Happy and cherished memories are formed, yet problems such as depression, alcoholism, and doubt surface as well. I think the 'disco shards' of memory that intervene in the film at times are adult Sophie's ongoing bombardments of puzzle pieces about her heritage - her parents' relationship that brought her into existence and what they were like .

Written and directed by Sophie Wells, AFTERSUN tells the story of Sophie (Frankie Corio) reflecting on a summer holiday with her father (Calum, played by Paul Mescal) 20 years before. It is told through a woman remembering a vacation with her father, and how she realizes that she never really knew him.

Glimpses of the adult Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall), wistfully looking back at the trip and haunted by visions of Calum dancing in a strobe-lit nightclub, further muddy the waters, hinting at the tension between real and imagined memories. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 95 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". I believe he drank more at the end because as her departure grew close so did his intended plan to let the ocean take him away and he was drowning his sadness at leaving his daughter's world as he'd already decided to do. At the same time his daughter, getting older and wiser, starts to explore the world of adolescence while on holiday where she also begins to notice her father's vulnerabilities.

Secondly, kudos for Charlotte Wells as she cleverly registers emotions though it is never explained in dialogues. I saw someone suggest that after you watch it your mind will go back to little moments and re-evaluate their significance, and it will. Calum’s own dancing is a source of acute embarrassment for Sophie, and there’s a tender moment where she covers her sleeping father with a sheet. given that at least one parent was capable of sheltering her from the full truth of his (suicidal) intentions. In doing so, it explores the subjects of memory, parent-child relationships, mental and emotional well-being, and the various senses of loss we all experience over time, topics that the protagonist's youthful counterpart may not have fully understood at the time but that her adult self now does.What's more, this offering's camera work - aimed at simulating glorified home movies, a fitting approach for telling this story - is packed with innocuous material. It's a sensitive film and one that leaves you enthralled and attached to the characters on a deeply human level even if that dramatic colonel doesn't pop the way you might except. e., they couldn't have been taped, but instead are either from adult Sophie's imagined scenes as to how some of her father's actions played out after she boarded the plane or from just the third-person narration stance that the film did often incorporate.

It's telling you what is going on, but like most people in the real world, we just hear a banging song and nod our head to it.For example, on first viewing one wouldn't know the dark-haired woman dancing is the the adult Sophie, whose memories of a holiday with her father 22 years earlier make up the narrative. I also believe that his saying "I love you" to Sophie's mom, that made her confused and curious could well have happened if, say, their marriage had ended because of his depression but there was still caring and love.

As for Calum, his outward calm seems to cover demons of denial; a trancey energy that threatens to break through the placid surface of his current life, dragging him back into a more chaotic – or euphoric – existence ( Moonlightdirector and Aftersun co-producer Barry Jenkins describes Calum as “wading through wells of quiet anguish”).When she's locked out of their hotel room Sophie coolly sleeps in the lobby, then tries to assuage Colum's guilt. The film meanders through Sophie's memories without really going anywhere and eventually ends with an abrupt and unsatisfying resolution. She is shown to be reflecting on the trip to Turkey with her father, by prying through the video camera footage and her own memories, seeking to understand what happened to her father.