Aftersun
Charlotte Wells constructs the film alternative to a faded polaroid photograph of the holiday you had in the canary islands when you were 11 years old and were just beginning to understand how confusing and cruel the world can be. It’s a heartbreaking melancholic meditation on the people we understand our parents to be and the things that they are hiding from us.
The film itself is a loosely organised jumble of memories from a summer holiday spent in turkey between the 10 soon to turn 11 year old Sophie and her dad 30 but soon to turn 31 Callum. (Yes the ages have relevance). Throughout the film we start to see that Callum is facing some mental demons while Sophie is going through her own coming of age story.
Charlotte Wells has a really intriguing directing style where they let the actors breathe and give scenes a lot of room to express themselves and put the audience into a hypnotic state. This really carried the dulcet tone of the entire film as you always searching for the meaning inbetween the lines in every conversation between Callum and Sophie. It can be just as simple as Callum saying that he would never believe that he could make it to 30 or as heartbreaking as when Callum realises that Sophie knows that he’s a flawed individual and it almost breaks him.
It’s a tragic film in the sense of the things that never get said between the characters being way more important than any of the dialogue you hear throughout the film. It’s a very naturalistic type of filmmaking that demands a lot of participation from the viewer to insert their own childhood experiences into the film but the bravery of the film to not give you those answers and to leave so many gaps makes it a true masterpiece.
Every aspect of Aftersun completely elevates the story. Paul Mescal is giving an oscar worthy performance and completely uplifts the entire film while Frankie Corio in her first acting role ever delivers some of the best child acting I’ve ever seen. The cinematography is artfully understated with long takes allowing you to soak in every moment.
Aftersun is one of the most inspiring directorial debuts ever and it’s impressive that such a high quality outing could be someone's first. This one film is worth the entire price of subscribing to mubi to watch it so please do.