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Aftersun (2022)
This film was on my radar after Paul Mescal's Oscar Nomination for his lead work. Looking into this film it's a debut project from a first time female director/writer and promoted and launched by A24. A24 has somewhat of a mixed track record with me and coming of age films as they can be fatiguing and redundant. Aftersun is not bad...it's actually pretty good.
The big thing that this film/story has is a mood/vibe. We're getting a story of a young father on Holiday with his per-pubescent daughter. The daughter is about to turn 12 and we're seeing her come to terms with certain realities of her flawed but well meaning father. The story takes place in the later 90's mostly to keep cell phones out of the story and to focus on the directors autobiographical feelings of this film.
The film is focused on tackling several major themes and once again we're dealing with the sexualization of chidren. I will credit the filmmaker for treating it with sensitivity but the film has sort of a weird horror tease...a great sense of forboding when the shoe is going to drop and something bad is going to happen.
WARNING: spoilers below
But then nothing happens and we find out she grew up to be a lesbian. And that's kinda my problem with a story like this in that it's very nebulous and leaves us with a sense of the banal. The film ends up just being a character study and then it ends.
Visually it's a solid film, it doesn't feel elevated past student film but it's also shot well enough that it's not a distraction. The biggest criticism that I would have is that it really feels low budget at times. Most of these direct to streaming site films are 4 actors in a place this is really just the 2. You also don't really get that it's a period piece with music choices that are all over the place. But these are quibbles...it's a strong film and good nom.
B+