[Review] Aftersun (8/10)

 

Title - Aftersun
Production - AZ Celtic Films, BBC Film, PASTEL
Starring - Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Spike Fearn, Brooklyn Toulson, Ruby Thompson
Writer - Charlotte Wells
Direction - Charlotte Wells
Release - 18 November 2022

I had no idea what this movie was about and watched it last night. And, for the first time, that was almost a mistake. There was no joy in discovering what this movie was about because for the first forty minutes of so, nothing happened.

This looked like a movie about a father and his daughter going on a holiday, staying at a small resort and doing all the mundane, "resort" stuff.

There was way too many times I thought I would just switch it off and move on to something else, chalking this up as "one that was not for me". 

But then, credit to Charlotte Wells as I would not know how you would go about shooting this movie the way she did, there was just that small, normal, "boring" scene of Paul Mescal's character trying to remove the cast on his arm. There was this crack in his facade and darkness began to pour out. And it was the way that scene was shot.

That's when I thought this story was about depression, only to be confirmed later on with more mundane and boring stuff in the middle, when Mescal's character was looking at himself in the mirror. He superbly portrayed the desperation and the internal struggle. That one quick action of him picking up a cigarette from the street gave such insight into his mental state.

Even just thinking and writing about this now, I'm still getting goosebumps. From wondering why Mescal was even a contender in this year's Best Actor award to that haunting image of the final shot of him with the camcorder all alone; this movie has instilled a profound sadness in me that lets me relate to those who are suffering from this unfortunate sickness.