Aftersun (2022) – 2/5

Nice images and moments here and there, but overall I did not see the quality

„Aftersun“ is a co-production between the United Kingdom and United States from 2022, so a relatively new and fresh film that is in the English language of course. The story takes place far away from both countries at a holiday resort on the seaside, but overall you can say the film is slightly more British because that is where the characters originate from. Scotland I think. The writer and director is Charlotte Wells, still a pretty young filmmaker in her mid30s now and as a consequence this is also the very first full feature film of her career after some short film works. Three to be precise if the number on imdb is correct. The film runs for 95 minutes without credits, so over 100 minutes if we include all the texts written on the screen at the end. The cast is really not big in quantity. There are two key players and everybody else is really minor supporting. The male lead is Paul Mescal and he has scored so much awards attention for his portrayal here. The female lead is Frankie Corio and for her it was the very first performance overall in a film apparently as she got picked for the part after the filmmaker had really many girls audition. As for Mescal, he is also still quite young (maybe people mistaking his character for his daughter character’s brother was not meant to charm him, but they really thought so), but has acted for a few years already. You may have seen him in „The Lost Daughter“ if you watched the film and did not only pay full attention to Olivia Colman. Anyway, with this one here I am really surprised that Mescal is getting nominated left and right and could even has a decent shot at scoring an Oscar nomination, but we will see about that. I did not see anything particularly special or outstanding about his turn here. If anybody deserves praise, it is Corio, but also definitely not on such a gigantic level.

It is a father-daughter story from beginning to end. We do not find out about the girl’s mother and there is only some brief talking about her later on and she also makes a phone call to see that everything is alright. Other than that, we see some of the other people who are at the exact same spot the exact same time like our protagonists, the other tourists. This includes a boy who is roughly the girl’s age and with whom she shares her first kiss. Then there are a bunch of older kids that still like to hang out with the girl after witnessing her decent snooker skills. To me it felt as if there is a very sexualized atmosphere in the movie. This is obviously not a big surprise because we are at the beach with men being topless and women wearing not much more and teens during puberty, but still. There is a lot of making out from these teens and we also hear them talk about how one provided sexual pleasure with her hand to a boy the other day. So it is not a huge surprise if it leaves an impact on Sophie as she is hanging out with these kids a lot and also not a surprise that it indirectly results then in her first kiss as well. In a way, she wants to be part of the gang. The boy it happens with is the one she plays this motorcycle game there which looked really cool. I would have liked to play it too when I was that age. They even have a bit of a date if you see how he invites her by giving her coins for this machine.

Another aspect that stayed in the mind for me here was the music. Not in terms of the score, but in terms of the songs you hear from beginning to end. This also shows you that the action there is set several years or even decades in the past. The songs are still in a way famous today, but maybe not played super often anymore. One example would be the karaoke night session there of course which was one of the weirdest moments because the daughter had to sing on her own there, even if it had been a tradition between her and her father in the past and this way we also find out that they have traveled together in the past on various occasions. So the two are close, but you can also see that when watching them. I liked the chemistry for the most part. Anyway, great songs here include „Tubthumping“, „Losing my Religion“, an Elvis number and many others. Check out the soundtrack if you wanna know them all. For me it was a bit of a journey back to my youth. And I still love listening to most of these numbers. R. E. M. Will always have a special place in my heart and I would go immediately to a concert if they ever reunited and came here. But now, let’s get back to the movie: Many films have it in a way that there is a key conflict or huge escalation towards the end and this is the case here as well when Sophie does not find her way to the hotel right away and is lost a bit and there is trouble with her dad and her potentially being left alone. Well, she is lost for a moment only and then ends up getting home and it seems from her side at least all is good again, even if her dad is really angry at himself. Or disappointed is maybe the better word. And it may have hurt his belief permanently that he can protect her and take care of her on his own. But the night trip for Sophie also could not have been any better really with the kiss I mentioned and she is never in danger or anything.

Speaking of Sophie, there are some segments in this film where the film shows her in the now. Very brief moments only and to me they felt thrown in pretty randomly somehow and added almost nothing. The movie would not have been worse or different without them and they just in a way were supposed to add a new layer to it all I guess, but it left no impact on me and also felt rather pseudo artistic. It also felt a bit desperate to me how they showed us that grown-up Sophie is into girls apparently, at least sleeping in bed with another female and maybe the idea was to get a stamp on this film that it is also a gay-themed movie. I mean I am okay with that if there is a convincing story to that regard, but it really all just felt for the sake of it and there I cannot be supportive. The problem is not that she kissed a boy first, not at all, this made sense and it was probably this way for many lesbian women. But also aside from that I cannot really see why this film has scored so many nominations and so much awards recognition for Wells and Mescal most of all. Like I stated earlier, I felt that the occasional nomination in a young performer category for Corio would have been enough. I wonder how her career will be going in the coming years. I am sure this is not gonna stay her only acting role by any means, but will be interesting to see if she can make it really big one day or just appear in two or three more films that will not be seen (or liked) by too many and that is it and then she disappears from the industry and leads a life away from the limelight. Everything seems possible With Mescal, I don’t see a big career happening. Wells is also difficult to predict. But looking at the reception and the aforementioned awards recognition this film has been able to score, it was a big win for everybody involved, especially the three key players I just mentioned.

I would say that some of the dialogue writing from the film was okay, especially some moments between father and daughter (also just one example, namely how he tricks her into making the same moves he does after she makes fun of those initially), but the majority of these you already see during the trailer and this is why I would say that here we do not have a film that deserves a positive recommendation. My suggestion is to skip the watch or if you really wanna go for it, then I assume that the small screen is also enough and you can see it at some point when it is on television. I was a surely disappointed by the outcome after before that hearing about all the accolades and also after liking the trailer that I have seen quite a few times before other films. In terms of big players at 2022 awards ceremonies, I would say that this is maybe a contender for the weakest film I have seen. I still wonder if my perception changes when I grow older, but I doubt it. Maybe I will not think it is as weak as I see it right now, but I doubt I will really like it one day. Never say never though and my interest in a rewatch is almost 0% right now anyway. For now, I give „Aftersun“ a thumbs-down, a thumbs-up though for Barry Jenkins („Moonlight“) being a producer here. Nice to see him step into new territory and associated for once with a project that does not primarily focus on Black people or race-related issues. Variety is always a good thing. He should have picked a better-crafted film though.