When a creator or creator faces a story with autobiographical elements, there is always the risk of falling into narcissism, when the memories invoked and especially the way of exposing them, are only interesting for the one who writes or films them and the nostalgia they generate is not produce resonance with the reader/spectator. Not everyone is Annie Ernaux, Elena Ferrante or Woody Allen or Steven Spielberg or even Joanna Hogg, to go to a more related style. And Charlotte Wells clearly isn't. BBC Film, BFI & Creative Scotland present, in association with Tango, a Pastel/Unified Theory production Distributors:

Eleven-year-old Sophie from Edinburgh takes a summer holiday to Turkey with her loving 30-year-old father Calum, who moved to London after having amicably separated from Sophie's mother. Sophie records the holiday on a MiniDV camera, the footage of which is interspersed throughout the film. Over the course of the holiday, Sophie befriends and observes older British teenagers at the Turkish resort, who engage in and discuss sexual and romantic activity. She also meets with and plays arcade games with a boy of her age named Michael. Calum is dealing with occupational and financial struggles and exhibits signs of depression and detachment, which he tries to hide from his daughter, keeping up a façade of contentment during the holiday. During his time alone on the holiday, he is seen engaging in Tai chi patterns and reading self-help books; he is also shown smoking, a fact he hides from Sophie. 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. 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. 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.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. Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't. (less) 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. Lodge, Guy (21 May 2022). " 'Aftersun' Review: Paul Mescal's Charisma Powers a Summer Vacation Portrait That Isn't as Sunny as It Seems". Variety. Archived from the original on 23 May 2022 . Retrieved 23 May 2022.

Reception [ edit ] Critical response [ edit ] Paul Mescal received widespread critical praise for his performance as Calum Paterson, and received his first career nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. 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.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. AFF announces the first 5 films for 2022". Adelaide Film Festival. 30 August 2022. Archived from the original on 31 August 2022 . Retrieved 11 September 2022.