This emotional exploration of the father figure, of melancholy and our memory when facing memories, sometimes disguised, should not go unnoticed.
‘Aftersun’ is one of those auteur films that excites the bulk of the specialized critics but does not find a decent spot on the billboard, so it is advisable to go to the box office as soon as possible to see it on the big screen, avoiding the obvious possibility that fall out of the offer in theaters, from one week to the next, before more commercial titles with media support at the hit of a checkbook. Fortunately, this type of cinema has a second life, generally much longer, on streaming platforms such as Filmin, but tasting it on the traditional exhibition circuit allows independent production and distribution to breathe better.
Coexisting with the extreme presence of ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’, which has taken 85% of the collection in its first weekend with an insulting number of copies, the debut film by Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells resists on its own merits , an emotional proposal, winner of awards at various festivals, that plays with the memory and sensations of our childhood, using various formats in the image -the retro texture of VHS video- and jumps in time -fleeing from the obvious-, with a seductive visual narrative, to create a sentimental map that reflects on the father figure, lived and invented memories.
The protagonist of ‘Aftersun’ recalls, without eluding her imagination, the vacation she shared with her father twenty years ago, two decades that go a long way in the head of a found soul. The father she thinks she knew collides with the man who may never have shown himself as he really is. The affable and smiling man, played by Paul Mescal, seen in ‘Normal People’, opposite the enigmatic and broken father. Celia Rowlson-Hall (‘Prom Night’) plays the protagonist in adulthood -Frankie Corio when she is eleven years old-, a woman who moves between happiness and sadness. What we see in much of the footage is associated with joy, but the veneer of melancholy hides existential anguish, a sweet with a bitter taste. A complex portrait, and therefore interesting, full of nuances, which invites the viewer to reflect with overwhelming beauty. A striking, revealing debut that deserves to be on the lists of the year but has committed the sin of opening for these payments in late December.
#Aftersun #imaginary #memories