Title: Aftersun
Tagline: Memory burns.
Genre: Drama
Director: Charlotte Wells
Cast: Frankie Corio, Paul Mescal, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Sally Messham, Ayşe Parlak, Sophia Lamanova, Brooklyn Toulson, Spike Fearn, Harry Perdios, Frank Corio, Ruby Thompson, Ethan James Smith, Onur Ekşioğlu, Cafer Karahan, Kayleigh Coleman, John Stuifzand, Tyler Mutlu, Kieran Burton, Nijat Gachayev, Sarah Makharine, Erol Cengizalp
Release: 2022-10-21
Runtime: 102
Plot: 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 miniDV footage as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't.AFTERSUN (2022) - VOD, Theaters. What forms a memory? Is it big events - holidays,road trips, birthdays? Or, is it just the smallest moments in time? Charlotte Wells' affecting, somewhat experimental AFTERSUN weaves both events significant and ordinary into her autobiographical mosaic c set in the late 1990s.
Sophie (Frankie Corio) is eleven years old and goes on an overseas voyage with her father Calum (Paul Mescal), toting along a video camera to document the trip. Calum is divorced from Sophie's mum and its a way to spend time with his daughter. Nothing truly extraordinary happens, but Wells and her cinematographer Gregory Oke keep the viewer in close at all times, observing the tiny details - a smile, a leg movement, a blink of an eye. It's in those moments, often seen from Sophie's POV, that count here.
Corio and Mescal are excellent. The dialogue is mostly small talk, yet it speaks quite pointedly as spoken by the characters. Combined with the performances, one gets a sense not only of their relationship, but, of their lives together - even if the main body of the movie takes place over only a few days. The stylish camerawork (including the footage from the video camera) and editing are engrossing even with the fragmented technique. Wells seems to understand that the camera DOES lie. It can create it's own impressions. It can distort what is actually occurring. What makes Wells so canny is that she also comprehends that one's own memories can also be faulty.
Wells uses all of the tools to poignantly create moments in time that will echo for a lifetime for Sophie and Calum - but, also for Wells herself and AFTERSUN's viewers. It's a lovely reverie.
Sophie (Frankie Corio) is eleven years old and goes on an overseas voyage with her father Calum (Paul Mescal), toting along a video camera to document the trip. Calum is divorced from Sophie's mum and its a way to spend time with his daughter. Nothing truly extraordinary happens, but Wells and her cinematographer Gregory Oke keep the viewer in close at all times, observing the tiny details - a smile, a leg movement, a blink of an eye. It's in those moments, often seen from Sophie's POV, that count here.
Corio and Mescal are excellent. The dialogue is mostly small talk, yet it speaks quite pointedly as spoken by the characters. Combined with the performances, one gets a sense not only of their relationship, but, of their lives together - even if the main body of the movie takes place over only a few days. The stylish camerawork (including the footage from the video camera) and editing are engrossing even with the fragmented technique. Wells seems to understand that the camera DOES lie. It can create it's own impressions. It can distort what is actually occurring. What makes Wells so canny is that she also comprehends that one's own memories can also be faulty.
Wells uses all of the tools to poignantly create moments in time that will echo for a lifetime for Sophie and Calum - but, also for Wells herself and AFTERSUN's viewers. It's a lovely reverie.
