'Aftersun' is beautiful and small and enormous
A24
Every movie hits every person a particular way for a particular reason. Nothing is universal, and it shouldn’t be.
But it’s hard to imagine anyone who is a parent, or who has one, not finding immense beauty and a quietly devastating convergence of points in time in “Aftersun,” the feature debut for writer-director Charlotte Wells and very likely not just a but the highlight of 2022.
And it’s one of those movies that won’t really be sold well through description: The plot is a father, Calum (Paul Mescal of “The Lost Daughter”), and his 11-year-old daughter, Sophie (Frankie Corio, who looks very much like a young Alison Becker), on vacation together. They’ve gone away before, annually it seems, but each time is new; each time they are older. There’s hardly any conflict. Flickers of images seem to launch us forward a long ways, then bring us back. Some will find Wells’ observation of moments between the characters dull. Those people would be wrong.
Not only are Calum and Sophie as credible an onscreen family as any you can remember, not only are Mescal and Corio wonderful and natural in their roles and together, but the film distills being a parent and being a kid and just being a person into a fluid, experiential mix of confidence and uncertainty and slowness and blur that will very likely overwhelm you. It overwhelmed me. This is the movie “Boyhood” thought it was and missed by a wide margin.
“Aftersun” will remind you of the parenting cliché about long days and short years. It will remind you of your childhood, and of your kids’ childhoods. Of mortality and joy, loneliness and connection. Of all the things parents and kids know about each other, and all they don’t. Of what’s verifiable and what’s imagined. Of euphoria. Of disappointment.
Wells never pushes anything to represent more than it is; sometimes an event might be mildly formative, oftentimes it’s just part of a morning or an activity or a lesson. Nothing feels obvious, and the discoveries, the tender hinge of growth and memory, never stop. It is very, very difficult to create an impressionistic study of these relationships that feels so real and specific and yet massively accessible. “Aftersun” is special—elusive, complex and rich.
Rave over; if you see any new movie ever again, consider starting here.
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