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In the foreground, an 11-year-old girl lies asleep in bed. On the balcony beyond, seen through the plate-glass door, the girl's father struggles to light a cigarette, hampered by the cast on his right arm. Mission accomplished, he sways back and forth rhythmically, arms moving outwards and upwards and down, a dreamy approximation of Tai Chi moves, perhaps. It's not quite clear what is going on with him, since the camera doesn't move in closer, and there are barriers separating us from him. This is a moment of solitude for the father, snatched at the end of the day when his child is asleep. The daughter's deep breathing provides the rhythm for the father's movements, and there's something almost eerie about the moment. The 11-year-old daughter sleeps through it all.

But what is "it," exactly?

This question lies at the shifting center of Charlotte Wells' moving debut feature "Aftersun," detailing a father-daughter vacation at a cheap resort in Turkey, and the scene above—which comes early on, when we're still getting our bearings—is key. There's something unknowable about Calum ( Paul Mescal ), and maybe this is because Sophie (Frankie Corio) is a child, and he's her dad, and she's just about coming to the age where she's separating herself and becoming her own person.

There's an uneasiness in the sequence, but the source of it is hard to place, or even name, particularly since Calum and Sophie are enjoying their vacation, overall. The occasional friction is of the normal parent-child variety, nothing too toxic, nothing too traumatic. But the depths, as they say, are sounded. The child is perceptive, and senses things, even if she can't put it into words (although often she can). She perceives more than her father thinks she does. But children are resilient. It is possible to perceive a parent's existential anxiety and still have a great time making a new friend at the arcade. The two things even happen simultaneously. Consciousness operates on multiple tracks and "Aftersun" understands this. The multi-level awareness is not in the dialogue, but it's there in the film's gentle rhythms, the editorial choices, the patience and sensitivity of Wells' approach.

Sophie's parents are separated, and she lives mainly with her mother. Calum talks about getting a new place, where Sophie will have her own room, and maybe starting a new business with someone named "Keith," and from the way he talks about all this it's obvious he barely believes in any of it. Something's not gone right for him. Does he party too much? He became a father at a young age. There are "clues" that his life hasn't quite worked out the way he had hoped. He has brought books on meditation and Tai Chi, suggesting not so much a lifelong practice as a way to stave off anxiety. His worries weigh him down. Sophie senses this. It's tense when she loses her scuba mask, and she informs him she knows it's expensive and she's sorry. Calum is taken aback by her remark. He thought his worries were well-hidden. Calum may be a bit adrift, but he clearly loves his daughter. They have a little tiff at one point, and he apologizes to her later for his behavior. He's a good dad. Their energy together is comfortable, intimate, familiar.

"Aftersun" is clearly told from Sophie's point of view, but a perceptive viewer will notice there are scenes where Sophie is not present. The film, then, is from the adult Sophie's point of view, an adult—a new parent herself—looking back on this vacation, curious about what her father must have been going through. She knows her own memories of the vacation. But what was going on with him?

Wells intersperses the vacation with surreal dream-like "rave" sequences, where an adult Sophie ( Celia Rowlson-Hall , whose 2016 directorial debut " Ma " I so admired and reviewed for this site) stands on a crowded dance floor, catching glimpses of her father writhing to the music in the intermittent lightning flashes of the strobe lights. She wants to get to him, touch him, hold him. Sophie is an adult now. She understands him so much better now. What would it be like if she could talk to him? They would still have so much to say to one another. In a way, "Aftersun" is an act of imaginative empathy. Sophie can now look at the things that child Sophie could not see.

This once-removed point of view, this slightly distanced stance, gives the film its melancholy melody of an almost elegiac sweetness. In the present moment, all is sunshine and laughter, Calum and Sophie having ice cream, getting mud baths, swimming, where it doesn't matter that the resort is cheap and there's construction going on. What matters is being together. Mescal (so wonderful in "Normal People") gives such a tactile earthy performance, grounded in the details. There are fleeting glimpses of worry and self-loathing, his fears about not being good enough, not being a good provider or failing her ... all of the things he feels he must hide—and, for the most part—does hide.

Frankie Corio is a newcomer. She's alert, sensitive, and a totally natural presence. The dynamic between Corio and Mescal is nothing short of amazing—they are so comfortable with one another! They're playful and thoughtful, they get joy from one another, but are capable of hurting one another too. This dynamic is a tribute to both Mescal and Corio, of course, but also a tribute to Wells' gifts in both casting and working with actors.

Cinematographer Gregory Oke uses a soft rich palette, summery and saturated, and often keeps the frame off-center, destabilizing the point of view. Calum is often seen through a doorway, or as a reflection—in a mirror or a television screen—obscured, half-there, half not-there, similar to adult Sophie's glimpses of him at the rave: the strobe is so violent, it's impossible to see him in full, to perceive him as there and in the flesh. Sound designer Jovan Ajder also does fine work, particularly in a scene when Calum stalks down to the beach in the middle of the night for a swim. Calum is swallowed up by the blackness, and the gentle lapping of the waves slowly crescendos to the sound of thundering surf.

Wells' 2015 short film " Tuesday " could be seen as "Aftersun" in embryo. A college student spends Tuesday nights at her dad's, even though her mother seems against it. The girl wanders through her dad's empty rooms, not so much snooping as touching his belongings—his guitar, one of his sweaters. He is not there. Where is he? Did he forget it was Tuesday? "Tuesday" is such a strong short film, filled with a young person's ache to understand a man so close to her, so close and yet so far away he might as well not be there at all.

I remember the moment I realized—not just intellectually, but viscerally—how young my parents were when they had me. I was looking at a photograph of my father holding two-year-old me in his arms. He was about 26 years old at the time. I stared at his face, its youthful curves, the light in his eyes, the gentle way he held onto my hand (mainly so I wouldn't yank his glasses off his face). I had a strange sense of time telescoping out on both ends. I thought of myself at 26 years old, how young and wild I was. It still seems unbelievable to me that he was that young. He was such a good dad. I would love to ask him about his life. I would love to ask him what it all was like for him. "Aftersun" is Wells' beautiful attempt to do the same.

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Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Aftersun (2022)

Rated R for some language and brief sexual material.

101 minutes

Paul Mescal as Calum

Francesca Corio as Sophie

Celia Rowlson-Hall as Adult Sophie

Sally Messham as Melinda

Ayse Parlak as Teen Girl 1

Sophia Lamanova as Teen Girl 2

Brooklyn Toulson as Michael

Spike Fearn as Olly

Charlotte Wells

Cinematographer

Gregory Oke
Blair McClendon
Oliver Coates

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‘Aftersun’ Review: A Father and Time

A daughter’s memory of a vacation in Turkey is at the heart of Charlotte Wells’s astonishing and devastating debut feature.

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By A.O. Scott

The relationship between a parent and a child is wired for heartbreak — a primal attachment headed for an inevitable double grief. Kids grow up and flee the nest. Parents die. It’s the natural order of things, calamitous even when no untimely tragedies intervene to amplify the pain.

Such a tragedy does shadow “Aftersun,” the tender and devastating first feature from the 35-year-old Scottish director Charlotte Wells, but the power of the film comes from its embrace of the basic and universal fact of loss. It’s about a mostly happy experience — a father-daughter vacation in a resort town on the Turkish coast, with snorkeling excursions, hotel buffets and lazy hours by the pool — that ends in tears. Your tears.

Eleven-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) and her father, Calum ( Paul Mescal ), are mostly too caught up in the delights and frustrations of the present to express much sorrow or anxiety, but they also seem aware that time is moving quickly. Sophie, on the edge of adolescence, is both hanging onto childhood and rushing toward maturity. Her eyes are always moving, scanning her surroundings for clues and portents.

A young man himself — he’s about to turn 31 and is mistaken by a fellow tourist for Sophie’s older brother — Calum carries some weariness in his lithe frame. His boyish features are creased with worry. We don’t learn much about his history — Wells is not the kind of director to spoil delicate scenes with expository dialogue — but we’re aware that he and Sophie’s mother aren’t together. We can also infer some hard knocks and bad decisions in his past.

Maybe in his future as well. One thing we do know about Calum — though it’s hard to say exactly how we come by this knowledge — is that he dies sometime after the vacation. From the very first scenes, the presence of camcorders and the absence of smartphones places the trip in the past. A grown-up Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall), who at 31 has a partner and a baby, is remembering those sun-dappled mornings and karaoke nights (she sang “Losing My Religion” ) of 20 years before.

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'Aftersun' review: This is the best film of the year by a first time writer-director

"Aftersun" debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and left a lasting impression.

Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio are seen in a still image taken from the official trailer of "Aftersun," only in theaters Oct. 21.

I've been thinking about "Aftersun" since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Now it's in theaters where no excuses will be accepted for you missing it. This is the best film of the year by a first time writer-director.

The Scottish newbie is Charlotte Wells, 35, and her debut is a cause for celebration. Don't expect sexual shocks or show-off effects. For Wells, the territory of the human heart is all she needs to keep us smiling, nodding in recognition and then fighting back tears.

"Aftersun" is a father-daughter story, based on Wells' life as a young girl on vacation with her dad. The time is the late 1990s when the Walkman and karaoke held sway. The place is a budget beach resort in Turkey far from Scotland where dad left her and mom to live in London.

Looking to spend time with each other, 11-year-old Sophie (knockout newcomer Frankie Corio) and her father Calum (Paul Mescal) make memories with a camcorder that the grown and queer Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall), now a parent, reflects on with sweetness and regret.

Delicate business is being transacted in this place where meaning is found in exchanged looks and the space between words. Wells can distill a life in the way an agonized Calum -- with a cast on his forearm -- smokes silently on a balcony while his daughter sleeps or pretends to.

MORE: Review: 'Anatomy of a Scandal' features exhilirating performances

Wells suggests that Calum is now dead and Sophie, in a ghostly dance, is using her childhood memories to make sense of her father in her own adulthood. That's a tall order that Wells executes with powers of observation that filmmakers twice her age might envy.

There's the sight of Sophie negotiating the treacherous turning point between childhood and adolescence. Or Calum dancing alone, lost in a strobe-lit club. As dad tells daughter, "There's this feeling, once you leave where you're from, that you don't totally belong there again."

Sophie feels a sense of abandonment magnified later when Calum, a slave to his quicksilver moods, sends her on stage by herself to do a karaoke version of "Losing My Religion" that they had planned as a duet. Wells doesn't give us details, only the sorrow eating at this young father as he vainly tries to keep the best side of himself alive for Sophie.

This would be a good time to extol the brilliant, breathtaking, soul-deep performances of Mescal and Corio that represent acting at its truest and finest. Corio was cast after a Facebook call for unknowns. And what a genuine find she is.

MORE: Review: 'The Woman King is indelible and truly inspiring

The Irish Mescal, 26, who earned an Emmy nomination and sex symbol status opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones on Hulu's "Normal People," is an extraordinary actor, as witness to his excellence even in smaller roles in "God's Country" and "The Lost Daughter." In "Aftersun," he fills a complex role with disarming charm and elemental power.

The empathy that Wells and her actors invest in these characters gives "Aftersun" the capability to sneak up and floor you. Is the film too small for awards attention? Hardly. Last year, the mesmerizing miniature that was "CODA" took home the Best Picture Oscar.

One thing is for sure: you won't be able to get "Aftersun" out of your head and heart.

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The Gorgeous Melancholy of Aftersun

Calum is a young dad, young enough that when he’s out with 11-year-old Sophie (Francesca Corio), people assume that they’re siblings rather than a parent and child. Someone makes this mistake not long into Aftersun , and you half expect Calum to let it pass uncommented on, or to be embarrassed when he has to explain the truth. He is, after all, played by the irresistible Paul Mescal, prince of the charming, unreliable heartthrobs, and with his rumpled looks and empty pockets, he comes across as someone more at home carousing with his boys at the bar than periodically reapplying sunscreen to his daughter’s back to ensure that she doesn’t burn. And yet Calum, for all the other ways that things have not been working out the way he planned, is proud to announce that he’s Sophie’s father, and proud to be taking her on a vacation he can’t really afford to a discount beach resort in Turkey. Aftersun , the debut from Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells, is a dual portrait of a girl on the cusp of adolescence and a young man feeling adrift in adulthood, and it’s a work of masterful and almost unbearable melancholy.

It’s one of the best movies of the year, though it damn well makes you work for it, with Wells taking such a deliberately oblique approach to her premise that it at first comes across more as an affectation than as subtlety. Aftersun is made up almost entirely of the trip in question, which, we soon grasp, took place two decades ago, though it’s pointedly only Sophie, played as an adult by Celia Rowlson-Hall, who we get to see in flashes in the present day. It’s frequently Sophie who’s shooting the crummy digital video footage we periodically cut to, the lower resolution and artifacting as much a signpost of the era as the soundtrack, which is littered with late ‘90s detritus from the Lightning Seeds, Catatonia, and Aqua. She and Calum — who broke up with her mother years ago — turn the camera to the sun and the pool, but more often they point it at one another, and in the opening shot Sophie has trained the lens on her father in order to interview him, asking him if this is what he imagined he’d be doing when he was her age.

She doesn’t seem to realize how this question devastates him, though it becomes clear when the film returns to this moment later and shows it from the outside. Calum’s planned this holiday over his 31st birthday, which may not be a major milestone, but for someone who jokes about being surprised he made it to 30, represents a panicky forward trudge of time with little to show for it aside from the funny, self-assured daughter he doesn’t get to see much. But Calum’s depression remains an only half-glimpsed mystery, the shots of him reflected in a television screen and a coffee table surface serving as visual reminders of his elusive nature. There comes a moment when you start to actually comprehend your parents as people separate from yourself, ones whose lives stretched long before your arrival and contain vast unseen realms. Sophie, who’s played with such unaffected ease by Corio that she doesn’t seem to be acting at all, may not be there yet, not any more than she is one of the teenagers she hangs out with one evening. But she’s close enough to sense what she doesn’t yet know, in the same way that she playacts romance with a boy from the arcade after watching the older kids canoodle, the two sharing an tentative open-eyed kiss.

Tiny details like that have submerged but seismic resonances throughout Aftersun . That experimental peck is the start of years of exploration that will lead to Sophie, at 31 herself, to be in a relationship with a woman with whom she has a baby. A stack of books about meditation and tai chi are indications of Calum’s search for meaning. Calum left Scotland, where Sophie lives with her mother, for a life drifting around London, and when she asks him if he’ll ever move back, he gives her an answer that doubles as a description of his psychic state: “There’s this feeling, once you leave where you’re from, that you don’t totally belong there again.” In the closest this delicate film has to a pivotal sequence, Sophie puts their names on a list to sing karaoke in what’s clearly been a tradition for them before, though this time Calum’s not in the mood, and so Sophie goes up alone, her bravado fading as she slogs her solitary way through a rendition of “Losing My Religion.” Throughout Aftersun , Mescal is a marvel of boyish fun masking a deep streak of self-loathing he tries mightily to hide from his daughter, but in that sequence, as Sophie stands there discovering insecurity in real time, he’s easy to hate.

Neither could articulate why they’re so upset, though the night spirals from there, Calum leaving his daughter and getting drunk in an abdication of parental duties he’s otherwise proven himself devoted to. Aftersun isn’t a recreation of a memory, though the act of remembering is obviously at its core. Rather, it’s about trying to square the intimacy of being cared for as a child with the perspective that comes with being an adult. It’s about wanting to reach across time, and to meet a loved one in an impossible space where, for once, you’re both on the same level, and you can finally understand them for who they are — or who they were.

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‘Aftersun’ Review: Paul Mescal’s Charisma Powers a Summer Vacation Portrait That Isn’t as Sunny as It Seems

Produced by Barry Jenkins, this striking debut from British writer-director Charlotte Wells finds rueful undercurrents in a tender father-daughter bond.

By Guy Lodge

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Reviewed at British Film Institute, London, May 11, 2022. (In Cannes Film Festival — Critics' Week.) Running time: 101 MIN.

Production: (U.K.-U.S.) An A24 release of a BBC Film, British Film Institute, Creative Scotland presentation in association with Tango of a Pastel, Unified Theory production. (World sales, Charades, Paris.) Producers: Adele Romanski, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Mark Ceryak. Executive producers: Eva Yates, Lizzie Francke, Kieran Hannigan, Tim Headington, Lia Buman.
Crew: Director, screenplay: Charlotte Wells. Camera: Gregory Oke. Editor: Blair McClendon. Music: Oliver Coates.
With: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Celia Rowlson-Hall.

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‘Aftersun’ Review: Paul Mescal Is a Movie Dad for the Ages in Charlotte Wells’ Staggeringly Beautiful Debut

David ehrlich.

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival. A24 releases the film in theaters on Friday, October 21.

A stunning debut that develops with the gradual poignancy of a Polaroid, Charlotte Wells ’ “ Aftersun ” isn’t just an honest movie about the way that we remember the people we’ve lost — fragmented, elusive, nowhere and everywhere all at once — it’s also a heart-stopping act of remembering unto itself. Here, in the span of an oblique but tender story that feels small enough to fit on an instant photo (or squeeze into the LCD screen of an old camcorder), Wells creates a film that gradually echoes far beyond its frames. By the time it reaches fever pitch with the greatest Freddie Mercury needle drop this side of “Wayne’s World,” “Aftersun” has begun to shudder with the crushing weight of all that we can’t leave behind, and all that we may not have known to take with us in the first place.

When Sophie (remarkable newcomer Frankie Corio , real as can be) thinks of her father, she thinks of the Turkish holiday they went on together in the late ’90s. That was the trip when she turned 11, and Calum — played by “Normal People” breakout Paul Mescal , who makes a premature leap into dad roles with tremendous poise and a triggering sense of parental mystery — turned 32. Some kids at their rundown hotel assumed they were siblings, and now they would be about the same age.

As an adult who we only see in glimpses, Sophie rewatches the MiniDV footage that she and Calum recorded on that vacation, eagerly scanning the standard-definition video in search of the clues that a child might have missed. Clues to what? It doesn’t matter.

The eerily objective home videos and the semi-imagined 35mm scenes that “Aftersun” wraps around them both suggest that Calum was struggling with a demon of one stripe or another, and that he was doing his best to hide that struggle from his daughter during their too-rare time together, but Wells denies us the details. Like Sophie, all we can do is sift for meaning amidst the rubble and hope to fill in the haunted spaces between the man she knew and the man she lost.

We tend to think of memories as crystallized moments of time, loosely strung together along the trellises of a drooping chandelier somewhere deep within our mind. And yet, personal experience tells us that our pasts are composed from an infinite swirl of different sources — real and invented — each of them crudely sewn together with the same desperation that our sleeping brains might arrange a billion random neurons into a semi-coherent dream.

Some of those sources are soft as ghosts, and likewise change shape in the shadows. Others are much harder, as still and tactile as a rug on the floor. Both can be evocative, but neither are enough to connect all the dots; not when you’re trying to re-trace someone you loved from the vague silhouette they left behind.

All these years later — an entire lifetime since the tan she got in Turkey faded back into freckled white — Sophie has only grown more desperate to see what the home videos from that trip will never show her. As if by osmosis, we intuit that she’s haunted by the feeling that some ineffable part of herself will always remain just out of reach, like the patch of skin between her boney pre-teen shoulders where Calum had to apply the sunscreen for her. We sense that she re-watches the camcorder footage in the desperate, keening hope that her dad might be able to show it to her in time to save her from it. And we sense that she does this because she never saw him again.

Wells’ ingenious construction allows “Aftersun” to unfold from a dual perspective that seems to filter it through the eyes of an adult and a child at the same time. We look for discrepancies, scanning the screen for answers to questions that we don’t even know to ask yet until even the film’s most banal images seem rife with secrets. Wells’ camera sometimes lingers on her characters during the kind of private moments when they suppose no one can see them, as if the film itself is goading us into assuming the worst. Gregory Oke’s fuzzy and tactile cinematography suggests a more sensitive read, its gossamer textures recalling the work of Lance Acord in a movie that often feels like a platonic riff on “Lost in Translation.”

Calum has a cast on his arm, but claims that he doesn’t remember how he hurt it. He calls Sophie “poppett,” and talks to his daughter with a guarded intimacy that makes it hard to say if he’s trying to keep her safe from the world or protect her from himself. Calum smokes on the balcony of their hotel room after she falls asleep, standing on the other side of a glass screen door. Sometimes he practices tai chi when he’s in the room by himself, his body obscured from the camera by a bathroom wall. At one point we see him spit at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. Is this what he was doing when Sophie was out making silly little videos on her dad’s camera?

Sometimes Sophie wears a “NO FEAR” hat, just one of the many impeccable period details in a film so precise about its point in time that it seems to take place at the exact moment when the “Macarena” was transitioning from “best part of the party” to “begrudging obligation” (a cringe-inducing karaoke scene in the second half of the movie is set to a period-appropriate track too perfect to spoil). Sophie plays with a group of older kids she meets at the pool and clearly delights in the thrilling autonomy of doing older kid stuff, but she’s never the least bit disinterested in hanging out with her dad.

There’s so much about Calum that she’s desperate to understand without asking, so we hang onto his every word in much the same way. We eavesdrop on his phone call with Sophie’s mother in order to figure out that they’re separated but on sweet terms, we listen as he talks (flirts?) with a scuba instructor, and we dissect the tone of his voice when he talks about “the pretty teacher” at Sophie’s school to hear if that sounds as honest.

Sophie jumps at the rare moments when Calum reveals himself to her, filing away precious bits of information for later that week, unaware that she’ll be holding on to them for decades longer. A pained confession about forgotten birthdays pays off several times over, leading to an indelible fade-out that crystallizes how this immensely powerful movie sneaks up on you in plain sight.

Some of that power can be credited to the masterstroke of how Wells ties her story together — “Aftersun” arriving at a sublime ending that exists in a liminal space between memory and imagination that every viewer will have to locate for themselves — but none of it would be possible without the real and instant sense of intimacy that she helps create between her two lead actors. Hardly a single moment feels didactic or instructive or reverse-engineered from the movie that Sophie might want to make about this trip one day; even after watching “Aftersun” four times, I’m still not sure if time will help Sophie come to a better understanding of who her dad was, or if their holiday was the last age when they could possibly have been as honest with each other as they were.

Wells’ film is able to follow its characters through the strobe light of lost time because Mescal and Corio make it so tempting for us to complete their performances for them — to fill in the gaps with the same urgency that we might want to close our own. Few movies have ever ended with a more tempting invitation to do something impossible, but “Aftersun” is so unforgettable because of the agonizing beauty it finds in the futile act of trying.

I often think of the wonderful scene in which Sophie tries to interview Calum on camera, only for her dad to clam up and make her shut it off. “Fine,” she says, “I’ll just record it in my little mind camera.” She doesn’t know it at the time, but it’s a lens she’ll be looking through for the rest of her life; it’s where we look for the people we love when there’s nowhere else to find them.

“Aftersun” premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, and was reviewed from the 2022 Telluride Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on Friday, October 21.

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'Aftersun' review: This is the best film of the year by a first time writer-director

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One thing is for sure: you won't be able to get "Aftersun" out of your head and heart.

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Aftersun review: An astounding first feature that captures Paul Mescal at his most heart-wrenching

Scottish filmmaker charlotte wells has made a movie that feels as if it’s teetering on the edge of a cliff, article bookmarked.

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It’s difficult to think of the moments before a heartbreak and not lace them with omens. The mind, too often, moulds memories into prophecies. Colours get dialled up. Emotions solidify. It’s a hard thing to talk about, let alone visualise. That’s why Aftersun , the debut of Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells, is so astounding. She’s captured the uncapturable, finding the words and images to describe a feeling that always seems to sit just beyond our comprehension.

The only way to understand memory, in any meaningful way, is perhaps on personal terms. And here, Wells has siphoned some element of autobiography into a story of her own precise crafting. Eleven-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) is on holiday with her dad, Calum ( Paul Mescal ), at a point in the Nineties when the Macarena was at its cultural apex. It’s made clear that Calum isn’t with Sophie’s mother any more. He moved to England; they stayed in Scotland. This trip to Turkey, which Calum can barely afford, is a rare opportunity for father and daughter to be together.

Except we’re not watching these events as they were, but as they’re remembered – by an older Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) under the strobe lights of a nightclub or a rave or, really, the chaotic confines of her own brain. We also see her play and replay an old VHS tape from the trip, trying to pinpoint some hidden truth that Aftersun , in a masterstroke move, never reveals. But this shared time between Sophie and Calum marked the end of… something. That much we know.

At one point, you can see the ghostly imprint of an adult Sophie in the television screen’s reflection. What terrible thing haunts her? Wells’s camera draws us gently towards the telltale signs of self-discovery. Sophie’s trip, on its surface, signalled the dwindling days of childhood naivety. Her fingers brush up against a boy’s at an arcade. She spies, through a bathroom keyhole, the gestures of an older girl as she details to her friends the handjob she gave the night before. Kids drift across each other’s paths, at pools and at play areas, finding a strange solidarity in the ritualistic nature of the package holiday.

Corio, here, movingly captures mute desperation. She shrinks down. She smiles small. It’s the hesitancy of a child who wants to show her dad that she loves him, but doesn’t quite know how. Wells draws a painful irony from the way Sophie is always in the act of documentation, snapping Polaroid photos and videoing Calum while she quizzes him. When he tells her he doesn’t want to be filmed, she says she’ll “record it in my little mind-camera” instead. But all the video footage in the world can’t give her the answers she needs. All we have to lean on is Calum’s offhand yet portentous remarks to other characters.

The Menu review: Scattershot satire, but Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy are bliss

For all that Aftersun can be described as gentle, contemplative and even beautiful, it’s also the kind of film that feels as if it’s teetering on the edge of a cliff. Mescal’s Calum bears the same kind of broken-down charm of his Connell in Normal People , but there are moments of sudden detachment that feel especially heart-wrenching. If only Sophie could grab that head of his and shake it until all the secrets fell out. What is it, Calum? Where has your soul been bruised? Aftersun doesn’t let us know. It doesn’t let Sophie know, either. It leaves behind a deep feeling of want, and it’s one of the most powerful emotions you’ll find in any cinema this year.

Dir: Charlotte Wells. Starring: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Celia Rowlson-Hall. 12A, 101 minutes.

‘Aftersun’ is in cinemas from 18 November

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‘Aftersun’ review: Paul Mescal hits new heights in the best British movie this year

His latest is a moody, melancholic rumination on parenthood and the passage of time

W hat happens when you become a father before you’re really ready? That’s one question bubbling away underneath Aftersun , the distinct debut from Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells, starring Normal People ’s Paul Mescal. He plays Calum, who is trying to connect with his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) when they go on holiday to a Turkish resort. No longer with Sophie’s mother, he’s barely out of his twenties. “Can’t see myself being 40,” he remarks. “Surprised I made it to 30.”

Read more: Aftersun ending explained: breaking down one of the year’s best film scenes

It’s the mid-’90s, although time is very elastic in Aftersun . As Sophie mucks around in the amusement arcades in their resort, flashbacks to Calum’s own hedonistic youth (which coincided with the rave explosion) slip into the film. Meanwhile, wrapping around this are scenes of an adult Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) sifting through old home video footage of their break in Turkey, reflecting on her relationship with her oft-absent father.

Despite an underlying melancholia, Calum’s aiming for self-improvement as he gets older. In his luggage are books on Tai Chi and meditation. And for all their differences, he and Sophie communicate. She tells him about kissing Michael, a boy she meets on the holiday, and Calum encourages her to speak to him about anything. Even when it comes to drugs. “I’ve done it all and you can too,” he says, in what might be either be very modern parenting or a disaster waiting to happen.

Just as in any family, there are issues lurking beneath the surface. In the film’s most awkward scene, Sophie sings R.E.M. ’s ‘Losing My Religion’ in a karaoke bar at the resort; Calum refuses to join her, then offers to pay for her to have singing lessons when they get back home. Don’t make the offer if you don’t have the money, she replies – clearly stung in the past by broken promises. Guilt, on Calum’s side, slides around this story like a squirt of suncream.

While Mescal and newcomer Corio forge a tight bond on screen – they even get mud baths, in what might be the cutest father-daughter moment this year – it’s the way Wells depicts conversations that really leaves the strongest impression. One sequence, as they talk while sitting on the hotel bed, plays out entirely with the camera trained on the switched-off screen of the room’s TV, reflecting their image in the blackness of the tube.

It’s moments like these that create the film’s intense intimacy, exactly as Wells intended – as if we’re sneaking a look at some discarded home movie footage. Similarly dreamy is the soundtrack, with ’90s tracks flooding our ears ( All Saints ’ ‘Never Ever’, Chumbawamba ’s ‘Tubthumping’ and Catatonia ’s ‘Road Rage’ all get an airing). Best of all, Blur ’s ‘Tender’ – a song whose title rather sums up the feelings Aftersun evokes – arrives, warped and woozy in a distorted version.

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Aftersun Reviews

Poignant and anchored by Mescal and Corio’s terrific performances, Aftersun is an outstanding debut from Charlotte Wells that quickly confirms her directing talents.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 25, 2024

Its striking imagery evokes both the power of memory and its obscurities through the ingenious use of analog video and purposeful audio/visual distortions.

Full Review | Feb 13, 2024

Aftersun is a sad and beautiful exploration of grief, of Sophie's struggle to reconcile complex and conflicting feelings about her father, and her struggle to forgive his decision, and perhaps to forgive herself.

Full Review | Dec 29, 2023

Charlotte Wells’ stunning debut is a quiet rumination of the lost daughter.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

Charlotte Wells’ picture-perfect debut visually epitomizes the heart-wrenching processes of memory.

Director Charlotte Wells gives us one of the most piercing debuts in recent memory with this intimate dad-daughter relationship drama.

Full Review | Sep 12, 2023

Shimmering like a mirage that retreats and dematerializes the closer one gets, Aftersun may just be the best movie of 2022.

Full Review | Jul 27, 2023

Aftersun is so interesting in the way it explores the reality of parents that they keep their children in the dark about.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Aftersun is left open-ended, and that’s a perfect conclusion to this portrait of a father and daughter relationship. It speaks to the inability of a child to truly understand their parents, no matter how valiantly they try.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

'Aftersun' depicts an unvarnished portrait of a young man grappling with responsibilities, struggling to hold on to his own life while willingly shouldering responsibility of another.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2023

Aftersun is a tour de force for its two leads, a phenomenal child performance from Frankie Corio with Paul Mescal cementing himself as one of the best actors of his generation and showcasing incredible range

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 19, 2023

In addition, there’s a dark side to all of this; you begin to remember the darkest of memories – the ones you try to avoid...

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 19, 2023

The Scottish director is not only beautifully attuned to the most minor nuances of human sensitivities, but also capable of translating this natural inclination through a refined command over form.

Full Review | Original Score: 5 | Apr 25, 2023

Without being an overtly dramatic or narrative lesson, Aftersun sticks a finger into the wound and digs into the most intimate to devastating effect. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Apr 4, 2023

The film is small, discreet, intimate, a little coy—at times, a bit self-involved and inward-turning. The somewhat self-conscious insistence on the lack of great drama can be tedious at times.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2023

The easy pace of Wells’s direction brings out the best in her central performers, and the chemistry between Mescal and Corio plays out effortlessly. The light moments between them are warm and the darker ones linger heavily.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 21, 2023

A quiet, emotionally unmooring portrait of father and daughter in moments of blissful silliness and small confessions... it’s a devastatingly honest rendition of the aftershocks of a parent’s love when we realise, too late, the simple joys we shared.

Full Review | Original Score: 5 | Mar 20, 2023

Wells shows how interactions that were solid within their own moment become more ambiguous as time has gone by and the adult understanding of Sophie has grown.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 17, 2023

Charlotte Wells’s self-assured debut takes pains to be specific to its time and place.

Full Review | Mar 16, 2023

A subtlety—a nuanced exposition of storylines that might have easily been too simplified—that one doesn’t often find in larger films, particularly American ones...

Review: ‘Aftersun,’ one of the year’s great debut films, is a piercing father-daughter story

Man with a broken wrist with his arm around his daughter

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Something odd happened to me during a recent press screening of “Aftersun,” a beautifully sculpted and quietly shattering first feature from the Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells. While jotting down a few stray thoughts and details, I turned a page in my notebook and came across a drawing, something my 6-year-old daughter had doodled in bright-orange crayon. That wasn’t odd in and of itself; notebooks get passed around our house like potato-chip bags. But it was the first time the discovery of her handiwork, usually a cute and funny mid-screening distraction, had the effect of nudging me closer to the two characters in front of me — who, it may not surprise you to learn, are a girl and her father.

My apologies for the indulgent personal intro, something I’ve allowed myself only because the process of picking through one’s personal baggage — including the scribbled notes and stray memorabilia our loved ones leave for us — feels entirely germane to what Wells herself is doing. “Aftersun,” opening in theaters after an acclaimed festival run that began at Cannes this year, is what the director calls an “emotionally autobiographical” work, inspired by her recollections of a summer vacation she and her father took together in the ’90s. It’s a memory piece and, as such, a rumination on the ways in which memories can be at once indelible and imprecise, how they can torment us and fail us and still be the most precious things — maybe even the only things — we have left.

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From the opening moments, rendered in the grainy textures of camcorder footage, Wells makes explicit the patient, methodical act of sifting and sorting, of peering with intense concentration into the past. But then the past comes suddenly into focus with a shimmering, almost hyperreal clarity. The sun blazes down on the pools and deck chairs of a budget resort in Turkey, where 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) and her thirtysomething single dad, Calum (Paul Mescal), have come for a late-summer holiday. The hotel isn’t much — the tackiness of the lobby furniture, speaking of memories, will emblazon itself on your retina — but Sophie and Calum take most of their setbacks and letdowns in stride. They have the easy adaptability of two people who are pleasant and undemanding by nature and, it soon becomes clear, a little disoriented in each other’s company.

A man and a girl do a dance in a field with low mountains in the background

Sophie lives with her mother (never seen) in Scotland; Calum makes his home in England. This Mediterranean getaway is thus a rare attempt to make up for lost time, though it also carries the unmistakable feel of a farewell. That impression may well be deceptive; the future of Sophie and Calum’s relationship, if they have one, is left unexplored. But something is clearly slipping away here, most obviously Sophie’s childhood, which you can all but see vanishing into the maw of early adolescence. It isn’t just the attention she attracts from boys at the hotel or the mix of fascination, envy and faint skepticism with which she regards the teenage couple making out poolside. It’s that her entire way of seeing her young, emotionally and geographically distant father until now — as an erratic but benevolent presence, more goofy older-brother figure than paternal authority — is about to change and possibly vanish.

Corio, an amazing discovery, somehow conveys these and countless other pinprick impressions without putting any of them into words. There’s a startling translucence to her performance, a willingness to let emotions bleed through gently and unforcedly, that matches the unhurried grace and circumspection of the filmmaking. Much of the story’s meaning can be divined simply from the interplay of Gregory Oke’s cinematography and Blair McClendon’s editing, the way the movie cuts between and around Calum and Sophie mid-conversation, insistently framing and reframing the scene in a way that suggests the workings of memory itself. At times the off-center compositions, resort setting and exquisitely detailed sound design — every splash of pool water and hiss of Turkish bath steam registers with crystal clarity — reminded me of Lucrecia Martel’s coming-of-age drama “The Holy Girl,” with its skill at conveying psychological interiority through atmosphere.

Like Martel, Wells knows the power of narrative elision: “Aftersun” may be a feature-length flashback, but apart from a few lyrical framing elements, its story unfolds in a spare, self-contained present tense. Apart from a friendly, mostly inaudible phone call from Calum to Sophie’s mom, we learn nothing of their long-ago relationship. And we glean only vague details about the recent accident that shattered Calum’s wrist, save for the sight of his forearm in a cast — an image of little dramatic significance but enormous metaphorical weight. A mantle of sadness hangs over Calum, even with the warmth of his sweet, boyish smile and the vigor coursing through his frame.

The restrained but intense physicality of Mescal’s performance finds intermittent release when Calum practices his tai chi moves or, in a sudden surrender of inhibitions, goes wild on the dance floor. But the actor, as distinct here as he was in his recent supporting turns in “The Lost Daughter” and “God’s Creatures,” can hint at a deep, inchoate anguish with an image as simple as Calum having a restless smoke on the balcony while Sophie sleeps. For all his easygoing vibes, he also tends to shut down without warning, invariably when Sophie needs him most, and to feel a guilt afterward that’s all the more terrible because of her quickness to forgive. A scene in which Calum leaves Sophie to stumble her way through a solo karaoke performance seems to distill everything — adolescent awkwardness, parental abandonment, a chasm that seems to be widening in every direction.

The song Sophie’s singing in that moment is R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” one of several ’90s hits swirling through a movie with an unerring musical ear for its moment. (The moody Britpop of Blur’s “Tender” marks that moment as 1999; the Macarena craze is still in full swing.) But if Wells has assembled a note-perfect evocation of a highly specific chapter — the end of a millennium and possibly something else — it’s when she deliberately breaks with realism that this gently aching movie achieves an overwhelming emotional force.

At times she briefly flashes forward, showing us an older Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) in her own early stages of parenthood. At times she shows us the accumulated relics of that long-ago holiday — an ornately woven rug, a faded Polaroid, a postcard message as achingly sincere as it is crushingly inadequate. And finally she gives us, in astonishing bursts of strobe-lit abstraction, the recurring image of Calum dancing in a faraway nightclub, lost in himself and perhaps lost to her forever. There’s mystery in this image, but also revelation and, astonishingly, recognition. As Wells has noted, “Aftersun” isn’t exactly her story, and glancing personal associations aside, it isn’t yours or mine either. And yet in these moments, for reasons as tough to articulate as they are to shake off, it feels ineffably, unmistakably ours.

Rated: R, for some language and brief sexual material Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes Playing: Starts Oct. 21 at AMC Burbank 16; AMC Century City 15

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‘Aftersun’ Review: A Father, a Daughter, and Things Left Unsaid

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Paul mescal in ‘aftersun’: film review | cannes 2022.

The ‘Normal People’ star toplines a debut feature as a young Scottish father on summer holiday with his tween daughter.

By Sheri Linden

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Full credits

Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Critics’ Week) Production companies: BBC Film, BFI, Screen Scotland, Tango, Pastel, Unified Theory Cast: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Brooklyn Toulson, Sally Messham Director-screenwriter: Charlotte Wells Producers: Adele Romanski, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Mark Ceryak Executive producers: Eva Yates, Lizzie Francke, Kieran Hannigan, Tim Headington, Lia Buman Director of photography: Gregory Oke Production designer: Billur Turan Costume designer: Frank Gallacher Editor: Blair McClendon Music: Oliver Coates Casting: Lucy Pardee Sound design: Jovan Ajder Sales: Charades

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Aftersun’ on Netflix, a Pensive, Moving Father-Daughter Drama From Gifted Filmmaker Charlotte Wells

Where to stream:, ‘pearl’ ending explained: why does howard stay with pearl, stream it or skip it: ‘pearl’ on netflix, the ‘x’ prequel featuring an all-time performance by mia goth, stream it or skip it: ‘janet planet’ on vod, a quintessential and quietly revelatory mother-daughter movie, ‘maxxxine’ comes to digital, but when will ‘maxxxine’ be streaming on max.

Aftersun (now on Netflix) was among 2022’s most significant critical successes. The accolades for Scottish writer/director Charlotte Wells’ feature debut began at Cannes, where premier art-film distributor A24 snapped it up for North American distribution; it gathered further acclaim through the festival circuit before landing on the National Board of Review and Sight & Sound’s best-of-the-year lists. It stars first-timer Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal – of BBC series Normal People and 2021’s extraordinary The Lost Daughter – as daughter and father on a sunny, seaside Turkish vacation, framed as a melancholy reminiscence that quietly sinks into your bones.

AFTERSUN : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Shaky camcorder video: Sophie (Corio) films her dad, Calum (Mescal). It’s two days before his 31st birthday. “When you were 11, what did you think you’d be doing now?” she asks, playfully. He never really answers. The footage was shot 20ish years ago, when she was 11, and they took a holiday in a resort in Turkey. They arrive at the hotel to find their room has only one bed, when he booked for two. Would it be a big deal if father and daughter slept in the same double bed? Probably not, yet he sleeps on a cot. Or perhaps doesn’t sleep very well – the clock on the bedside table reads 3:08 a.m. Now, 3:09.

It’s a relaxing trip, with time spent languorously in restaurants and poolside. Sophie plays a motorcycle video game, and chats with a boy her age. They do a little bit of snorkeling, take a bus trip to scenic locales, play billiards, watch as resort staff performs the Macarena; Calum refuses to do karaoke with Sophie, while she refuses to dance with him in the dance club. They visit a Turkish rug merchant, and Calum tells Sophie how each piece tells a story. He inquires about a price for a rug, but it’s expensive; he’ll go back later, without Sophie, to purchase it.

As the quiet, introspective narrative plays out, we piece together the dynamic between these two. Calum and Sophie’s mother aren’t together – they clearly had Sophie when they were relatively young. He doesn’t have much money, and appears to be struggling professionally. Being only 11, Sophie doesn’t seem to quite understand why he seems to be so emotionally inaccessible. Sometimes, he practices tai chi, and she rolls her eyes at his “slo-mo ninja moves.” For his birthday, Sophie encourages a busload of tourists to sing to him, and he doesn’t appear to be happy or even embarrassed. He just looks glum. Blank.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Aftersun offers the understated artistry of a Kelly Reichardt film – see Old Joy or First Cow – with the strongest, most unaffected child-actor performance since Brooklynn Prince in The Florida Project .

Performance Worth Watching: Even when playing a character recording herself with a camcorder, Forio shows a remarkable ability to simply exist, naturally and comfortably, in front of a camera.

Memorable Dialogue: Sophie, to her father: “I think it’s nice that we share the same sky.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Pay close attention and you’ll deduce that Aftersun is the adult Sophie’s melancholy – deeply melancholy – reminiscence of her time with her father. This is a film made whole by its unspoken inferences; to watch it is to marinate in the silences filling space among sparse dialogue. The nature of Sophie and Calum’s relationship is purposely vague, and we’re left to ask questions: They don’t see each other often, do they? She likely lives with her mother most of the time. His personal situation, psychologically or otherwise, is probably too unstable to meet the demands of an 11-year-old girl who, like all children her age, is discovering her independence despite still being wholly dependent on the adults in her life – you know, that awkward developmental stage illustrated by her desire to put sunblock on herself, despite her inability to adequately reach her own shoulder blades. So Calum rubs the lotion in for her.

And so the film prompts us to read into its many small, seemingly mundane moments like this. Sometimes, the relative silence cracks via a pithy observation – maybe the sky, big and vast and blue, is all that truly connected Sophie and Calum – or a few heaving gasps of despair. Wells occasionally drops in on and returns to a surreal dance club sequence where Calum has apparently lost himself in movement and music, and Sophie struggles to reach him; it’s the classical nightmare where you’re reaching for something that’s just out of your grasp, or trying to dial the phone but keep mashing the wrong numbers.

There’s the anger and frustration of loss coursing beneath the tender, but curious scenes of Sophie and Calum playing in the pool or quietly eating a meal. Adult Sophie looks back upon her father and the mystery of his profound melancholy with the perspective of someone who’s become an adult, and likely understands her father better now, in his absence, than she ever did as a child (not that she was at all capable, mind you). There’s a scene in which Sophie and Calum are eating dinner when a man takes their photo, and the Polaroid slowly fades into fuzzy focus. That was her father; this is her memory.

Our Call: Aftersun is the work of an artist capable of invoking abundant emotion via innovative narrative means. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com .

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'Aftersun' Review: Paul Mescal Mesmerizes in Charlotte Wells’ Feature Debut

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The Big Picture

Aftersun is a reflective film about memory with the power to linger in your mind.
It captures the fleeting nature of time through a deeply emotional father-daughter relationship.
The film's dreamlike quality, stunning visuals, and evocative music create a moving and unforgettable cinematic experience.

This review was originally part of our coverage for the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival .

There are some films that manage to so thoroughly bring to life the fragments of memory that you feel as though you are reflecting on your own life along with it. Aftersun , the stunning debut feature from writer-director Charlotte Wells , is one such work. While clearly reflective about the past and the way we recall it as we move into the future, there is an enduring quality to it that ensures it is a film that will echo in your mind for time eternal .

Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't...

What Is 'Aftersun' About?

The film places us with the young Sophie ( Frankie Corio ) who is on a holiday to Turkey with her father Calum ( Paul Mescal ). It is just the two of them though this seems to largely suit each just fine as they initially alternate between moments of peaceful relaxation and joyous play. However, their time is limited as no vacation away can last forever even when we may wish it to. Sophie, in her smart and silly way, has begun to sharply observe the world around her . She is at the age where much is still new though in a way that she can start to make sense of. Much of this includes her father who, despite the way he tries to keep closed off, is frequently struck by sudden moments of darkness. The film is filtered through the eyes of Sophie who clearly cares for her father though is not sure about what to make of a young man who is plainly troubled. He is not an unkind person, just one who is deeply uncertain about himself and what role he will have as a father while still trying to determine his own life.

There is a quietly profound poetry to seeing this all play out as the film feels both endlessly patient yet effortlessly poised . Each scene between the father and daughter feels so completely lived in, making for an experience where you begin to forget you are watching a movie as opposed to just two people sharing a moment together. There is so much to get immersed in as the details of every moment are overwhelming and minimalistic.

It shows that a simple story can sing precisely because of how it finds beauty in the everyday. The dialogue is so natural yet no less resonant as we get to see Mescal bring all the haunting nuances of Calum out. There is something that is weighing heavily on him, which the film keeps hidden as he does from his daughter, making for a complex cocktail of a character. He can turn on a dime, going from being more charming and comedic to somber with a subtle change in expression. One moment Calum takes alone to himself shows just how broken he is despite all his gentle bravado he puts forth. Despite all the challenges that can come from being a child actor, Corio also never misses a single beat in a dynamic debut performance .

'Aftersun' Is a Film as Precious as Memory Itself

There is a tragedy to everything as we feel just how fleeting this time Calum and Sophie get to share really is . At one point, she wonders aloud why they don’t just stay here and spend their days jumping around from place to place. It is an innocent line, almost a throwaway, but it brings with it a devastating impact. There are countless moments like this as every conversation, even the ones about ordinary topics, feel precious in a way that we can’t always put our finger on. The entire experience is besought by a looming sense of loss, as if this entire time is one that will inevitably slip through our fingers forever.

Much of this comes from how the film makes use of recurring home videos, often playing out in extended sequences as the two talk together. Sophie seems aware of the sadness that is swallowing up her father and wants to ask him about it, though often lacks the precise words to do so. By capturing these moments, she seems to want to make them into memories that will allow her to better understand them later. It creates slices of life in what is already a slim slice-of-life picture, as if it is carving away less and less from the time that only so much of can be preserved . They are both clinging to moments in their lives that can only last so long.

There is an almost dreamlike quality to much of the film , especially in the glimpses we get of Calum where he is removed from the main setting. We only catch every other frame as he appears to be in a club of some kind with a strobe light leaving him frozen in time. This all is increasingly affecting the more it is used and in how it becomes incorporated by the end. The way music is overlaid in one particular concluding sequence cuts through all the liminality of time and space. It becomes a sensory experience that is evocative yet precise, making clear just how in command of everything Wells remains. The editing is also magnificent, maintaining movement in a way that is as mesmerizing as it is melancholic.

'Aftersun' Builds to an Astoundingly Beautiful Ending

There is an audacity to much of the way it all shifts into being more emotionally ephemeral, but there is no better way to capture the elusive emotional states being expressed. The way the visuals all dance across the screen in flashes of brilliance that strip away the barriers between form and feeling until they become one is nothing short of spectacular. This could easily leave some reeling, but it serves as a cinematic embrace that has the power to squeeze the breath out of you until there is nothing left. It washes over you, hitting you with wave after wave of vibrancy until it subsequently pulls the rug out from under you. What remains is a work of remembrance, overflowing with all the joys and pains to be found in looking back, that shows just how tenuous our connection to the past can really be. After all is said and done, it is films like Aftersun that will stand the test of time long after we are gone .

Charlotte Wells' Aftersun is an outstanding debut that will linger in our memories for time eternal.

Both Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio never miss a single beat, capturing a complex cinematic cocktail of emotion.
The film is as precious as memory itself, with every technical element coming together to create something breathtaking.
Everything builds to an astoundingly beautiful ending with the power to squeeze the life out of you until there is nothing left.

Aftersun is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S. starting June 21.

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Aftersun review: a tender, heart-wrenching memory piece

Frankie Corio sits on a couch with a sleeping Paul Mescal in A24's Aftersun.

“Anchored by a stunning lead performance from Paul Mescal, Aftersun is one of the year's most moving and unique movies.”

Charlotte Wells' gentle, observant visual style
Paul Mescal's performance
An unforgettable final 5 minutes
An overly languid pace
A meandering second act

Charlotte Wells’ directorial debut, Aftersun , is an open-hearted, tender piece of filmmaking. It crackles and vibrates with the same kind of lived-in intimacy that has defined the works of filmmakers like Richard Linklater and Terence Malick. Like those two auteurs, Wells has an ability to turn silence into its own special effect, one that makes you lean in further and feel as if you can smell the same musty air as the characters you’re watching on-screen.

A tale of memory and loss

The film contains one of the best performances of the year, a slow burn movie that is worth your time (and patience).

There are many moments like that in Aftersun , a film that isn’t afraid to let its characters pause, breathe, and observe the world around them. Rather than detach in these brief minutes of respite, don’t be surprised if you feel yourself sinking further into the film’s meditative mood.

But there’s something else lurking beneath the surface of Aftersun . Underneath the film’s moments of joy, sadness, and togetherness, there is a yearning. It’s present in Aftersun ’s opening scene, which introduces a young father, Calum (Paul Mescal), as he dances around a hotel room and avoids answering the personal questions his daughter, Sophie (Frankie Corio), is asking him from behind her video camera. We watch Calum through the lens of Sophie’s digital camcorder, but it’s only when the recording comes to an end that we realize we’re not the only ones doing so.

As the recording freezes on Calum’s blurred face, a reflection suddenly forms over the entire image. In quick succession, we realize not only that the recording itself has been playing on a TV the whole time, but that it was this previously unseen figure who turned it on in the first place. In terms of visual tricks, this opening moment in Aftersun is one of the best of the year, and it establishes Wells’ ability to imbue even the most minute of details with stunning levels of emotional significance. It is, in other words, the perfect opening note for Aftersun , a film that creates massive ripples of emotion out of the smallest pebbles.

Over the course of Aftersun ’s 101-minute runtime, the details of its story gradually become clear. Slowly, we realize that the reflection in the film’s opening scene belongs to an older version of Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall), who has taken it upon herself to revisit some of the digital recordings she has from a trip she took to Turkey when she was 11 with her dad, Calum. Aftersun is, therefore, essentially one long trip down memory lane. The few present-day detours it takes on the way toward its heart-stopping conclusion only further imbue Sophie and Calum’s trip with an even greater sense of heartbreak and loss.

Sophie has, it turns out, begun excavating her memories in the hopes that she might finally be able to understand her father, who died shortly after his and his daughter’s fateful trip together. We’re never told how Calum died, and Wells never wastes any time exploring the 20 years that have passed since Sophie’s final vacation with him. In fact, Wells’ script for Aftersun never verbally communicates any of this information. The film, instead, establishes its “plot” through images and details that become impossible to forget. A handful of sequences in which Rowlson-Hall’s adult Sophie calls out to Mescal’s Calum in a dark, strobe-lit nightclub, for instance, make her character’s desire to reconnect with her father even after his death startlingly, heart-wrenchingly clear.

Wells brings the same level of restraint to her depiction of Calum, a mysterious figure whose internal pain is only made apparent by the knowledge of what ultimately happens to him. Mescal, for his part, turns in one of the year’s more well-calibrated, lived-in performances. He, in collaboration with Wells, builds a complete character out of nothing more than a series of short emotional breaks and long, contemplative silences. It’s a testament to the line Aftersun ultimately rides that we’re able to simultaneously understand why Corio’s younger Sophie was so mystified by her father and also discern with devastating clarity the same pain within him that Rowlson-Hall’s older Sophie can’t unsee.

Wells’ script never makes the mistake of spelling out Calum’s issues too clearly. Aside from one small scene in which Calum tells his curious daughter about a disappointing birthday from his childhood, we’re never truly allowed into his mind or given much insight into his past. Instead, Calum’s demons arise in small, all-too-relatable moments, like when his frustration over repeatedly trying and failing to put on a scuba suit briefly gets the better of him, the strain and embarrassment of it all turning his face red and ruining his mood.

Later, when Sophie talks about how she sometimes feels so tired that she becomes convinced her bones don’t work anymore, Wells’ camera briefly drifts over to Mescal’s Calum. Standing in front of a hotel room sink, Calum listens to his daughter speak and we watch, helplessly, as the fear that he’s passed his own problems onto Sophie overwhelms him. When he subsequently spits at his own reflection, it’s both a shocking moment of physical aggression and the only logical response for Calum, a man who frequently struggles to hide his own self-loathing from his daughter.

Aftersun doesn’t hurry to get to its biggest moments of emotional revelation or catharsis. The film takes its time in every sense of the phrase, which leads to its second act feeling occasionally listless and meandering. For some viewers, the film’s deliberately languid pace may even distract from the poignancy of its story and, especially, its perfectly-executed final five minutes. Those who are able to get on Aftersun ’s wavelength and give it the patience that it requires will, however, likely find themselves growing increasingly attached to its world and characters.

That’s because it’s ultimately irrelevant whether one identifies with Calum and Sophie’s relationship or not. It’s Aftersun ’s desperate desire to find answers in Sophie’s memories that makes it so emotionally effective and compelling. Wells understands, better than most it seems, that memories are puzzle pieces that change over time. In Aftersun , Sophie’s memories don’t so much lose their shape as they do their size. Put together, they form a picture that would be complete were it not for the ever-widening spaces that run throughout it. The power of Aftersun doesn’t just come from how it explores the spaces that separate its memories from reality, but in how it attempts, perhaps fruitlessly, to close them.

Aftersun is playing in select theaters now.

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The alarm has been tripped. The backdoor is wide open. And who or whatever’s impersonating the security-system operator on the other end of the phone line has just croaked three words that no horror movie character would ever want to hear: “Look behind you.” The command puts Rose (Sosie Bacon), the increasingly petrified heroine of Smile, between a rock and a hard place. She has to look, even if every fiber of her being would rather not. And so does the audience. We’re locked into her campfire crucible, forced to follow the hesitant backward tilt of her gaze, and the anticipatory creep of a camera that’s slow to reveal what that disembodied voice has invited her (and us) to discover.

Smile is full of moments like this. It’s a nasty, diabolically calibrated multiplex scream machine — the kind of movie that sends ripples of nervous laughter through packed theaters, the kind that marionettes the whole crowd into a synchronized dance routine of frazzled nerves and spilled popcorn. Turn up your nose, if you must, at the lowly cheap sting of a jump scare. Smile gives that maligned device a workout for the ages. It rattles with aplomb.

Entergalactic isn’t like most other animated movies that you’ll see this year — or any year, for that matter. The film, which was created by Scott Mescudi a.k.a. Kid Cudi and executive producer Kenya Barris, was originally intended to be a TV series. Now, it’s set to serve as a 92-minute companion to Cudi’s new album of the same name. That means Entergalactic not only attempts to tell its own story, one that could have easily passed as the plot of a Netflix original rom-com, but it does so while also featuring several sequences that are set to specific Cudi tracks.

Beyond the film’s musical elements, Entergalactic is also far more adult than viewers might expect it to be. The film features several explicit sex scenes and is as preoccupied with the sexual politics of modern-day relationships as it is in, say, street art or hip-hop. While Entergalactic doesn’t totally succeed in blending all of its disparate elements together, the film’s vibrantly colorful aesthetic and infectiously romantic mood make it a surprisingly sweet, imaginative tour through a fairytale version of New York City.

From its chaotic, underwater first frame all way to its liberating, sun-soaked final shot, God’s Creatures is full of carefully composed images. There’s never a moment across the film’s modest 94-minute runtime in which it feels like co-directors Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer aren’t in full control of what’s happening on-screen. Throughout much of God’s Creatures’ quietly stomach-churning second act, that sense of directorial control just further heightens the tension that lurks beneath the surface of the film’s story.

In God's Creatures' third act, however, Holmer and Davis’ steady grip becomes a stranglehold, one that threatens to choke all the drama and suspense out of the story they’re attempting to tell. Moments that should come across as either powerful punches to the gut or overwhelming instances of emotional relief are so underplayed that they are robbed of much of their weight. God's Creatures, therefore, ultimately becomes an interesting case study on artistic restraint, and, specifically, how too calculated a style can, if executed incorrectly, leave a film feeling unsuitably cold.

Aftersun Review

18 Nov 2022

Rare and special is a film capable of summoning this much poignancy: a feeling which lingers well beyond the film’s final, achingly moving moments on screen. That Aftersun is the debut from British filmmaker Charlotte Wells only adds to its accomplishment.

For the most part, this two-hander of a drama moves along a languorous linear timeline: Calum (Paul Mescal) is on the brink of his 31st birthday, and committed to giving his daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) the best experience he can with the little money he has.

Their days are filled with idle pastimes and familiar rituals, like the careful application of after-sun cream to each other’s faces at the end of a long and somehow exhausting day. Wells masterfully creates a transfixing rhythm via running motifs — hang-gliders drifting across the sky, bare British limbs knocking together by the pool — to further pull you into their world, one of tinny ’90s chart music and luminous fizzy drinks. Eleven-year-old Sophie is starting to notice the hormones in the air, and the way the older kids touch. Other than his palpable love for his daughter, Calum keeps his feelings caged. Instead, a series of small sentiments slowly build up the profile of a young man who has lost his sense of self-worth, at a time when dialogue around mental health was less robust.

Frankie Corio is a revelation, imbuing Sophie with scrappiness and affection that never feels forced.

Mescal played his first lead role in Normal People only two years before Aftersun but is already proving to be a unique and complex screen presence, with crooked charisma and a talent for playing characters who aren’t all that they appear to be. As Calum, he delivers a soulful performance that unfurls gradually, heartbreakingly, over the holiday. Corio, meanwhile, is a revelation, imbuing Sophie with scrappiness and affection that never feels forced. Together, the pair conjure a tenderness that is, at times, breathtaking; in one scene, Mescal traces Corio’s eyebrow with his finger until Sophie falls into an easy sleep.

Their story exists in the form of adult Sophie’s (Celia Rowlson-Hall) memories, who, on her own 30th birthday, has that holiday heavily on her mind. Rather than a conventional flashback device, Wells puts Calum and older Sophie together under the flashing lights of a crowded, kinetic dancefloor, moving to the music in a way that feels far more powerful than words could achieve. The final act doesn’t pack a big gut-punch moment, but evokes all the emotional weight of one. The end of Calum and Sophie’s holiday is inevitable, though not before a joyful, precious few final moments together.

Aftersun plays out as a deftly orchestrated, empathetic and honest character study. It is beautifully performed, and captured with heart and ingenuity by Wells, who isn’t afraid to play with framing and style (the holiday is filmed in part on a shaky MiniDV camera) to compliment her story. Breakout filmmaking simply doesn’t come more exciting than this.

Movies | 19 02 2023

Movies | 02 12 2022

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Common Sense Says
Parents Say 2 Reviews
Kids Say 4 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Nostalgic drama studies depression; smoking, some language.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 14+?

Occasional use of the word "f--k" as well as "arse." A character gives the middl

Two teens are shown kissing passionately. A young character shares their first k

Set on a holiday resort, people are shown drinking beer and wine. Teens are seen

Suicide is a theme in the movie. It's suggested that a character takes their own

Characters order specific drinks such as Coca-Cola and Fanta.

Any Positive Content?

The importance of managing trauma and grief and allowing memories, both good and

Calum is a good father. He is flawed, damaged, and suffering from depression, bu

The film only really has two characters of note, a father and a daughter. They'r

Occasional use of the word "f--k" as well as "arse." A character gives the middle finger to another.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two teens are shown kissing passionately. A young character shares their first kiss with someone of the same age. Two strangers are also seen kissing. A character's naked behind is briefly shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Set on a holiday resort, people are shown drinking beer and wine. Teens are seen doing shots. A child tries a sip of their parent's beer. The same parent talks about drugs with their child, hoping to create a safe space for them to have a dialogue about it as they get older. People are seen smoking cigarettes and shisha. One character picks up a lit cigarette from the ground after someone drops it on the floor.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Suicide is a theme in the movie. It's suggested that a character takes their own life. A character becomes separated from their parent.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Positive messages.

The importance of managing trauma and grief and allowing memories, both good and bad, to help shape who we are today.

Positive Role Models

Calum is a good father. He is flawed, damaged, and suffering from depression, but he cares for his daughter, Sophie. He makes mistakes, such as neglecting her one night, leaving her to fend for herself in a foreign country. But on this occasion he's not himself. Sophie is both independent, pensive, and curious. She tries to live a full life, finding some kind of peace and understanding about what happened to her as a child.

Diverse Representations

The film only really has two characters of note, a father and a daughter. They're both White, and holidaying in Turkey so many supporting characters are of Middle Eastern descent, and we get a sense for the culture they are living within. Mental health issues in men are explored. A character is gay, which is not a plot-point, just presented as a matter-of-fact.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Aftersun is a slow-burning but brilliantly moving drama that focuses on mental health in men -- with themes around suicide -- and a daughter dealing with a difficult past. Sophie is independent as a child (Frankie Corio), and reflective as an adult (Celia Rowlson-Hall). Her father, Calum ( Paul Mescal ), is a good father, but he is a flawed one. He makes mistakes, such as leaving her locked out of the room one night on their holiday in Turkey. Turkish culture is explored in an affectionate way, from the blissful perspective of tourists. People are shown smoking shisha and cigarettes. Characters also drink alcohol, with teens drinking to excess. Even a child tries a sip of beer. Drugs and alcohol are discussed, fleetingly, between Calum and Sophie as he hopes to create an open dialogue and safe space for her as she gets older. There is kissing and a male character's bare behind is seen in one scene. "F--k" is heard on occasion, as is "arse." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (2)
Kids say (4)

Based on 2 parent reviews

A beautiful movie suitable for older kids, but likely will bore them

What's the story.

AFTERSUN follows Calum ( Paul Mescal ) and his daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) as they take a holiday to Turkey, a trip that will live with the latter forever. Twenty years later, on her birthday, Sophie finds footage causing her to reflect and ponder on the experiences she had that shaped her, for better or for worse.

Is It Any Good?

This profoundly emotional drama is one of the most assured, confident debut productions from a first-time filmmaker you're likely to see. From Aftersun 's very opening frame, Charlotte Wells knows exactly the story she is telling, and has complete power over the narrative. With this control, she takes the viewer on a quite staggeringly moving journey. It's a voyage through time and memories, studying how we reflect and remember times past to try and reconcile where we are now, and those we have loved (and lost).

The film delivers emphatically on two counts, as you connect in equal measure to both Calum, a 30-something father and Sophie, a 10-year-old girl. Calum shows the complexities of the human mind and the challenges that come with it. While Sophie's journey is one of nostalgic, hazy childhood memories. Fueling that nostalgia is a superb soundtrack. But what helps illuminate this production are the two central performances. Mescal is as good as he's ever been, and the young Corio is a revelation as Sophie. This isn't just one of the best films of the year, it's one of the best films in years.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how depression is portrayed in Aftersun . Did you find it unusual to see mental health issues in men addressed like this? Why, or why not? What are your own experiences when it comes to mental health?

Discuss the relationship between Calum and Sophie. Did it seem like a healthy father-daughter relationship? Why, or why not?

The movie is about looking back on the past. How do you feel when you look back at certain events from your life?

Talk about the strong language used in the movie. Did it seem necessary or excessive? What did it contribute to the movie?

How did the film depict drinking and smoking ? Were they glamorized? Did the characters need to do these things to look cool? What were the consequences ?

Movie Details

In theaters : October 21, 2022
On DVD or streaming : January 23, 2023
Cast : Paul Mescal , Frankie Corio , Celia Rowlson-Hall
Director : Charlotte Wells
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : A24
Genre : Drama
Topics : Holidays
Character Strengths : Curiosity
Run time : 102 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : some language and brief sexual material
Last updated : January 29, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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‘Aftersun’ is a masterpiece of memory | review and analysis

Aftersun follows the childhood memory of a girl on vacation with her father to the turkish coast. but where there's sun there is also shadow..

Aftersun is one of the greatest depictions of depression and grief captured on film as it meditates on childhood, parenthood, and memory. Beautifully wrought with cinematography and score that play like a memory on loop. As the movie comes to its stunningly satisfying and emotional conclusion—perhaps one of the greatest final moments of a movie I've seen in some time—we're taught that opening that box might be a means to an end. A means to heal the burn that memories can leave.

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Do you know that lethargic feeling after sitting in the sun on a hot summer day? Or the melancholic daze that follows you home after a perfect vacation? Do you get blotches in your vision after looking into a bright light or staring up at the sun? All those sensations perfectly described Charlotte Wells' debut feature Aftersun , which feels like the perfect term to encapsulate each of those feelings. And that is what the whole movie is: a feeling. For its largely plotless 96-minute runtime nothing really happens in front of you. But rest assured, there's plenty happening in the shadows of the sunny father-daughter beach holiday at the center of the movie.

Wells presents Aftersun as a childhood memory flashing into the mind of a girl 20 years later—when she's the same age as her father at the time. But as with any memory, things look different in retrospect.

In the early 90s, young father Calum ( Normal People 's Paul Mescal ) brings his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (played as a child by Francesca Corio , a real festival breakout) on a sleepy summer vacation on the Turkish coast. Gregory Oke's dreamy cinematography simultaneously underlines the sunny haziness of a beachy summer and the soft edges of memory. In between days lounging at the pool, trips to the resort's restaurant, and interactions with the other guests, we see interstitial clips from home video of the trip filmed by either Sophie or Calum. It's in those clips—and interruptions often taking place at night while Sophie is asleep—that we sense there's more meaning and heaviness in this vacation for Calum.

Those feelings only come in waves though. We never see Calum being less than a devoted (and goofy) father to Sophie, almost a complete juxtaposition to the view we have of the usual young parent—sometimes he's even mistaken for her brother. Sophie, as a child, sees him as nothing less than an invincible infallible hero—how many of us see our parents. Her childlike wonder extends to the world around her as she becomes enamored with a group of older kids—a bit of a nod to the typical coming-of-age story, of which Aftersun is decidedly not. However, that wonder also leads to conflict when Sophie's frank questions lead to revealing that not all is great and perfect in the background of Calum's life. At the moment, she thinks nothing of them. However, when adult Sophie looks back at the same clips we're watching, they play very differently. Like videos taken before a coming disaster.

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Memories always have their blind spots. You remember the bright moments while blocking out the darker ones. It's not until you look back and unpack them as an adult that you see their profundity.

31-year-old Sophie ( Celia Rowlson-Hall ), who we cut to for short moments throughout the movie, is the same age as her father when they went on that vacation. As she remembers the bright spots—the late night karaoke, her first kiss, her dad clumsily juggling bread rolls at dinner—the darker ones slip in as well. Or, at the very least, she fills them in—her dad crying in the middle of the night, his quiet swaying while smoking a cigarette on the balcony, his muffled contentious phone calls back home. However, the movie never lingers on those moments—like adult Sophie is trying to keep them out of her perfect vision of that summer vacation. The same way that we exclude the awkward pauses at an otherwise lovely dinner or the arguments heard through walls late at night after you went to bed in our memories. You keep the good and avoid the bad until you can no longer stand the weight of the past.

It's difficult to describe Aftersun because nothing and everything is happening at the same time. Though what's happening on screen may seem mundane, it's drenched in subtext. For those that aren't looking in the right places, the movie might be tedious to get through.

Aftersun is about many things, but at its core it's about the blindspots of our memories and traumas—and how we fill them in to make them whole again.

Our parents try to create the best childhood for us. Short of that, they at least try to create the best version of those memories for you, whether intentionally or unintentionally. It's why nostalgia exists and why some memories float to the surface while others burrow themselves deep into our psyches. Charlotte Wells uses Aftersun to show us what it's like to unlock that box that we all keep away in a hidden dark corner of our minds. What it's like to admit that our perfect childhood memories are just afterimages of the brightest moments. As the movie comes to its stunningly satisfying and emotional conclusion fittingly underscored by Queen's “Under Pressure”—perhaps one of the greatest final moments of a movie I've seen in some time—we're taught that opening that box might be a means to an end. A means to heal the burn that memories can leave.

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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.

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Alien: Romulus Ending Explained - A New Future for the Alien Series?

In space, no one can hear you checking your phone to see if there's a scene after the credits..

This doesn't have to be hard, or scary! You want to know if there are any post- or mid-credits scenes in Alien: Romulus . The answer is no, there's nothing during the credits or after the credits are finished rolling.

Warning: Full spoilers follow for Alien: Romulus.

The first Alien movie made waves as a terrifying sci-fi horror that also deftly handled class, gender, and introduced one of the defining movie monsters of our time in the Xenomorph. Forty-five years later and Don't Breathe director Fede Álvarez has brought the nightmarish H.R. Giger creation back to life in Alien: Romulus, a delightfully grubby and gruesome entry to the canon set between Ridley Scott's original classic and James Cameron's beloved action-heavy sequel Aliens.

Alien: Romulus follows a group of young Weyland-Yutani workers desperate to escape from the mining colony Jackson's Star where they've worked away their young lives. The discovery of an abandoned space station offers up the potential of a new life, but soon Rain (Cailee Spaeny), her android “brother” Andy (David Jonsson), her ex Tyler (Archie Renaux), his sister Kay (Isabella Mercad), and their friends Navarro (Aileen Wu) and Bjorn (Spike Fearn) find themselves trapped on the station with numerous Facehuggers, Xenomorphs, and other malicious foes. It's a wickedly scary romp through space that our reviewer Tom Jorgenson gave an 8 out of 10. So if you've already ventured into space with the crew of incredibly good-looking young scavengers and have questions about the ninth movie in the Alien franchise, like a helpful android, we're here!

The Alien Movies' Long History of Recycling Rejected Ideas

Alien: Romulus Ending Explained

As the third act comes to its peak, it seems like Rain, Kay, and Andy are going to make it off the Romulus station safely. It's a fake-out that works well to lure the audience into a false sense of security, though if you're an Alien fan you likely will have guessed a happy ending wasn't on the cards.

After Kay makes the mistake of injecting herself with the miracle alien goo that the android Rook has been trying to transport back to the colony, she goes into uber-birth and disrupts the cryostasis Rain was hoping would save her life. In a grotesque body horror moment, Kay gives bloody, gruesome birth to an alien pod, soon revealing that her gestating baby has been mutated by the alien goo into a monstrous new form. It emerges almost fully grown as a hybrid human-Xenomorph that looks far more like the franchise's godlike creatures the Engineers than your average person.

With Kay incapacitated and likely dead, Rain and Andy are left to survive. While a ticking clock counts down the minutes until the space station crashes into the rings of the colony, the pair must battle the frightening Engineer-Xeno-Whatever. Andy is sliced and diced and badly damaged, and Rain battles the Offspring to the finish – finally getting it sucked (blown?) into space thorugh the ship's cargo bay.

Taking the damaged android body of her adopted brother Andy with her to the cryopods onboard their ship, Rain promises to fix him before setting off – and leaving a classic Alien franchise ship's log for someone to find, stating that she doesn't know if she'll even get to the planet Yvaga, where she and her friends were originally planning to head to at the start of the film.

The end of Alien: Romulus pays homage to multiple moments from the franchise, the most obvious being the fact that motherhood and pregnancy have always been key themes in the franchise, so making Kay give birth to a new creature makes a lot of sense. That sequence is also similar to Prometheus' alien implantation and abortion, as well as a call-back to Alien: Resurrection when the Alien Queen gives birth to a hybrid thanks to the fact that her DNA was contaminated with that of the Ripley clone at the center of that '90s sci-fi flick. And just like Ripley did in the original Alien movie, Rain gets rid of her Xenomorph problem by ejecting it from the ship.

Alien: Romulus - thumbs up or down?

Does alien: romulus have a post-credits scene.

Alas, no. If you're a fan of the mid-credits or post-credits stinger tradition, then you'll be disappointed to know that Alien: Romulus avoids that trend. But the good news is that's not to say there aren't exciting Easter eggs and lore dumps aplenty during its runtime.

Do you think Alien: Romulus should have included a post-credits scene?

How does alien: romulus connect to the other alien films.

Aside from the fact that the movie is set directly between the first two films in the series, Alien: Romulus is filled with both obvious narrative and subtle textual connections and call-backs to the franchise. The biggest reveal here is that the Xenomorph from Ridley Scott's original film seemingly survived being shot into space by Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). Years later the Weyland-Yutani corporation managed to find the Alien and experimented on it, leading to the death of the space station’s entire crew and lots of aliens – including walls of Facehuggers. We also got a deep-cut nod to that specific Xenomorph's designation, XX121, which has appeared in both the Alien novels and a 2016 collectible art book by S.D. Perry called Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report.

Alien: Romulus - The 10 Biggest Burning Questions

We also get a glimpse of the life-creating alien goo from Prometheus, which here is explained by Rook who says that the explorers from the Prometheus mission had found it, though it cost all the inhabitants of the Romulus space station their lives. (Rook, of course, is another version of the android Ash, who was played by the late Ian Holm in the 1979 original film and is recreated here through digital trickery.) Another big nod to the previous films is Kay's gross-out child, which is referred to as the “Offspring” in the film’s production notes and which acts as a clear nod to the Xenomorph known as the Newborn from 1997's Alien: Resurrection. While the Newborn was part human, it still looked more Xenomorph than the Offspring, which is a terrifying Xeno-Human hybrid (which seems to reach adulthood almost immediately). Former basketball player Robert Bobroczkyi plays the Offpsring in Romulus.

Álvarez also stocked the film with plenty of blink and you'll miss it nods and Easter eggs, like a proto-version of the pulse guns used by the Colonial Marines in Aliens and also the name-drop to that squadron which gave the 2013 video game its name. Speaking of video games, we also get a couple of different Alien: Isolation bits here, including a really rad one calling back to the games’ "save" mechanism that Álvarez told GamesRadar about.

“The movie is set up in a way [that] every time something bad is about to happen, you will see a phone,” the director said. “In the game, every time you knew there’s a phone you’d go, ‘Fuck, I’m about to go into some bad set-piece.’ It’s the same thing here. You’ll see they’re planted strategically throughout the film. When you see the phone, it’s like: brace for impact.”

Could Alien: Romulus Set up a Sequel or Spin-Off?

Seeing as the film takes place between Alien and Aliens, it technically leads into the latter. But as we don't know Rain or Andy's fates, it also offers up a route to follow their story on. (It also takes place some 37 years before Aliens, so there’s plenty of time to fill things in there.) That would be an interesting diversion, especially as it could also explore the nature of the mysterious goo that we first saw in Scott's Prometheus and its follow-up, Alien: Covenant, and which created the nightmare adult-baby Xenomorph Álvarez introduced here. While there's no confirmed sequel or continuation yet, the positive reviews, relatively low budget, and currently impressive-looking box office mean that Alien: Romulus 2 definitely could happen, especially as Disney ventures further into R-rated entertainment.

What did you think of Alien: Romulus? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Note: This story originally ran on 8/15/24 without spoilers. It was updated on 8/16/24.

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Seven Months After Actor's Suicide, One of Lee Sun-kyun's Final Movies Plans US Release

The thriller will be released in theaters and on digital platforms.

By Ashley Turner - August 17, 2024 05:37 pm EDT

In a bittersweet announcement for cinema enthusiasts, one of the final performances of the late South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun is set to grace American screens this fall. The psychological thriller Sleep , directed by Jason Yu in his feature debut, is slated for a Sept. 27, 2024, release in US theaters and on digital platforms, courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

This release comes approximately seven months after the death of Lee, whose body was discovered in a parked car in Seoul on Dec. 27, 2023. The 48-year-old actor, internationally recognized for his role in the Oscar-winning film Parasite , was found deceased in what authorities described as an "apparent suicide."

Sleep has garnered significant attention, not only as one of Lee's final works but also due to high praise from industry heavyweights. Bong Joon-Ho, the acclaimed director of Parasite , hailed it as "the smartest debut I've seen in ten years," a quote prominently featured in the film's promotional materials.

The movie's plot revolves around newlyweds Hyun-su (portrayed by Lee Sun-kyun) and Soo-jin (played by Jung Yu-mi). Their marital bliss takes a dark turn when Hyun-su begins exhibiting disturbing behavior during his sleep, uttering ominous phrases like "Someone's inside." As his sleepwalking intensifies, Soo-jin grows increasingly fearful for the safety of their unborn child and herself.

The official synopsis elaborates: "From that night on, whenever he falls asleep, Hyun-su transforms into someone else, with no recollection of what happened the night before. Overwhelmed with anxiety that he may hurt himself or their young family, Soo-jin can barely sleep because of this irrational fear. Despite treatment, Hyun-su's sleepwalking only intensifies, and Soo-jin begins to feel that her unborn child may be in danger."

Yu, who both wrote and directed Sleep , brings a wealth of experience to his debut, having previously collaborated with Korean cinematic icons Bong Joon-ho and Lee Chang-dong. The film made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival's Critics' Week and subsequently screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and Fantastic Fest, building considerable buzz in the international film circuit. Critics who have seen the film hint at a nuanced exploration of psychological horror with potential supernatural elements.

The release of Sleep serves as a stark reminder of Lee Sun-kyun's talent and the tragic circumstances surrounding his untimely death. In the months leading up to his passing, Lee had been embroiled in a highly publicized drug investigation. He underwent multiple police interrogations, including a grueling 19-hour session just days before his death.

Lee had maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal, claiming he had been deceived about the nature of the substances he consumed and subsequently blackmailed. The actor alleged that a hostess at an upscale bar in Seoul's Gangnam district had misled him about the drugs and later attempted to extort money from him. The investigation had already begun to take a toll on Lee's career, and he was forced to withdraw from an upcoming film project titled No Way Out due to the controversy.

In the wake of Lee's death, the South Korean entertainment industry has been grappling with questions about the treatment of celebrities accused of wrongdoing and the intense pressure they face under public scrutiny. A coalition of 29 arts and culture organizations, including the prestigious Busan Film Festival, has formed The Association of Solidarity of Cultural Artists to address these concerns.

This group, which includes director Bong Joon-ho among its supporters, has called for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding Lee's death. They aim to prevent similar tragedies in the future and have advocated for reforms in how such cases are handled by authorities and reported by the media.

'Parasite' Director Bong Joon-Ho Calls for Investigation Into Actor Lee Sun-Kyun's Death
Actor Lee Sun-kyun Dies by Suicide
'Parasite' Star Lee Sun-kyun Removed From Project Amid Police Investigation

In a statement, the association declared, "In the face of the tragic death of actor Lee Sun-kyun, we shared the same heart that this should never happen again. We will call for investigation officials' probe to discover the truth, request media outlets to delete articles that do not fit their function as media, as well as urge authorities to revise the law to protect the human rights of artists."

Lee's legacy extends far beyond his role in Parasite . Throughout his career, he delivered memorable performances in various projects, including the popular drama Coffee Prince , the critically acclaimed series My Mister , and the Apple TV+ show Dr. Brain .

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'Back to the Future': You built a musical out of a DeLorean?

Despite some impressive effects, the songs are too weak and the emotions too thin to elevate movie adaptation beyond routine fan service..

Doc Brown (Don Stephenson) shows his young protege, Marty McFly (Caden Brauch), his time-traveling DeLorean in “Back to the Future: The Musical.”

Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Great Scott! It’s yet another movie-to-musical stage adaptation!

This one, “Back to the Future: The Musical,” has proven a hit in London, where it beat out “Frozen” and “Moulin Rouge” — see a theme here? — for the Olivier Award for best musical. As it revs up its first North American tour, which started in June, the show also maintains a decent speed on Broadway, if not the 88 m.p.h. that could, according to the film’s logic, send it back a few decades to when the three films in the franchise passed the $1 billion revenue threshold.

It’s fair to say that the success relies completely on longtime devotees of the films and the kids they bring with them, because this musical works only as fan service. For the critical — hey, it’s my job — there’s more pleasure to be had appreciating the nostalgia-driven joy of the audience than there is in what’s on stage, which is all frantic adrenaline.

The adaptation has been driven by Bob Gale, who wrote the original screenplay and this version’s book. The music and lyrics are from Alan Silvestri, who scored the film, and Glen Ballard (“Jagged Little Pill”). Faithfulness takes top priority, so the synopsis here matches the movie.

Marty McFly (Caden Brauch) is a teenager in 1985 who inadvertently travels back in time to 1955, thanks to the mad genius Doc Brown (Don Stephenson) and his souped-up DeLorean. Marty accidentally interferes with the moment when his parents George (Burke Swanson) and Lorraine (Zan Berube) meet. That means Marty will never be born — not to mention endless other alterations to the space-time continuum — unless he can find a way to make George and Lorraine fall in love. In the meantime, Marty reunites with a younger Doc Brown to figure out his return, leading up to a climactic sequence involving the DeLorean, lightning, and a clock tower.

Sorry, ‘Back to the Future’ fans — director says sequel is not your density

There are impressive stage effects here, with set designer Tim Hatley, video designer Finn Ross, and illusion designer Chris Fisher collaborating to make the car seem like it’s speeding and to go a long way towards putting filmic action sequences on stage, with a particularly clever means of depicting the climbing of the clock-tower’s staircase.

Unfortunately, it clearly isn’t possible to do in touring houses what can be done in a fixed Broadway or West End theater. The team achieves a lot with the car effects, but this version does lack a spectacular thrill that might have tipped the show into the memorable. Even now the current tech seems to be stretching capacity, as the opening-night performance had to be paused for five minutes to fix a technical glitch, which has also been reported during previews. To the production’s credit, this felt surprisingly not awkward, and those running the show know exactly how to rely on the audience’s goodwill.

The problem is that “Back to the Future: The Musical” never for a second feels like an authentic experience. There are no real emotions, no thoughtful contemplations about time, no actual suspense, not even real characters.

It’s a pleasing plastic bobble-head of a show. It shakes and swivels feverishly, and can raise an occasional smile of familiarity, but it never involves.

Except for the golden oldies borrowed from the film, the music in this musical is, to be blunt, awful. The songs come off as generic sentiments backed by commercial-sounding jingles accompanied by uninspired choreography. “This one’s for the dreamers,” sings Doc, about himself and his own song, and then reprises it later. Worse, his entrance number, “It Works,” can’t decide it if it’s a slow patter song, or an arhythmic rap, neither of which, as the title would suggest, work.

The only number that can be considered spirited, and demands vocal dexterity, “Gotta Start Somewhere,” comes from future mayor Goldie Wilson (Cartreze Tucker), and, oddly enough, could easily be cut given how disconnected it is from the story.

Although it isn’t the fault of the actors — who are clearly skilled — the performances all come across as facsimiles, not exactly imitations (with the exception of Swanson’s take on Crispin Glover) but at least tributes. Rather than Stephenson’s take on a wacky scientist, we feel like we’re getting his light take on Christopher Lloyd’s wacky scientist. And it sure doesn’t help us relate to Brauch’s Marty that his hair looks like a wig even if, perhaps, it isn’t.

Director John Rando gets completely lost in between sincerity and camp, ending up with neither. The former, in this case, would have been the way to go.

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Movie Review: ‘Trap’

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With “Trap,” writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has given us a half-decent movie. By which I mean that half of it is… decent. The first half delivers the taut thriller we’ve been promised, and it’s not great or anything, but it’s reasonably suspenseful and enjoyable. And then the movie becomes garbage. Not the unique, crazy garbage that only Shyamalan can deliver, but uncreative garbage that no self-respecting filmmaker wants to deliver.

At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to doting dad Cooper (Josh Hartnett). He’s taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert by her favorite pop star, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan). He learns from oversharing merchandise seller Jamie (Jonathan Langdon) that the FBI is monitoring the concert. They have a hot tip that a serial killer known as The Butcher is in the arena, and with the help of profiler Dr. Josephene Grant (Hayley Mills), they’re going to catch him.

This makes Cooper very worried. He starts behaving erratically and evasively, and it certainly looks like he’s The Butcher… because he is The Butcher. Don’t buy into any of those ridiculous fan theories about how, say, preteen daughter Riley is really The Butcher just because “the trailers ‘imply’ Cooper is The Butcher, but they don’t flat-out say it.”

I’m flat-out saying it. The suspense in this movie comes from whether or not Cooper will be stopped or if he’ll kill anyone along the way. If you come into this movie expecting a mystery about The Butcher’s identity, you’ll be disappointed by more than just the weak second half.

The stuff about Cooper trying to weasel his way out of the arena really does work. The well-cast Hartnett is as engaging a lead as this movie could have, and Shyamalan expertly keeps the tension steadily growing. This being a Shyamalan film, it’s also important to note oddball supporting characters like Jamie and the mother (Marnie McPhail) of a girl that doesn’t get along with Riley.

These characters effectively add to the suspense, and they’re completely unaware of it. I complained about these types of scene-stealers in my review of “Longlegs” a few weeks back, but this movie isn’t as obnoxious about trying to make everyone quirky. Advertisement

The good times don’t last. Eventually the action leaves the arena and goes back to Cooper’s house, complete with wife Rachel (Alison Pill) and son Logan (Lachlan Miller). The perspective even shifts from Cooper to someone else for a little while. The venue change isn’t exactly where things start going downhill for this movie, but it’s soon after.

The real turning point is when Cooper has to drop the façade and start behaving like a stereotypical bad guy. I was digging scared, desperate Cooper, but when he’s The Butcher, he’s neither scary nor interesting.

Then, of course, there’s that interminable ending. Cooper manages to fool the FBI more than once, which is all the FBI should be permitted. The agents are all dumb as bricks. Cooper should have just taken his chances with being questioned at the concert and he probably would have gotten away. He makes some annoying mistakes too, but I can somewhat chalk those up to mental instability.

More problematic than the plausibility of the characters’ decisions is that the timing and energy are all off, like Shyamalan’s inspiration just ran out of gas. I guess he was so dead-set on getting the concert scenes right that he considered everything else expendable.

The pop music of Lady Raven is a good enough metaphor for “Trap.” It isn’t disastrous, like previous efforts from the Shyamalan family. I was relieved when Saleka proved to be a better singer and actress than her nepo-baby credentials would suggest. But at the same time, I couldn’t imagine any of these unmemorable songs becoming major hits. Just like I can’t picture “Trap” being anyone’s favorite thriller or Shyamalan movie. Here’s hoping you can easily get out of the theater.

Grade: C- “Trap” is rated PG-13 for some violent content and brief strong language. Its running time is 105 minutes.

Contact Bob Garver at [email protected].

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COMMENTS

Aftersun movie review & film summary (2022)
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Review: 'Aftersun,' one of the year's great debut films, is a piercing father-daughter story. Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal in the movie "Aftersun.". Something odd happened to me during ...
Aftersun
Aftersun - Metacritic. Summary Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between miniDV footage as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't. Drama. Directed By: Charlotte Wells.
Aftersun (2022)
After getting home, reading many critics' reviews, I began to see the film through such new eyes that i suddenly made sense of its plotline and meaning that went way beyond what any critic was saying.
'Aftersun' Review: A Father, a Daughter, and Things Left Unsaid
A handful of life lessons from the father and everyday bits of inquisitiveness from the daughter, whose questions are proof that she's old enough now to start thinking seriously about the world ...
Paul Mescal in 'Aftersun' Cannes Review
May 21, 2022 4:30am. Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal in Charlotte Wells' 'Aftersun' Courtesy of Charlotte Wells. Charlotte Wells' sharp and tender Aftersun is the rare father-and-child drama that ...
'Aftersun' Netflix Paul Mescal Movie Review: Stream It or Skip It?
Stream It Or Skip It: 'Aftersun' on Netflix, a Pensive, Moving Father-Daughter Drama From Gifted Filmmaker Charlotte Wells. By John Serba. Published June 22, 2024, 7:30 a.m. ET. Aftersun (now ...
'Aftersun' Review
10 10. Charlotte Wells' Aftersun is an outstanding debut that will linger in our memories for time eternal. Pros. Both Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio never miss a single beat, capturing a complex ...
Aftersun review: a tender, heart-wrenching memory piece
Aftersun review: a tender, heart-wrenching memory piece. "Anchored by a stunning lead performance from Paul Mescal, Aftersun is one of the year's most moving and unique movies.". Charlotte ...
Aftersun
Aftersun Review. In the late 1990s, 30-year-old single father Calum (Mescal) takes his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Corio) to a Turkish holiday resort for a rare trip together. Years later, an ...
Aftersun
Aftersun. Aftersun is a 2022 semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Charlotte Wells in her feature directorial debut. Starring Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, and Celia Rowlson-Hall, the film is loosely based on Wells' childhood and follows an 11-year-old Scottish girl on holiday with her father at a Turkish resort ...
Aftersun Movie Review
Nostalgic drama studies depression; smoking, some language. Read Common Sense Media's Aftersun review, age rating, and parents guide.
'Aftersun' is a masterpiece of memory
Aftersun is one of the greatest depictions of depression and grief captured on film as it meditates on childhood, parenthood, and memory. Beautifully wrought with cinematography and score that play like a memory on loop. As the movie comes to its stunningly satisfying and emotional conclusion—perhaps one of the greatest final moments of a ...
Aftersun Summary and Synopsis
Aftersun is the directorial debut of Charlotte Wells, a drama that acts as an autobiography. Switching between past and present, the film focuses on Sophie (Frankie Corio) and adult Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) and her time with her loving father, Calm (Paul Mescal). Sophie reflects on this last major holiday at a vacation resort in its twilight years and examines her relationship with her ...
Alien: Romulus
The first Alien movie made waves as a terrifying sci-fi horror that also deftly handled class, gender, and introduced one of the defining movie monsters of our time in the Xenomorph.
'Skincare' review: Movie applies generous amount of ...
After 20 years of niche girlbossing as a West Hollywood aesthetician to the famous and wannabe-famous, Hope is banking everything on a launch of her own line of products; she's even landed a ...
Seven Months After Actor's Suicide, One of Lee Sun-kyun's Final Movies
In a bittersweet announcement for cinema enthusiasts, one of the final performances of the late South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun is set to grace American screens this fall. The psychological thriller Sleep, directed by Jason Yu in his feature debut, is slated for a Sept. 27, 2024, release in US theaters and on digital platforms, courtesy of Magnet Releasing.
Stepmom Knows Best! (Video 2024)
Stepmom Knows Best!: Directed by Dan Anatomik, Rhiannon Anatomik, Ricky Greenwood, Siouxsie Q, Michael Vegas. With Siri Dahl, Sophia Locke, Lauren Phillips, Cory Chase.
'Back to the Future': You built a musical out of a DeLorean?
Great Scott! It's yet another movie-to-musical stage adaptation! This one, "Back to the Future: The Musical," has proven a hit in London, where it beat out "Frozen" and "Moulin Rouge ...
Movie Review: 'Trap'
You are able to gift 5 more articles this month. Anyone can access the link you share with no account required. Learn more. With "Trap," writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has given us a half ...

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‘Aftersun’ Review: Paul Mescal’s Charisma Powers a Summer Vacation Portrait That Isn’t as Sunny as It Seems

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Reviewed at British Film Institute, London, May 11, 2022. (In Cannes Film Festival — Critics' Week.) Running time: 101 MIN.

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