Aftersun

I feel so sad right now and I just am so in shock and I could literally just sob so much.  This film was so insanely good, I will admit that I didn’t expect anything really much and for like 3/4 of the film I didn’t really get it because it kinda just seemed like a holiday but that final scene made everything make sense and oh my goodness was this film beautiful.  The casting in this film was great, Paul Mescal was phenomenal and for a child actress, Frankie Corio was great. She was 10 when filming. That’s crazy. Paul mescal really fitted the role of the father.  The cinematography in this film was genuinely beautiful, I am a big fan of how old camcorder stuff looks and I feel like it really shows nostalgia and childhood well. The movie did a lot of shots where a character wasn’t fully in screen or they were shown within the reflection of something which I really liked, it kinda made me feel like I was watching through a memory, like I was there but only through a lens, not looking directly at the people. Also the lingering shots, especially from a distance were great. They felt like a memory, like how you think about something from your childhood and you can’t remember what was said or much else but you remember it vaguely and you just focus on that. The ones from a distance felt like we were looking on them, like people watching. The way that the scenes with the camcorder was filmed was also great because it felt like a genuine daughter father relationship, the camera work was half decent and the audio was kinda bad but it had so much soul and really captured the essence of childhood.  This film was great at feeling both personal and completely impersonal. It felt so relatable, like it reminded me so much of my childhood even though I’ve never been to a resort like that. It made me think of my dad and my mum and like my childhood and it really made me feel nostalgic.  The story was really interesting, it was so mundane, which seems like it would be boring but surprisingly I was very interested. It slowly fed little things to you and you kinda ignore them until they begin to build up. I thought Calum was going to die like by accident but then the film shows us his mental issues and I am assuming he takes his own life. I would love to yap about the whole story but there’s no point just retelling it. It was genuinely beautiful. There’s so many little things I could talk about but it’s late so I will focus on the ending and Calum. Calum was such an interesting character and so well done, he’s so flawed and really loves his daughter and oh my goodness, he’s so tragic. Him passing out in the bed and apologising so much because he genuinely feels it. Something this film also did amazingly is showing people thinking, you could see in both of them when they were thinking about what to say which was really interesting and so human. The silences in this film are also great, they are such comfortable silences. I loved how you could tell through Calum’s responses that he had a bad childhood and that scene of him crying made me feel ill. I felt so bad for him, it was so guttural and you could tell it was so pent up. He clearly wants the best for his daughter and you can tell he is battling within himself.  The ending broke me, I didn’t even fully get the meaning but as soon as they started dancing and it started cutting between her as a kid and as an adult, I started to sob. The song was beautiful and was a perfect pick. There’s something about that scene which makes me so sad and happy. There’s a sense of regret which I got when Sophie didn’t want to dance, similar to the scene when Calum didn’t want to sing and I thought about all the opportunities I passed due to embarrassment. It felt so wholesome and it being juxtaposed with the (what I’m assuming was a club) club scenes and the flashing lights and her trying to reach him, it was so powerful.  The scene of her walking away, which was shown at both the start and the end, and calum just filming her as she leaves, it’s so melancholic, but the scene which showed him holding the camera, the other angle to the previous scene I mentioned, genuinely made me break down. There’s something so weird about being with someone and having fun and enjoying their company and then them leaving. It’s like when you hang out with someone in your room and then they leave and your room feels empty. Then him walking away and the doors open to the club scene. It’s genuinely a beautiful film and it really captures nostalgia and memories and parental relationships well and made me genuinely sob so much. This is kinda yuck but like the type of crying where the snot is tripping you and you can’t even see. That’s when you know it’s a good movie. I think imma have to put this into my favourites. Brokeback mountain also made me weep like that and so did sound of metal.