Aftersun, dir. Charlotte Wells ★★★★★
Here’s
to the quiet films. Often the medium is tarred by Hollywood explosions,
operatic emotions, and a need for action at every possible moment. Charlotte
Wells’ debut film Aftersun is a perfect and poignant antithesis,
delighting in the calm of a father-daughter holiday that hides a dark, buried layer beneath.
Normal People’s Paul Mescal stars as Calum, a
young divorced dad to the 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio). The adult Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) watches
old footage of their 90s holiday to Turkey, and casts her mind back to the
sunlit hotel, the sapphire Mediterranean, and the parent she craves. She tries desperately to
understand her father, clearly a depressed man, who obscures the
bleaker parts of himself.
There are no melodramatic revelations here, just gentle
moments of love, friction and sadness: in scenes as simple as swimming together
or taking a photograph or dancing to David Bowie. Weaving in and out are the
older Sophie’s abstract anxieties about her father and her loneliness without
him. Wells crafts rare beauty out of simple humanity, dwelling on things left unsaid. Aftersun
will hug and rip at your heart.
Photo: A24
WHEN
From Friday 18 November
WHERE
In cinemas