Back in July my daughter and I attended Fan Expo for three days. It was just her and myself all of those days and we were enjoying everything the show had to offer. During that time I was wondering when she will stop going to thesse events with me. Would this be the last year that and will she think going to comic conventions are not cool anymore. What will she remember about going to these events with me when she is an adult and a parent.
Aftersun is a fly-on-the-way look at a relationship between a father and his daughter. Sophie and her father Callum are on Holiday while she is out of school for the summer. We never are told what the relationship between Callum and Sophie’s mother is. The movie does not really give us much backstory on these characters. The movie starts off with Sophie recording Callum dancing and next fastfowards to them on a bus.
There is really no plot to this movie. It just follows Callum and Sophie on their many adventures during their holiday. One moment we see them swimming at the hotel pool and the next they are eating dinner. The relationship between the two is sweet because they tease each other and have inside jokes. Callum embarasses Spphie with his dancing while she tells him the kids at the hotel are “kids” and she can not hang out with them. This peek at parenthood is great to see because there is no right or wrong to what Callum is doing.
The beauty about Aftersun and what struck me was the openess between the two. There is a moment when she tells Callum about a boy she kissed. He tells her to never be afraid of telling him these things. He wants to know everything about her. This moment hit me hard because I have had conversations like this with my daughter. I want her to feel safe talking to me about anything.
Charlotte Wells beautifully captures the relationship between Callum and Sophie and the dialogue is sharp. Through their video we see how the moments together not only form their relationbship but also help instill the memories of their time together. Aftersun brings up a great question of not how your kids will remember you but what will they remember about you.
Aftersun played during the Chicago International Film Festival as part of the Women in Cinema program.
Final Thoughts: Aftersun is a beautiful look into the relationship between a father and his daughter. The movie is more like a fly-on-the-wall look at the two on vacation and watching the interaction between them. The movie makes you think about the memories you are leaving with your children and how they will remember you.
Kid-Friendly: The movie is very kid-friendly in the fact that there is no violence at all in the movie. You do see the backside of a naked man but there is nothing dirty at all in the movie. While this movie is about a father and daughter the pacing of it might be too slow for kids to sit through the entire thing. There are some scenes of teens drinking.
Violence: There is no violence in the movie
At a fading vacation resort, 11-year-old Sophie treasures rare times together with her loving and idealistic father, Calum (Paul Mescal). As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye Calum struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie’s tender recollections of their last holiday become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t, in Charlotte Wells’ superb and searingly emotional debut film.