Aftersun

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
  • beckinsale2009 - 5 June 2024
    You need to imagine half of the movie.
    I cant love more Paul Mescal and his realism in front of the camera, is just a dude doing real things and not and like and actor doing an script, but for me, the movie is incredibly overhyped..

    Of course the boring slow moments adds some "truth" into the film but when the slow moving silent shots are 50% of the movie, you finish thinking is the film deserves the full paid ticket or you need the half price refunded.

    To be honest, I can watch filmed vacations with Paul 24h daily like a big brother program, but it is not the point..

    I understand the movie wants to be subtle and open to leave some in feelings in you to finish the work of create a story, but it was too much blank spaces.. just too much.
  • ceri-73261 - 24 March 2024
    Arty, creative, clever and thoughtful
    I had to watch this twice to work it out.

    I watched this for Paul Mescal after watching Normal people.

    This is a memoir of a young girls first and last trip abroad with her father.

    There are film clips and flash backs.

    He is obv suffering from some kind of depression and alcohol abuse.

    Incredibly arty and unusual style of filming making this unique and rather clever.

    Its not a film you watch on a saturday night with alcohol and expect speed and be exhilaration.

    Theres a lot of thought provoking moments. Theres a lot of pain there and it made me weep.

    Any low scores on here are from not understanding the film.
  • cerenyoncacekic - 21 February 2024
    I think it's nice that we share the same sky
    The film unfolds. Through the fragmented memories of Sophie, reflecting. On a vacation with her father Calum. When she was 11. Calum doesn't see Sophie very often due to Sophie's mother and Calum being divorced however Calum and Sophie go on vacation in Turkey. My home country and seeing the places I used to go to as a little kid made me emotional. Our parents suffer but they never show us even one bit of it, even if they do we do not understand what is going on with them. This is the case with Sophie and her father. She watches all the videos that she took while they were on vacation trying to find a reason as to why her father would commit suicide. She fails but with her fragmented memories, she remembers one of the few memories and understands because she is in the same state at that moment but it is too late and she cannot save him. This movie had one of the best representations of depression that I have ever seen. When they dance at the end of the movie the lyrics of the song say "This is our last dance" and it transforms into the club scene where Sophie tries to save her father from falling. I immediately broke down in tears. As of now whenever I go to Mugla or listen to the song Under Pressure I will always think of this movie. Our parents care for us more than we can think of they are the most valuable thing we have. Try to understand it's their first time on this earth too.
  • carlotaauzman - 10 January 2023
    Touching and deep, funny and heartwarming at times, but definitely heartbreaking.
    Endless vacation, 90's hotels with thousands of crappy activities that your father refuses to attend, lots of new pool friends, the hotel has become your new mini-city full of corners to explore. Joining in with the grow-ups and not fitting in, although you don't like playing anymore with the little ones and feeling lost among so many new and unknown pre-adolescent sensations. Back in your thirties, feeling even more lost. Desperate and failed attempt to take refuge in that place where everything was safe, although your nobel intelligence already sensed that it would not last forever. Best movie of the year.
  • li0904426 - 5 January 2023
    Fond Memories!!
    The film "Aftersun" is warm, sincere, and caring. Writer and director Charlotte Wells reflects on the father-daughter relationship during a resort vacation. The innocence and purity of the 10-year-old daughter are in contrast to her father's emotional deconstruction. For her, it was simply a vacation with her father at a resort but for the father, it was to provide the best vacation for his daughter and at the same time overcome his process of depression.

    The film is told through the fond memories of the now young Sophie (Frankie Corio) plus insertions of the real mental state of her father Calum (Paul Mescal).
  • dbeckett-55901 - 29 December 2022
    Why...
    Do single dads take young daughters on holiday. ?

    Trying to prove everything is normal and routine and everything is as it should be when it's one of the most difficult thing a single man can do.

    Trying to make everything normal when your head is screaming insecurities and inferiority.

    All too close to home and that feeling has stayed with me since watching the film.

    The saddest after thought is someone has painfully lived this experience, the film couldn't of been made in any other way.

    As I have become older I find it more difficult to stay with a film where I think bad things will happen.

    The director edges that experience all the way through before the ending smacks you between the eyes.

    It is slow going, disturbing, thought provoking experience shot in Polaroid at 90% exposure.

    This dad is grateful I got through to 40 to give my daughter away and shortly to become a grandfather.
  • rustin-2 - 24 December 2022
    A tsunami of over-praise
    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.
  • mmyilmazyurt - 21 December 2022
    Hasret
    After watching this beautiful film, coming across the 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. I just couldn't resist my tears. I'm Turkish and 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.

    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 imagine how it would sadden him at those times and when 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...
  • SAMTHEBESTEST - 9 December 2022
    A subtle, private, and profound take on father-daughter relationships. A true critic-favourite film of the year.
    Aftersun (2022) : Brief Review -

    A subtle, private, and profound take on father-daughter relationships. A true critic-favourite film of the year. Some people have just two simple categories to divide cinema: critic-favourites and fan-favourites. You know what both mean, so let me save my words. Charlotte Wells' Aftersun falls in the critic-favourite category, so if you like fan-favourite cinema then do yourself a favour and stay away from it. But if you love critic-driven films, then make sure you don't miss this one. You'll miss one of the best films of the year. Let me just tell you my table toppers in both categories. The fan favourite is "Top Gun: Maverick" or maybe "Avatar: The Way of the Water" (which I will watch in 3-4 days), and the critic favourite is "Aftersun." I hope things are more clear now. Wells' Aftersun is about Sophie and her father, Calum. The film shows a holiday spent by them when Sophie was 11 and Calum was about 30. There is nothing else to it, but what a beautiful screenplay it has. There are no dramatic segments that make you wet your tissues; there are no useless arguments; there's no concrete ending (the happy one you always prefer), yet it absorbs you into the narrative. The storytelling is subtle and meaningful. You may need to rewatch it to understand them, or you may not even understand what they were trying to say. It's kind of a private affair. The words don't describe it, but the silence and realistic value take you into a deep study of the characters. Paul Mescal's performance is there to rule many nominations. He is superb, if that's the shortest word to describe it in its most brief version. Dear Frankie Corio, how cute you look there! If I were your age, I would have proposed to you, darling. Aftersun is a true modern-day, updated feature film when it comes to technical aspects. Charlotte Wells and the entire technical team have done a great job keeping it true to life and damn accurate. In every way, this is a must-see.

    RATING - 7/10*

    By - #samthebestest.
  • glenuig2002 - 25 November 2022
    Painful study of depression and loss that masquerades as a feelgood holiday film
    This film has to be in contention for some sort of Oscar nod. It's one of the best independent films I have seen in years. Charlotte Wells looks to have knocked it out of the park with this one. Everything about this film captured my attention, from the editing and cinematography to the lifelike acting and dialogue.

    It brought me back to my happy childhood holidays whilst simultaneously crippling me by acknowledging the dark post pandemic feelings that all of us are going through at the moment in real life but are too scared too talk about. Paul Mescal follows on his amazing work in Normal People by pulling of a tour de force study of depression, anxiety and disconnect from the world that seems to be affecting so many men the same age at the moment. I was moved to tears at some of these scenes when I thought of friends I had known who had gone through similar times and lost their lives.

    But as much as this film manages to capture on film hard topics on grief and loss, it never feels like it is out to exploit them. The writing is so good it does not force home the message like so many TV shows, films and adverts are trying to do these days when it comes to mental health or diversity.

    Also a shoutout to the young Scottish actress from Edinburgh, she was amazing. Can't wait too see Chartlotte Well's next film as Hollywood will surely be clamouring over her to make some higher budget dramas.