THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
I think when we look back at our lives, we gotta wonder where it all changed without us knowing it.
PLOT
Aftersun follows a Scottish woman named Sophie who reminiscences a trip to Turkey when she was eleven, celebrating the 30th birthday of her father Calum whose broken up with her mother. Over the course of this eventful holiday, she would befriend older teens in the resort she stays at, while also befriending a boy her age at a local arcade. What she is unaware of however is that Calum is becoming severely depressed due to financial struggles, showing nothing but contentment towards her. While also keeping secret that he smokes, he becomes engaged in tai chi patterns and reads self help books. When he goes scuba diving with his daughter, he becomes upset with Sophie accidentally losing an expensive scuba mask to the sea. Despite not acting angry towards her, she catches on and understands that it bothered him. Soon after this, he ends up buying himself an expensive rug from a merchant. Later that night, he would have a moment of turmoil with his daughter, when refusing to do karaoke night with Sophie. Upset of performing alone, she would refuse to return to the hotel room, resulting in her to hang with the teens and kissing the same boy at the arcade by the pool. As she does this, Calum would submerge in the beach alone. When Sophie later returns to the hotel room, she would find her dad sleeping nude but would gently cover him with a sheet. The next day, both would reconcile by participating in mud baths. She even convinces fellow tourists to sing "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" with her to him for his birthday. She would share their last night together with dance, embracing each other lovingly. The trip would reach an end when Calum escorts her daughter to the airport. The captured footage of the trip from his MiniDV camera reaches an end there and the film would end with Calum walking away.
THOUGHTS
I hate that I was rush to check this out, but goddamn this was worth it. Writer/Director Charlotte Wells gives a strong a strong theatric debut by moving us joyfully and heartbreakingly in simultaneous fashion. She pulls this off by creating a story that is about truthfully about how to accept that youth can't last forever and maturity is inevitable and what matters is the way you choose to handle it, either by embracing the change or running away from it. I like to think I'm someone who does the former, but if I'm told I'm doing the latter, I won't hesitate turning around. It is scary to get old not because we want to be prepared for it rather than let it happen without notice. The only way we can choose to embrace our fate is to not overthink it. You keep about thinking about one thing like that and not enjoy what's going around you, then you won't ever be prepared for it. One day at a time is enough for us all. You don't feel this wakeup call with the dynamic duo that steal our hearts throughout. Oscar nominee Paul Mescal also breaks it as he displays Calum as a man who is breaking down little by little in a mental sense. He is hanging on to the last grip because he was so scared of getting older and wasn't able to confront it. Seeing him walk into the door of the rave by the end reflected that it didn't take too long for him to become absent from his daughter's life (whether he disappeared or died) as he feared he wouldn't make it past 40. Every time we saw him alone, we felt all the stress he was dealing with, hitting the verge of becoming self destructive. And at the same time, you admire his will to make his daughter happy during such a struggle. He felt cursed the older he got and he didn't know how to break free, which makes the character all the more tragic to witness. Since we get two versions of Sophie, you sense the growth of the character and the purpose of the story. The adult Sophie played by Celia Rowlson Hall grew up to have a family of her own, but she's feeling what her dad was feeling. She re watches the camera footage because she misses him and wishes she can get advice on how to handle her newfound responsibilities. Noticing that she kept the rug as well further reflects how much he meant to her. The dream sequence where she is trying to get his attention in the rave reflects how bad she wished she could've saved him and him ignoring her only proves she never could have, whether or not she knew at the time what he was going through. While she worries of going through this curse he went through, seeing the camera footage of her younger self played by Frankie Corio, she remembers that there is also a blessing when aging because you can learner the older you get and pass it on to your peers. The adult Sophie may have not said much as she took a trip to the past, but she understood that there is no need to worry as much because again, life is much enjoyable one day at a time. In short, Aftersun is a moving film from 2022 for telling audiences to never let negativity consume you or you'll enjoy life as you know it. You want to be motivated to better enjoy life? See this now.
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