Aftersun

God, where to begin. Paul’s character is so painfully relatable. His pain is just so visible with how distant he can be, with how he sometimes is slow to speak to make sure he says the right thing, because being misunderstood when all you crave is connection can feel earth-shattering. The scenes where Sophie is trying to fit in among the teenagers and at water polo encapsulated the anxiety and mental chaos of isolation and not fitting in while growing up to a fucking T, I felt. I feel I have so much more to say but I do feel the need to say I don’t think this really has much to do with male loneliness which I’ve seen so many reviews touch on. Depression is universal and it makes you search for a sense of peace or a new way of seeing things, presumably tai chi in Paul’s character’s case, or the cafe he never got around to, or spending money he didn’t have on the video camera that serves as an important aspect of how we get to step into Sophie’s memories, and I think that’s more so what Charlotte Wells tries to portray.