Aftersun
The brief
Charlotte Wells builds an entire film around the spaces between what a child sees and what an adult remembers, using Paul Mescal's quietly devastating performance as a father whose inner turmoil stays just beneath the surface of a Turkish vacation. The whole thing unfolds like recovered memory, with handheld DV footage and sun-drunk slow motion that makes you feel like you're watching someone else's home videos. It's incredibly slow and deliberately frustrating in the best way, trusting you to read between the lines of small gestures and unfinished conversations. Perfect for anyone who loved The Souvenir or thinks the most interesting parts of family relationships are the things nobody talks about.
The verdict
If you have patience for quietly observational films that trust you to piece together emotional subtext from small moments and unspoken family dynamics, this is an extraordinary meditation on memory and parent-child relationships. If you need clear narrative structure or obvious emotional payoffs, you'll find this glacially paced and maddeningly indirect.
Watch with
- 👤 Best experienced alone for full emotional impact
- ⚠️ Skip if you need clear narrative structure
Heads up
- Suicide ideation and mental health struggles (implied) (moderate)
- Emotional themes of depression and family trauma (moderate)
Credits
- Director
- Charlotte Wells
- Cast
- Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Brooklyn Toulson, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Sally Messham, Ayşe Parlak, Sophia Lamanova
Official synopsis
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years
The Double
Make a night of it
Pair this with Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Both explore bittersweet memories and the tender complexity of growing up.
Total runtime: 1h 41m + 1h 51m = 3h 32m
