helenavalansi

[helenavalansi]

Aftersun review

Charlotte Wells, famous female film director, writer, and producer, in 2022, released her directorial debut Aftersun. This feature film starring Paul Mescal (Normal People, All Of Strangers) and Frankie Corio is a coming-of-age masterpiece that focuses on topics like memory, fatherhood, and childhood. Although the movie presents a nostalgic feeling by showing a memory, it also deals with topics like depression, grief, and longing, all while maintaining technical perfection.

Aftersun follows the childhood memories of eleven-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) on vacation with her father in Turkey. This movie is the definition of "no plot, just vibes" which is one of the best characteristics of this movie. It has no big plot twist or tragic event, yet it manages to stay extremely entertaining throughout its 96 minutes of runtime. Wells perfectly manages to depict this story to the audience as a feeling, which perfectly describes what it is. It is as if we are inside the mind of 31-year-old Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall), looking back at her relationship with her father Calum (Paul Mescal). One of the ways the director manages to present Aftersun as a sweet childhood memory flashing into the the mind of an adult is with scenes that show literal flashes of the image of her father. This nods to the interpretation that Aftersun is about reflecting on flashes of old memories and traumas and how we fill them in to make them whole using our new experiences.

On the more technical side, the use of the analog camera was perfect for this movie. In a world of digital cameras, the use of actual film is rare, usually most used in Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino films, but for Aftersun, the use of a digital camera, in my opinion, would be tragic. This feeling comes from the fact that the entire movie is an old memory, meaning that the use of the analog camera with its kind of 'grainy' effect is perfect to depict nostalgia. It also helps with the holiday vibe of the film, it is as if we, the audience, like Sophie, are looking back at old pictures from when our parents were our entire world and nothing was better than ice cream after a day at the beach. Gregory Oke's dreamy and hazy cinematography aids in showing the audience that the entire vacation seemed to be this flow of exciting events in 31-year-old Sophie's memory of her eleven-year-old experience. The lighting, art direction, and visual effects were all done to make everything look gentle and vague like a memory itself. Charlotte Wells uses Aftersun to show how all of a sudden, memories that were buried deep within our minds can suddenly resurface causing a ton of other feelings, and also how complex a father-daughter relationship can be. It demonstrates how childhood memories may be only a highlight reel of the best moments, and how hard it is to admit that we, as children, tend to leave the most challenging details out.

Overall, Aftersun is, in my opinion, the best movie of 2022 and is an emotional yet entertaining piece of media filled with nostalgia and glee but at the same time, longing and melancholy.

#cinema #film #film review #aftersun #paul mescal #cinematography