Aftersun

I never thought in my life I’d cry that hard to ‘Under Pressure’ by David Bowie and Queen, but there’s a first time for everything. There’s only been one other movie I’ve ever cried this hard too, and it’s Parachute (2023), both movies are incredible works of art, that everyone should watch (only if you want to be left in tears). This movie makes it very clear that the dad is ill in some way, which we later find out is depression, but you can tell he isn’t well from what he says, like ‘I don’t think I’ll make it to forty, I didn’t think I’d make it to thirty’. I loved how this movie kept me guessing between the lines, I thought that something was going to happen on the trip and originally I thought the dad had an illness, but this movie keeps the dad’s depression hidden, like how someone with depression would, keeping you guessing what’s wrong or how everything’s going to play out. I don’t even know why, but I just started sobbing at random points throughout this movie, but at the end, oh my god, I was just uncontrollably sobbing. The metaphor of him walking through the door linking to his suicide, genuinely made me feel so horrible, I can’t explain it, but it left me with a sort of melancholy feeling. This movie was also really great at showing how easy it is for people to mask their mental illness, because that was the idea that this movie created for me, Sophie couldn’t see the signs, until she looked back on the tapes. When the credits started rolling, I genuinely just had to sit there and think for a moment, I was left so speechless with this movie, it’s so indescribably perfect. The acting within this movie is incredible, and both Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio need more praise for this film, they made everything feel so real and pure. Also this movie captures the exact colour of childhood, I don’t know if that makes sense, but the saturation that they used for this movie, is exactly how I see my childhood in my memories. I love how this movie shows the beauty of memories, even though Callum is not physically there anymore, he lives on in Sophie’s memories. At least now I’ll forever be reminded of this movie when ‘Under Pressure’ starts playing.