sophie, his daughter. With a child's mind, it's harder to notice the emotional triggers and mood changes, which would be a red flag to any adult.

While this film is definitely a slow burner, it works perfectly in this case. We are simply watching a father and daughter enjoy a seemingly normal holiday. Over time we see sneak peeks into Calum's mind, and how much he's struggling. But he's still trying to give Sophie the best holiday possible. You start to feel a slow tension building throughout the film, which hits (in my opinion) a really heavy ending.

For me, in the final scene and following credits, I was left confused initially. But within a few seconds it all started to fall into place. With the final realisation that this was Sophie's last time she spent with her father before he (most likely) commit suicide. She watches back from a (now) adult perspective, and realises what her father was coping with - but was still trying his absolute best to make it special for her.

This film wouldn't work if it was filmed in any other way. The slow pace really gives the viewer time to take in everything, as it's the small details that count here. An excellent film with excellent acting and a great soundtrack. Highly recommend.

Demands a second viewing

[jtindahouse · 9/10 · 28 January 2023]

I almost never watch films twice but 'Aftersun' was a rare case where I absolutely had to. I don't think this film can be fully appreciated on first watch. I saw someone suggest that after you watch it your mind will go back to little moments and re-evaluate their significance, and it will. But watching it again with the full picture gives the entire movie a different perspective. The second watch is almost like watching a different film.

Kids in films, particularly in lead roles, can often be very annoying. That isn't an issue here. Frankie Corio gives one of the most likeable child performances I can ever remember seeing. Her chemistry with Paul Mescal was amazing. I read that she wasn't privy to Mescal's solo scene rehearsals, so that she wasn't fully aware of what his character was going through, much the same as her character Sophie wasn't. That's brilliant.

Something that was very apparent on second viewing was the significance of the music in the movie. The first time through I remember thinking, "there are a lot of good songs in this movie". On second viewing you realise that every song used is telling a story. It's telling you what is going on, but like most people in the real world, we just hear a banging song and nod our head to it. Then later on we reconsider its true meaning.

Finally, this film has one of the beast movie endings I can remember seeing. It's classy, heavy and thoughtful all at once. It's done in a beautiful and somewhat haunting way that will stick with me for a long time. 9.5/10.

Great for others

[carsonpayne-66437 · 6/10 · 30 January 2023]

I am only writing this review so I can remember later on why I only gave this movie a 6. I understand that this movie has an extremely powerful and intimate presentation of the relationship between a reckless father and his young daughter. I noticed the intricacies and nuance that the film makers tried to convey throughout. I just did not connect with the film at all. I imagine that this film hit some people hard but for me I was quite bored with it by the end. I have to simply be true to my own feelings and opinions from a film and conclude that to me, it is simply ok. Don't take my rating too seriously because I can genuinely imagine somebody else watching this film thinking that it is the best thing they ever saw.

Achingly Beautiful

[hchmmyzv · 10/10 · 8 November 2022]

This film crept up on me. I was worried it was a gimmicky art film (plus at the beginning the dialogue was hard to decipher) but as the film went on I was swept up in it - purely down to Paul Mescal's and Francesca Corio's performances. Achingly beautiful. I was crying without realising and also on the tube home - the tears just kept coming but it was nothing to do with me.

Alison Willmore from Vulture at New York Magazine perfectly articulated what I felt :' It's about wanting to reach across time, and to meet a loved one in an impossible space where, for once, you're both on the same level, and you can finally understand them for who they are - or who they were.'

Too Many Gaps To Fill In

[brentsbulletinboard · 6/10 · 13 January 2023]

It's one thing for a movie to be subtle and nuanced, but it's something else entirely to be enigmatic and cryptic. And, regrettably, the debut feature from writer-director Charlotte Wells delivers more of the latter than the former. This melancholic character study tells the story of a woman (Celia Rowlson-Hall) who looks back 20 years to a vacation that her perky 11-year-old self (Frankie Corio) took with her young and loving but quietly troubled father (Paul Mescal). In doing so, it explores the subjects of memory, parent-child relationships, mental and emotional well-being, and the various senses of loss we all experience over time, topics that the protagonist's youthful counterpart may not have fully understood at the time but that her adult self now does. I wish I could say the same for myself, though; I often felt that I was being tasked to construct a narrative for the picture myself, based, essentially, on merely what was being shown to me, material that frequently comes across as underdeveloped and open to an array of interpretation in terms of both story line and character development. To put it simply, I didn't feel I was given enough substance to work with to accomplish that task, and it often left me feeling wanting, abandoned by the filmmaker, and, ultimately, uninterested. And, to complicate matters further, the film's poor sound quality regularly obscures the characters' dialogue behind their thick Scottish accents, and its often-dark, overly muddled cinematography made some images difficult to decipher at times. What's more, this offering's camera work - aimed at simulating glorified home movies, a fitting approach for telling this story - is packed with innocuous material. Indeed, who really cares about sitting through endless footage of the characters engaging in mundane activities like playing video games, eating ice cream and attempting to sing karaoke? The "looking back in fondness" factor in these supposedly touching segments is a little too inane to engender truly heart-tugging feelings, constituting cinematic padding more than anything integral or meaningful to the overall story. Considering all of the advance glowing reactions I had read about this release, I was really looking forward to it going in. Unfortunately, though, I came away from it almost as sad and disappointed as the protagonist herself.

It's Our Memories That Make Us...

[Xstal · 8/10 · 6 November 2022]

You have a video of a holiday in the past, when you were young, before life's burdens had amassed, with a father you adore, likes to take to the dancefloor, though he's generally withdrawn and quite downcast. A reflection of a time when eyes were new, interpretation was a seed, as yet to grow, but when you look back now, it's a different world somehow, revealing spaces not yet entered, or sought to go.

It's a slow meander, beautifully filmed, with two incredible performances, although those two highlights alone don't create a piece that takes your breath away as much as you might like, until you sit down to reflect, and absorb what you've seen through your own eyes.

Intimate and moving portrait of a father and daughter relationship

[Blue-Grotto · 7/10 · 5 October 2022]

A teenage girl (Sophie) and her father (Calum) journey to a seaside resort in Turkey for a brief but momentous vacation. Since her parents are separated and she lives with her mother, Sophie rarely gets such an opportunity to spend time with her dad. As they swim and snorkel together, share meals and a room, and talk about important things in life, the two begin to truly bond. Happy and cherished memories are formed, yet problems such as depression, alcoholism, and doubt surface as well. Sophie and Calum attempt to ride the waves that lift them up but just as easily take them under.

Aftersun is an intimate and moving portrait of a father and daughter relationship that, according to the director who was at this Toronto International Film Festival screening, is loosely based on real people and her own life. The camera work is intentionally unsteady and from the point of view of Sophie. The filming technique is meant to evoke the sensation of Sophie looking back on treasured memories as if they were in a picture show. There are occasional jumps forward in time of adult Sophie reflecting on what these memories mean to her. The personalities of the characters are gradually revealed so the audience has a chance to meditate on who they are.

Aftersun is the feature debut for Charlotte Wells. It is deeply personal for her. It first appeared in Cannes. There is a tremendously moving dance sequence that alone is worth watching the entire film. While the mechanics of Aftersun (the acting, images, story construction, etc.) are more than sound, it really rises above the ordinary and is so stirring because of its central themes; how we shape the memories that we hold and the important things we wish to say to those we love but often don't get a chance to say. "Live wherever you want and be whoever you want," Calum tells Sophie. "You can talk to me about anything."

A tsunami of over-praise

[rustin-2 · 5/10 · 24 December 2022]

Critics who have seen this film at festivals, where the director can reveal details in person about the film and answer questions to clear up misconceptions, can then write their reviews based on information the average viewer does not have. These critics then read other critics' reviews and, not wanting to be seen as churlish or unkind, tend to accentuate the same positive elements and downplay the elements that don't work or are under-developed in a film. This is why some films as mediocre as, say, Cameraperson or Moonlight or Petite Maman, end up on so many 10-best lists. I believe this is what has happened with Aftersun. It is gentle, well-imagined, filmed and edited with invention, and performed with naturalistic touches, but it is also underwhelming, content to suggest portentous events but unwilling to create even a hint of drama surrounding them. I had many questions about the characters and their back stories, and I don't believe that providing just a few answers would have hurt the movie's mood. In fact, they would have enhanced it. Aftersun is a lovely debut for the director, but it is also flawed in many ways, the flaws illustrative of many first-time films that in an effort to avoid being too obvious end up being too reticent.

Hasret

[mmyilmazyurt · 9/10 · 21 December 2022]

After watching this beautiful film and coming across a little note from the amazing storyteller Charlotte Wells:

(I cannot share URL apparently so please search "A note from Charlotte Wells from the site of A24.")

This was the word that broke me down. Hasret.

I just couldn't resist my tears. As a Turkish person, its just both amazing and heartbreaking from the point of view of the director that this word resonates with her feelings from a place she had this holiday with her late father. That it stuck with her...

Even though it is not the same case at all, I remember the times as a kid I closed the door on my dad because he would come home late from work. That because he would promise me to come home early.

Now, today I can't even imagine how saddening it was for him at those times and it wasn't even at his hands.

Hopefully I will be able to share my love and gratitude my parents as Charlotte did here with such elegance through some way. Since, it's not easy to recapture feeling this instant or in any...

Thank you for this film all in all, it surely made me reconsider a lot recently...

We Are Shaped by Our Memories

[loganschainker · 9/10 · 21 December 2022]

Aftersun is one of the most oddly touching and unique films of the year. The acting from the two leads was phenomenal. The cinematography and color palette was gorgeous. This is a very impressive directorial debut. As children, we don't know much of anything. It isn't until later in life when it hits us. That realization of finally understanding what you never understood for so long. Aftersun depicts this idea so perfectly. It is told through a woman remembering a vacation with her father, and how she realizes that she never really knew him. Depression is not always obvious. Just because everything looks okay on the outside doesn't mean everything is okay on the inside.

Absolutely Superb

[Smallclone100 · 9/10 · 6 September 2022]

A moving film about a girl reminiscing on a holiday to Turkey taken with her estranged father 20 years prior. The use of music is terrific, the two central performances are very touchingly delivered (Paul Mescal and the young Frankie Corio). It is one of the films of 2022. The fact this is Charlotte Wells' debut feature is nothing more than astonishing. She delivers massive assurance and confidence in direction, which pushes the narrative forward very tenderly as the girl (Sophie) tries to reconcile her relationship with her father Callum in two separate timelines.

Along the way we are given snippets of her father's troubles. Wells' very cleverly weaves in a subtext that works to a crescendo in the last 10 minutes which includes one of the most brilliant transition shots in recent cinema (not hyperbole, it really is brilliant). The viewer is invited to join the dots on what has happened between the two timelines and there are several clues that help.

Wells' debut has a familiarity with the work of fellow Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, and in particular her film 'Morvern Callar'. This feels lie the birth of another great director.

You'll leave feeling emotional

[mattyankster10 · 8/10 · 19 November 2022]

The one thing you can say about the film Aftersun is that it's not afraid of subtlety. It's human realism at its core dealing with themes such as childhood, fatherhood, responsibility, class, and vulnerability. It's the opposite of dramatic yet it keeps you engaged and glued to the screen through out as you care about the characters despite the simplicity of their day to day interactions. Paul Mescal plays Callum, a young father to an 11 year-old somewhat precocious girl named Sophie. The film in my opinion is about a father who tries his best to maintain a rock like mask to convey strength and stability for his daughter while being emotionally vulnerable underneath. Occasionally throughout the film that mask slips a little bit as Callum struggles to bear the responsibility of being a dad at such a young age and while facing his own personal troubles. At the same time his daughter, getting older and wiser, starts to explore the world of adolescence while on holiday where she also begins to notice her father's vulnerabilities. It's a sensitive film and one that leaves you enthralled and attached to the characters on a deeply human level even if that dramatic colonel doesn't pop the way you might except.

Conflicted about this film

[ben-snooks · 7/10 · 8 January 2023]

It's a well made film with great acting by both main leads but I was kind of left feeling empty at the end. The story slowly built for two hours then we see the father at a nightclub never to be seen again. Did he die? Did he leave on purpose? Did Sophie actually push him away. We don't know and the writer/director doesn't really show us. The holiday seemed a bit surreal because it was almost too perfect, like all the best moments of summer holidays rolled into one. My upbringing was never so rosy. Why is Sophie now so many years later going through the memories of this holiday? The focus of the film is on the holiday and then also on the reality that a relationship can end. I think we all know this as friends and family come into and often leave our lives over time. I'm not really sure what the film is trying to say. Enjoy the moments while they last? It's not clear. I'd like to rate this film more highly but the ending or lack of one was frustrating more than anything.

Aftersun is... I don't really know.

[Muelko · 10/10 · 25 November 2022]

I am... actually speechless. And not because I cried, but because I don't know what to feel. I have a lot of thoughts after watching this movie, but I don't know how to grasp them. It's a very strange feeling I have witnessed only from a few movies I've watched in my life, and it isn't necessarily a bad feeling, but I'm just confused. A lot of things here are absolutely outstanding - the direction, the bond between the two main characters, and the screenplay. All this is great, I was entertained - in a very strange way. I maybe need a rewatch, I have to be older to fully appreciate the movie, but from the first watch, I'm more confused than pleased. But I would recommend watching it nonetheless, it's a beautiful piece of cinema for sure.

needs more from adult Sophie

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 21 October 2022]

Sophie re-examines a vacation she had with her father some twenty years earlier using a video tape recorded by her father. Calum (Paul Mescal) is the father struggling with personal issues. Sophie (Frankie Corio) is the young girl enjoying her vacation with her father. She is unawares of her father's troubles.

Most of this feels like a home movie. It's lacking in exposition. What it really needs is a plot element from the adult Sophie. This movie needs something from her to wrap around the old vacation. The goodness of this movie comes from the performers Mescal and newcomer Frankie Corio. That little girl is really good.

Not everyone will love this work of art

[wzfnbr · 9/10 · 8 November 2022]

This film paints a picture of a tortured soul with the most delicate brush strokes. Following father and daughter on a holiday abroad, this is a beautiful observation of a childhood holiday. At the same time, it's a masterful study of a man's daily struggle with his mental health.

I read from the reviews that there are very divided opinions. Perhaps if you've never struggled with depression you will just see a slow paced movie about a dad and his daughter on holiday. But if you have, you might see this as one of the best films about depression that you're seen for ages.

For a film about depression I found it strangely uplifting. I can think of no reason for that other than it's because it is so bloody good.

...ok, I guess?

[PedroPires90 · 6/10 · 10 November 2022]

So this is what Brits do on holidays? Pretty boring if you ask me.

Regarding the film...it's ok. The last 15 minutes elevate the material. As a father, I should have felt much more connected than I felt. It's meaningful, there are cool moments and some beautiful shots, but I never felt really touched by this, always waiting for "a big moment" that never came, feeling a bit incomplete. Many times I felt that style was above content and I don't like that type of pretentiousness. Good performances by both leads though and they are the main reason why this is still slightly on the positive side for me.

5/10. Not recommended

[athanasiosze · 5/10 · 8 June 2023]

There are a lot of people here that got emotional watching it. This movie touched their souls. Out of respect for them, i will be very careful as i write my review.

I didn't connect with these characters. If i were a woman, or had a daughter, maybe i would empathize more. But i wouldn't bet on this because, generally, i don't need to connect in a personal level with the characters in order to enjoy a movie. I felt in distance because i couldn't understand what i was watching. There were no hints during the first hour that something is wrong. So, what was the point in watching a father and a daughter on their vacations? It was totally uninteresting. I watched it until the ending because acting was great, both Mescal and Corio were excellent. I was waiting for something to happen, and when it did happen, too little, too late. Last 20-25 minutes were more intense, for sure. But still, i couldn't understand the ending. I was searching in the web for an interpretation, what was the meaning of this? At some point, i thought about a different outcome, i thought that the father was a bad person. But, i got it wrong as it seems.

There are some good scenes here. When the father and the daughter were dancing under the sound of David Bowie in the end, it was a sad and beautiful scene, especially when you listen to this particular song's lyrics. Chemistry was great, i really felt their love for each other.

Subtlety is great when the director is skillful. But never go full subtle. This is a movie, not a poem. A certain level of connection with the events and the characters, is necessary. I love poetic/dream like/art movies. But in this case, i need a strong imagery, deep meanings, substance over style, beautiful cinematography etc. This movie didn't provide me anything of that.

I hope i didn't offend anyone. I really don't care about downvoting but this movie's theme made me chose carefully my words because i respect what this movie mean to some people.

The only movie to ever make me cry.

[josmth-73283 · 10/10 · 24 December 2022]

I cannot remember a time that a film made me cry. I can't even think of this movie without feeling knots in my throat.

This is such a heartbreaking portrait of parenthood with depression, specifically the perpetual pursuit of keeping that side of you from your child, for the sake of making lasting memories with them.

The little details and layers upon layers to the characters is just spectacular. The performances left me totally speechless. The subtlety and the natural flow of the dialogue and interactions takes a screenwriter with a DEEP understanding of the human condition.

It isn't until we get older that we begin to understand the true anxiety and despair of being an adult, being our parents, and that the vision we had of our future selves at 11 years old was totally unrealistic and ridiculous, specifically for those of us whose anxiety and depression reveals itself to us later in life.

Raw Emotion

[G-ODYSSEY · 9/10 · 24 October 2022]

Wow! I feel so lucky to have been able to catch this at a local film festival today. This movie feels so raw and inspired and it captivated me from the very first shot. The cinematography was so incredibly unique that it's hard to believe that this is Charlotte Wells's first feature. I loved how parts were told through the lens of a camcorder, and parts were most professionally shot.

This is definitely one of those movies that takes its time and slowly builds over the course of the film which really allows you to slow down and enjoy the camera work. Definitely feels like a nice breather from most of the action-packed cinema we are used to today.

A24 is definitely doing a ton of good for the film industry and has been putting out some of the best films in the past several years. Can't wait until Aftersun comes to streaming so I can watch this beautiful masterpiece again!