Aftersun

Aftersun is a fitting title for this top-notch drama set in a coastal resort in Turkey in the late 90s. Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio play father and daughter, Calum and Sophie - it later becomes evident that Calum is separated from Sophie's mother. The title suits because this holiday is potentially the last moment to be cherished between Sophie and Calum, the sun that all following events are compared to. It may also be giving a nod to all the evening scenes, the film certainly eschews the bright and shiny cliches of holiday resorts.

There's a fantastic chemistry between Mescal and Corio. Mescal's portrayal of a seemingly stable bloke dealing with mental health issues is wonderfully understated. There's really only one openly emotional burst, the rest he conveys with stares, downcast eyes and Tai Chi. Corio, on debut, is superb as Sophie, a girl calmly grappling with the onset of puberty. Her interactions with older kids at the resort feel spot on and writer/director, Charlotte Wells deals with her central role in a careful - and caring - manner.

An uncomfortable frisson runs through the events of Aftersun, that despite the pleasantly agreeable setting, the feeling of dread isn't far away. The tiny hints begin in the first scene when we glimpse the reflection of adult Sophie in a TV screen, watching a clip of their holiday videos. These flash-forwards of future Sophie are subtly inked within the film, along with recurring visions of Calum dancing at a rave. I suspect these are dreams or compromised memories where Sophie attempts to reconcile what the fuck happened to her dad, but I'm no psychologist, so I may be wide of the mark here.

Wells is clearly wearing her heart on her sleeve with her first feature (the actor playing adult Sophie, Celia Rowlson-Hall, bears a strong likeness to Wells) and this knowledge of autobiographical connections adds an extra element of poignancy to the film. In saying this, it's not all doom and gloom. It pretty much lives or dies on the relationship between the two leads and, happily, it feels like there's something real there. As a two-hander performance piece, there aren't many better films going around than this one right here.

Aftersun opens at the Luna and Palace cinemas on Feb 23rd.

See also:

This film shares a lot of atmosphere with Michel Franco's excellent Sundown (2021) and Corio's mint first film performance put me in mind of Catherine Clinch's debut in Colm Bairéad's brilliant The Quiet Girl (2022).

SPOILERS IN POD!!