Editorial review · Published 14 February 2024
Spoiler-free review
Aftersun
2022 drama written and directed by Charlotte Wells, with Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio in the lead roles.
Aftersun understands that memory rarely returns as a tidy story. Charlotte Wells lets a camcorder frame, a held pause and a parent’s determined cheerfulness gather meaning slowly. The result is not a puzzle to be solved but a recollection whose ordinary holiday details feel newly charged each time they recur.
Wells’ restraint gives the film its room to breathe. Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio make the relationship feel intimate without forcing it into explanation: a glance can be affectionate, distracted or both. Their scenes carry the uneven rhythm of shared time, where small negotiations and jokes sit beside feelings a child cannot yet name. This is editorial interpretation, but the film’s emotional force seems rooted in that refusal to turn every moment into a signpost.
The review notices how looking back changes the texture of what was once simply present. It is attentive to the ethics of hindsight, to holiday performance, and to the gap between a daughter’s perception then and an adult daughter’s recollection now.
