Aftersun plays on the melancholy of coming of age, crafting a uniquely relatable and heartwrenching story. Written and directed by Charlotte Wells, her debut feature is a hypnotizingly soft and devastating tale. With distribution by A24 and Wells’ directing, the film easily captures that spark of creativity the entertainment company is known for.

Blinded by Memories

Aftersun is about a daughter’s reflection on a vacation she took with her father twenty years prior. It is almost an antinarrative. Nothing really happens. However, the story comes alive in short and fragmented experiences. Adult Sophie, played by Celia Rowlson-Hall, reminisces about her relationship with her father, Calum, played by Paul Mescal, during this trip. The perspective shifts among three characters: Calum, adult Sophie, and child Sophie, who Frankie Corio plays. Corio and co-star Mescal give powerhouse performances even with the understated nature of the film. Corio, who was only ten when cast, perfectly captures childlike wonder and innocence through her acting. Mescal plays off this connection expertly with an underlying sadness, making it hard to believe they are not father and daughter.

Like Father, Like Daughter

The two leads carry the film on their shoulders, giving an intimate view of familial relationships and flaws. Aftersun is slow and deliberate with these themes. Simple scenes and interactions hide endless complexity beneath them. Aftersun harbors many questions with very few answers. The film is intentionally vague with its many branching themes and ideas that allow it to connect with the audience in a million different ways. The viewer, along with Sophie, slowly comes to terms with who Calum truly was, both the good and the bad. The film plays with the idea of memory in a way that can spark resentment or pity. Resentment about Sophie’s experiences with Calum, or pity for what caused him to act the way he did. However, it is difficult to fully come to terms that parents, like Calum, are deeply flawed individuals and are not the perfect image they project. There is a melancholic beauty in this idea of shared human experience, and that maybe the viewer, much like Sophie and Calum, isn’t as different from each other as it may seem.

The Beauty Behind the Human Experience

Wells, along with cinematographer Gregory Oke, created a film that perfectly captures childhood memories. From the color palette, lighting, and framing, it feels like watching old home videos. The cinematography is observational with wide shots that are combined and broken up with intimate close-ups. The fragmented nature of the footage plays along with Sophie’s memories, showing that, much like the shots themselves, her memory is unreliable and messy. The story is told just as much through the cinematography as it is through the dialogue and acting. There is so much that can be missed because of how magnetic the performances are, but the story hiding in plain sight only enhances the narrative. The movie itself, much like the story, is minimalistic in nature, allowing for beauty to be found in the mundane.