Why Aftersun is a Masterpiece | *Spoilers*
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ส.ค. 2024
- AFTERSUN ENDING EXPLAINED
0:00 Intro
0:55 Calum’s Mental Health
2:41 Age / Split Realities
6:17 Let me care for you
10:14 Soundtrack
12:12 The Rave & The Ending
17:05 bye
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This film had me near tears, but my gf absolutely hated it. Way too slow for her and with a weak plot. One thing I think you may have missed is that Callum DID buy that expensive rug. The shopkeeper gives him a receipt and you can see older Sophie has it in her apartment in the present timeline. She mentions in the karaoke scene that he keeps offering to buy her things even though he can't afford it and I feel like the purchase of that rug just before they leave Turkey was a subtle sign that he was going to kill himself after. Making a big lavish purchase with no consideration for his financial state just so he could give Sophie a gift to remember that holiday 😢
I read somewhere that after Sophie leaves, he stays. So a lot of the moments where it is just him(standing arms open, walking in front of the bus, the sobs and buying the rug) is him by himself staying on the island. So he never left, he committed suicide
Damn
Oh wow, you guys are good observers! saw the movie, loved it, though I couldn't get my head around some of the scenes you guys completely understood the meaning of. Damn
@@niallh4194 Yes, that felt very clear to me--the way Wells moves through time in this is masterful. This is why I interpret the ocean scene as not what he did the night she had to be let in the room and cover his body but as the actual night he killed himself.
Also the scene where we learn that she has the rug as an adult is when she wakes in bed. Her female partner asks if everything is ok. She says yes and we see her feet sliding down to rest on the rug. Her father had told her she could be anything she wanted to be, and in regard to her sexuality that is what she did. It's tempting to think that sexuality was at least one of the things he was struggling with, that he couldn't be, and there are several clues scattered through the film to support that.
i think it's made clear that sophie is also susceptible to depression when she describes to her father how sometimes after a great day she just feels so down. and he even looks up in horror, knowing that he probably passes his condition down to her.
Yes! Thought that too
I also think that panic on his face could be fear that Sophie sees through his facade of happiness and understand that he is incredibly depressed by describing those feelings of depression
That was the most powerful part of the movie for me
It's not really that the condition is passed down just the way of dealing with everyday life is passed down to children. They learn certain types of behaviour from parents not knowing the reason or even a sense of this behaviour.
I thought the same and it depression is hereditary
The scene where we see him break apart and cry his heart out, all alone, away from Sophie, is devastating, because it means he tried his absolute best to shield her from his pain. Also, the tai chi breaks my heart because I think it means he wasn’t just letting himself go, he was trying whatever might work to pull himself out of depression. What a brilliant piece of cinema I just watched.
Plus the shot of the meditation and tai chi books
Totally 😢 He was really trying! Depression is the worst.
I can relate…
I think when she asks 'where did you think you would be at 30 when you were 11' he thought he'd be dead. He's been depressed his whole life and Sophie was probably the only reason he didn't die sooner.
I think it was also a raw question for Callum as being in his depressive state he most likely had many regrets. A question like thay would bring that type of thinking out of him.
I agree and this is also backed up by when he says himself on the boat that he didn’t think he would make it to 30!
i like how the movie made me care for them. like when sophie was with teenagers i was worried like she was my daughter, and when calum went to the ocean i was worried like he was my father. i was so invested in them i could actually see myself in both sides and understand their relationship.
My exact feelings
Same.
if this movie made you cry then i suggest therapy
@@AlistairBalister everyone needs therapy
Same, here
I thought the most powerful moment in the film, not mentioned here, was when Calum was brushing his teeth and Sophie speaks about feeling low, describing the fascets of a depressive episode. Calum spits out the tothpaste over the mirror, obviously distraught with himself that he's passed on these depressive tendencies to his daughter.
Oh, also, I took it that Calum DID buy that rug. We see it in modern day Sophie's apartment - she pus her feet on it as she gets out of bed, which is kind of beautiful. The first and last thing she does every day is connect with her father in this way, through his rug.
The spit on the mirror covering Calum’s face also resembles a blood splatter from a suicide shot.
I felt like there were so many images associated with suicide used with Callum’s character. Him standing on the edge of the balcony arms out as though to jump, his spit on the mirror looking like a blood splat from shooting yourself, him walking into the sea as though to drown, the blood dripping down his arm as though from a cut wrist... they all felt like small hints towards his mental health. Also, from future Sophie’s perspective, as though she is looking for signs that maybe she missed and instead (which of course you cant miss signs at eleven) but instead fixating on these images...
He also dives into the depths to retrieve the goggles and he goes scuba diving without any training. And the injured shoulder and broken arm suggest a (suicidal) recklessness.
There's also a escene where he crosses a street and he doesn't wait a second for the bus that is coming to pass or slow down, he just crosses in front of the bus with(out) thinking
Wow
All the images suggesting suicide gave me major anxiety 😭
They also have a conversation about Cleopatra’s suicide when they’re taking a clay bath.
man, the scene where Callum is crying after Sophie sings him happy birthday is so gutwrenching
That scene is happen after calum back from beach in the night before
@@kazehayaryoji3145 yeah I know but it happens in that order in the film
it looks like he's feeling guilty bc he knows what he's gonna do.
Was that scene before of after he told Sophie she could talk to him about everything in the future (parties, drugs...)?
@@kazehayaryoji3145 oh
My interpretation of the dance scene is what we are seeing is the contrast between Sophie's memory of that last dance with her father, vs her reinterpretation of that dance now looking back with 20 years of hindsight and the knowledge of what he did shortly after.
The dance in her memory is a warm and sweet scene, but upon looking back and viewing the event from Callum's perspective, she can see that for him it's a dark rave where he's maniacally dancing and reaching out in anguish for anything to hold onto, as he fades in and out of life like the strobe lighting around him. In this moment of reflection, she desperately tries to reach out and hold onto him.
I love your comment! Thanks for sharing
I actually have an opposite interpretation of the "Under Pressure" dance scene. In this scene, we intercut between young Sophie hugging and dancing with her father in colorful light and adult Sophie seeing her father dancing all alone in the dark. But I believe that the former version of events didn't actually take place at all. In the past, initially, young Sophie refuses to dance with her father. She says I don't dance. Then we cut to adult Sophie watching her dad dance alone in the dark. And then we cut again to the past scene where young Sophie changes her mind and decides to dance. Now this entire movie is a memory of Adult Sophie. So we can assume in reality, young Sophie didn't dance with her father that night. She didn't hug her father that night. She just stood there smiling and laughing as she watched her dad dance. This is even supported by a brief cut when the director replaces adult Sophie, distressed and crying as she watches her dad dance in the dark with young Sophie, smiling and laughing as she watches her dad dance in the dark. So in reality, young Sophie didn't dance with her father at all. Just stood there and smiled unable to see the pain her dad is going through. And that haunts adult Sophie so deeply that she fantasizes about hugging and dancing with her dad during that night. Even when the young Sophie hugs Calum in that scene, you can see it in her eyes that she is hugging him like this is the last time she will get to hug him. So this scene, this last dance never actually happened. In reality, her dad danced alone while she stood there on the sidelines and watched like how earlier she sang on the stage alone while her dad stood on the sidelines and watched. She got back at him. Her dad fears singing and he will never sing. She fears dancing and she will never dance. So this scene is a wish fulfillment. Something she should have done but didn't. That one last dance that she could've had but never will. That way this scene becomes even more tragic and emotionally devastating.
@@divyanggolani6967 this definitely adds another layer of depth to the scene. when i read your comment, i remembered what sophie said when she asked calum to sing with her, being something along the lines of "we used to do this every year since i was 5", implying that despite calum hating singing, he still did it every year for his daughter until he absolutely could not bring himself to do so anymore. combined with your take, i think it also implies that adult sophie feels guilty when later reflecting on this, realizing that she didn't notice the sacrifices he made for her (perhaps even his own mental wellbeing), and that she never joined him in dancing even when he was at his worst mental state. for her to join him as a form of wish fulfillment makes complete sense and truly makes the sequence even more meaningful.
@@divyanggolani6967 I feel like she actually danced with him, and the fact that she never did before prior to that moment was what made it a core memory to her (replacing the shirt he wore that night with the last one she saw of him in the airport) as it was the happiest moment with him she could remember. A darker take on this is that the Rave room represents the void of depression and now that Sophie has become an adult, she has found herself at that void and can now relate to what he went through . Even as a child, she was able to describe exactly what her father was going through which made him spit on the window, I think he realized that sooner or later she would go through this too (Don't you ever feel like... you've just done a whole amazing day and then you come home and feel tired and down and... it feels like your organs don't work, they're just tired, and everything is tired. Like you're sinking. I don't know, it's weird) I felt like that was foreshadowing that she too would fall into depression as an adult. This is what makes the movie great though, it's so open to different interpretations as your take also made a really perspective as well!
@@divyanggolani6967 This is a beautiful interpretation of the scene and one I can actually relate to.
Sophie rubbing the clay on him kind of broke me - the softness and compassion of children to others, that for some adults they can’t do for themselves, just hit me ❤
@@catie5337 According to the director, it was because the actor didn't like doing sad scenes, so instead, she played it by not getting emotional during that scene. It was an improvised scene.
The karaoke scene made my heart hurt 💔
And when she rubbed the mud on his back the same way he put the sunscreen on her back. It was the part of the movie when she was becoming more self-sufficient. The night when she was hanging out with the teens, had her first kiss, found her way back to the hotel and knew to ask reception for the room key then putting a blanket on her dad while he's sleeping.
It shows her growing up to the point where she felt like she could care for her dad in the same way he showed her care.
Paul Mescal was phenomenal in this film. He definitely deserves an Oscar nomination.
I was thinking the same. And another to the casting person, cause he was the perfect choice for the role.
Paul Mescal is so good at subtlety, it’s easier to do outbursts and anger and breakdowns but it’s a lot more difficult to reveal so much with so little
@@moonpriest8016 if you haven't already, watch Normal People. It's outstanding.
@@drdj2626 I have and he’s so good in it, that therapist scene makes me cry
He got the Oscar nom
the postcard where he tells her he loves her made me sob 😭
the biggest robbery was this not being nominated for best picture and director.
A24 put all of their campaigning chips on EEAAO
True. This film was likely too obscure for mainstream audiences. Which is a shame.
Big advice for you : give up on the Oscars. Let those ignorants be. They don't love cinema. That"s all. I've turned my back on them.
Or Original Screenplay
A scene that really got to me was when Sophie talked about how she felt so tired like her bones didn’t work and realized that’s how Callum must feel all the time
This movie was difficult to watch as someone who's had severe depression and put his family through a lot. The movie felt so personal and real, it was heartbreaking. It's one of the most emotionally resonant movies I've seen.
sending love and blessings, hope everything works out
We wish you all the best, and that you find peace and joy in your life. Take care of yourself ❤️
I spent so much time and effort trying to make 'sense' of this movie, but then "Under Pressure" came on, and I absolutely lost it. 😭😭 That's when I got it; also, realizing I was watching from Young Sophie's perspective the whole time. I can't wait to watch again, from Calum's point of view.
same. after watching this today i didn't feel anything. so i may need to see this all over again to have the same appreciation like everybody else. maybe it's because i'm going through depression which makes me feel distant from other people's problems and struggles.
@@emptylikebox thank you for sharing. keep up the good fight & take rest when you need it. you're worth it :)
@@emptylikebox its a shitty world..but it doesnt mean people are shitty
Even when the song came on I still didn't understood the whole movie but I definitely felt something.
🤡
I initially didn’t understand the significance of the film’s title, but I’ve got a theory now. When the two are laying together by the pool and in the hotel room after a day in the sun they take their aftersun product and apply it on each other. This was one of the only ways Sophie was allowed to help her father with issues that Sophie was also in need of assistance with.
It has many meanings and is left open to interpretation. 1) The aftersun lotion scene you mentioned. 2) Sophie is looking back on a past sunny holiday, literally after-sun. 3) Metaphorically Sophie is trying to reflect on and soothe her emotional damage, similar to aftersun lotion easing burn damage.
I also picked up on the fact that she was revisiting this period of time in her life after she had her own son (a different interpretation and not immediately obvious as its not the same spelling but I thought it was alluded to, especially as in the last scene you can hear her baby making some noises as the scene transitions to the dad walking back into the rave) @@datdude3327
I’ve never had a movie punch me in the face harder. my dad killed himself in February. I was 16, I am now 17. I went into this movie expecting a sweet, fun bonding vacation between a father and daughter. And yes that’s what I got, but I never anticipated him killing himself. which was a bit triggering ngl. this is a masterpiece and I would love to speak with the director
I'm so sorry Morgan. I can see why it would be worth you emailing her . I tried to look up an email for her but can't find one.
@@billyboybarton yo thanks man. I gotta get on that 🤎🫂
I'm sorry for your loss. 🥺
i really hope you're doing well Morgan. I can't even imagine you pain you went through. I wish I could do something about that loss. Stay strong buddy
God bless your father's soul,
I think the karaoke scene is the best, it resembles such a poignant feeling in parent child relationships, when the parent struggles to fully live upto the child's godlike perception of them, so hard to describe in words. That's why this film is so good. It represents feelings you can't simply describe in language. It transcends so many emotions withing child parent relationships. A real masterpiece
You can see in the middle of the song where she went from giddiness to “get this over with” because her father didn’t want to participate. It almost became hard to watch
And such a perfect song for it, too
The Turkish song playing at the dinner scene at the end describes perfectly how Calum's emotional state is. And that goes to show how the soundtrack choice in Aftersun is really thought out. Here is a some verses from the song:
Sormayın neden bu durgunluğum Don't ask me why I'm down
Görmeden kuytu yaralarımı Without seeing my hidden wounds
Sormayın neden bu huysuzluğum Don't ask me why the moodiness
Bilmeden saklı duygularımı Without knowing my hidden emotions
Çok mu dertsiz duruyorum? Am I looking so care-free?
Uzaktan bakınca Looking from afar
Çok mu kalender sandınız? Did you think I'm too unbothered?
Dert anlatmayınca Without speaking a word.
thank you for this!
Wow, thank you so much for these lyrics and translation.
💗
❤❤
I was just checking the comments to see this if it was mentioned by any other Turkish speaker. the song choice in the scene represents the father’s character so much and connects the audience. Such a beautiful movie.
This film broke my heart. It hit so close to home that when I left the cinema I really didn’t know what to do with myself. The pain that Calum feels is pain that I feel right now and have been for the past 2 years at least. I’ve never seen this depicted so accurately and while hard to watch I feel like it was something that I needed to see. Depression, being lost in life, the fear of getting older but also not feeling responsible or mature enough, are all themes this film handles so well. We put our families through so much with what we go through, and sometimes they struggle to understand just how hard it is. Everyone should see this film, it shows the rawness of severe depression, but also how it can be hidden, it may encourage those struggling to reach out to someone or those who see these signs in someone around them to reach out aswell. If you feel like you’re alone and there’s no hope I promise you there is, please reach out ❤
Spot on! important message :)
indeed
I'm from Scotland and was about the same age as Callum at the same time the movie is set and went on holidays like theirs in the late 1990s with my young children. I competely agree with your observations about being that age and struggling with the responsibilities of parenthood but also the huge pull of your previous life before being a father and the pressures that brings to your mental state. Depression is probably too severe a word for my experience but certainly huge mental anguish and the feeling of being utterly lost and not knowing what to do about it. Luckily I'm here now and almost 50 years old and everything worked out okay in the end.
@@JohnnyPaton grat tohear you doing ok mate..kets remeber callum talked about a shitty childhood where nobody remembered his birthday!!! and got his ear pulled for remebering it to others...
Thank you for your comment. Big warm hug from Brazil. 💜
the shot near the end where callum smiles at sophie after they took the picture is where i broke down.. he had so much love on his face but you still feel his sadness. i really relate to that. paul mescal is such a good actor.
I loved when Calum told Sophie that for his eleven birthday he chose a red phone toy as a gift, that could mean how he as a child was desperate of being listen by somebody, to talk to someone who would care about him in some way they parents didn't
Aftersun is so good that video essays about it make me cry wtf
Some might say it's slow, but that's what oddly made it so incredible, you felt like you were on a trip with them.... wonderful acting. Very well done!
I didn't find it slow. I was absorbed into it. A truly amazing film.
It definitely required this pace for the ending to really land.
I agree - the pace was to give you that slow feeling of a holiday. And even the way the late afternoon sun glinted off Sophie's freshly washed hair after a day of swimming reminded of childhood summers.
The slow pace and lingering imagery made it feel memory-like. Such a powerful film.
It was the pacing of the movie , which helped the ending to land more and have an effect on the viewers
I like how this movie feels like a memory. Really amazing and emotional
I just left my screening and I think this was the first movie to ever have me start crying as the credits rolled. I feel like I couldn’t critique this movie because that’s how raw and real it felt. It felt like I was truly watching someone’s memories and how they’re trying to process grief. I’m still crying.
Me too brother, me too hahahah.... What a film
Had the exactly the same realization during the credits, everyone in the room was silent
Beautiful film
i think it's also beautifully said by oscar expert in the video that one of the film's magic is once the credit has rolled and we understand what the movie is actually about, we then think back to the scenes of the movie we just watched and we end up uncovering the truth behind calum's character. in a way, we BECOME adult sophie because we're also looking back and connecting the dots and gaining insight to this person we just spent a whole movie with
This movie depicts the struggle of trying to be ok for your loved ones so perfectly. Cried in front of a bunch of acquaintances in the theatre, hit too close to home
Another scene where Calum is shutting out Sophie from his struggles is when Sophie was literally shut out from their hotel room and she's knocking on the door and Calum won't open the door
yeah right, too drunk but self-aware that his daughter is locked out but reckless enough to lock and sleep bu**t naked without a care in the world.
Was he in the hotel room or was he out in the ocean?
@@jackalcroft3742 he was in the hotel room bc she finds him in the bed laying face down. tho he must have been at the ocean earlier- or perhaps he was simply fantasising about that?
He didn't open the door because he wasn't in the room. She left, maybe to look for him and when she came back later, he had returned. But because of the editing and blurry plot line, we don't know for sure.
One theory I read is that he did not come out of the ocean and the end of the movie is her fantasy of how the holiday ended. There are so many interesting takes.
The ending scene absolutely destroyed me, when Under Pressure is playing. I saw it while on vacation in Vancouver and took the 30-40 minute walk back to my hostel to process the movie, walking across this bridge looking out at Downtown Vancouver all lit up (it was night). It was a beautiful moment for me and this movie will always have a special place in my heart. I want to watch it again but I don't know if I can handle it lol
The best thing about films like this is that it's perfectly acceptable to have differing interpretations. That's what makes it great art!
The coup de grace of the whole film is the very last scene, which represents Sophie looking directly to her father in her memory, not in an airport lounge. Then he evades throughout a door back to her memory. Absolutely fantastic. A masterpiece that keeps you thinking and discovering its nearly endless deepness of meaning.
The film was extremely personal. We were watching the home movie. Sophie was watching the home movie reminiscing about her father, and trying to see the signs of his mental illness that she couldn't see as a child. And Callum is watching the film in the hotel room they shared after she left in the moments before his death. It's like we're experiencing it with them in a deeply personal way.
And the perfect choice of Turkish song while they are having last dinner together…
I could not have predicted in the first half hour that this film would destroy me the way it did. Love your summary and really hope people check this one out.
Just as you said, in the same way Sophie is obssesed with searching for clues in her memories through the tape, I've also been obssesed with searching for clues throughout to try and piece the film together. I've watched this four times now. The fact that a director could make me feel this way makes this film nothing short of a masterpiece.
As kids we can always sense that smth is going on with our parents, this sensation becomes a part of us. As adults haunted by those flashbacks we are trying to comprehend it and to release
The finality of the scene when he’s putting the camcorder down and walking away after Sophie got on the plane killed me
Watched the movie two days ago, haven't stop sobbing yet. And I am a 58 yo woman who've seen a lot
@@rossellabor watched it over 5 months ago and still think about it.
Not that I care about the Oscars, but how the Hell does Aftersun not get nominated for Best Picture over Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water? This was a beautiful work of art that needs more than one viewing to truly appreciate the depth of feeling and visual mastery in the narrative.
It was better than the boring The Fabelmans
I am a big fan of steven spielberg, but yeah. This film is far better than the fabelmans
As somebody who has struggled with mental issues like depression and panic disorder for a long time now and who just became a father not even a year ago… this movie hit me hard. I balled for like 20 mins after just imagining putting my son in Sophie’s position. This movie was definitely an absolute masterpiece.
Wishing you a soon happy end to that battle man.
I think the rave scene is sophies imagination of what the real side of her dad was (the one that she never got to see..) her hugging him shows us that she would’ve liked to be there on the bad moments as well to comfort him and make him feel better and ultimately prevent him from taking his own life..
this movie hit hard.
i cried so much watching this movie and now i'm crying again just by watching this review... wow, it destroyed me in the most beautiful way
As someone who had a physically and emotionally abusive father, this movie felt like a knife going through my chest, I cried like a baby. I'm 19 and soon will move out of my house to go to uni. My past traumatic memories seem like those cam videos Sophie filmed, blurry and confused, not much information. I can basically only remember how much pain and fear I felt, just like Sophie can come back to those heartwarming, childhood feelings while watching those videos as an adult. I now know that all my father did was because of mental illness and trauma, I see he regrets now what he has done to me and my mom. Sometimes I wish that we "could give ourselves one more chance"... but it's not possible. Sometimes I think that it will never be. Watching Aftersun made me come back to those blurry, bad memories and see on screen those I never created, never had. But I know with all my heart I'll give my future daughter/son what I didn't get
I'm in the exact same situation as you are. I felt bad for it, but for the first half hour I was secretly jealous of Sophie for having such a seemingly good bond with her dad
I watched this movie today on Christmas Eve with my mom. I’m 37 as of December 3rd and I cried at the end of this movie. It’s a very realistic movie with a very relatable subject because my dad committed suicide only 3 years ago. So this movie just kinda shook me emotionally and it was a completely random movie pick. I literally started the movie because of the a24 tag and left with some weight on my shoulders.
I lost my dad because of depression, he committed s*icide a year ago. It was really painful even tho we didn't have the closest relationship, but after watching aftersun I couldn't stop thinking about my sister, who is 30 now and had an amazing relationship with my dad 29 years of her life, they had father-daughter trips and they were so close, I couldn't stop crying because one I miss my dad and what happened to him is heartbreaking but also 2 because I can't imagine how my sister feels, the pain, the struggle, the memories together, I love her so much. I hope she never sees this movie, she would be devastated.
I think also the reference to him getting his injury because he ‘fell’ (according to Sophie) and him being stood in the balcony railings, looking as if to jump foreshadows the fact that he did, more than likely commit suicide at the end
Paul Mescal deserves so much for this performance, and going under the radar especially is Frankie Corio. I had no words to explain their performance until one video said it's so "natural" they forgot it was a scripted movie. Natural explains my exact thoughts. My goodness this film is such an underappreciated masterpiece. A work of art! I hope more people watch this. Just... natural.
I could spend a good deal of time just studying Calum’s facial expressions/body language when he’s at the “rave” at the end-is he falling asleep? Drunk? Dying (to symbolize the suicide perhaps)?
I spent nearly the whole runtime of this movie not “getting” it until the final sequence caught me. Analyses like this are really making me notice and appreciate all the deliberate choices-dialogue, shot composition, etc.-that led up to the ending.
Also, Paul Mescal is, to me, the most fascinating young actor working today for his soul-bearing performances (between this and Normal People) and I hope he gets some Oscar consideration for this.
The happy birthday scene with the next crying ugly scene is one of the best mi utes of cimena in the last years. Absolutly amazing film
My husband and I saw this in an empty art house theater as holiday revelers skated and shopped outside at a winter market. I was mesmerized by the beauty and melancholy of the film. It was a flickering scrapbook of memory. Like seeing inside someone’s mind. I left the theater in tears trying really hard not to sob uncontrollably. We exited into the light, into a flutter of happy folk dressed in holiday garb. I was wiping my eyes, they were laughing and singing. It made this film all the more poignant. Stunning film.
I’m so glad I found this video. I saw Aftersun last weekend and haven’t been able to talk about it as no one I know has seen it. It was such a powerful film that took me days to process. I left the cinema and sat in my car crying for a while. It hit me so, so hard. The performances by Paul and Frankie were outstanding. I felt everything they felt from both perspectives. Watching this video really helped me process it further so thank you.
I felt exactly like you.
I never comment on anything, but since i've seen this movie I feel like there's something stuck that i can't express right. I'm 17 years old, im finishing school and life is feeling like a beginning and kind of lost at the same time. My sister is 14 and going throught a rought time, only trusting on me her suicide and self destructive thoghts and i just don't quite know what to do. There's just this constant feeling that the moments im having now with her might be the last. I'm evoiting thinking about it since the beggining of the year. Then i went to the movies to watch this new good looking poster movie without even reading a sinopses. I've never cried this much, i couldn't stop crying until i got home. This movie is all of it.
I know nobody is going to read it, and i know this isn't the best place to write it, but it feels good to get it out of me.
im not a native speaker so sorry about my english.
I’m happy you got your thoughts out and shared this I don’t know how many people will read it but I’m definitely glad I did!! I really connected with this movie and to see someone else connect with it so much is great. So thank you for sharing I really appreciate you doing so and I wish the best for you and your sister
so proud of you for opening up and putting all these feelings into words. just stumbled over your comment and just wanted to let you know how brave i think this is
I've never been so affected by a film in my life. cried for hours after and still think about it today. its just so devastating and beautiful and complex
This movie is quietly brilliant; you either love it unconditionally or hate it.
3 days in and I still can't stop thinking about this movie. Left me speechless.
Will Mescal win an Oscar for this? I am scared to watch this because Mescal wrecked me in Normal People. I can’t imagine what and how this would effect me? However, I have become a huge fan of Paul Mescal and see his future as VERY SUCCESSFUL. He is so good.
This!!! I echo this wholeheartedly, I still hold the weight of normal people in my mind my god. My sister said she watched this last week and (we don't have a great relationship with our dad) she said it was absolutely crushing. She said she cried for 2 days it just kept coming back to her and she kept thinking about dad. She advised me to call dad and have a chat beforehand so it doesn't make me feel as sad as her so.. god knows whether we should watch it haha. Maybe wait for a really positive mental health day, I'm waiting for normal people to wear off before I even attempt it.
I thought the water symbolised adulthood and the unknown. Sophie remarks "I'm not a good swimmer/diver," and she's only just turned 11. Calum probably only becomes 30, and while he feels more comfortable in the water, he can't reach the diving goggles. Lots of coming-of-age moments for Sophie are near or in the pool. The kiss with Michael, seeing other people kiss, the view from under the water as she is figuratively submerging in the adult world...
Also, swimming is just something you learn with age. You take swimming lessons as a kid, never really unlearn it, and are usually getting better and better.
might be far fetched tho, lmk what you think :)
Couldn't agree more that it's an absolute masterpiece, both on a technical level, with respect to the writing and acting, and on a more fundamental level, the subject level and how the movie transcends not just the genre of a coming of age movie, or the depiction of a father-child relationship, but also the art of cinema itself, because this is honestly the first movie I've ever seen that contextualizes a relationship between two people on such a deep emotional and psychological level, where the child is looking back at the relationship but through wanting to remember the event, in this case the weeklong trip in Turkey with her dad, through thinking about how her father felt at the time, his likely behavior and state of mind even when the child wasn't present (the scene with Calum sobbing alone, easily one of the more impactful single scenes I've ever seen in a film, or when he completes the purchase of the rug and then lies on it), and juxtaposing those memories with the rave scenes that try to capture how adult Sophie would interact with her father if he was still alive today, which for anyone who has lost a relative, makes complete sense in how natural it is for someone who's gone through such loss to recall certain memories shared while also recontextualizing such memories in the sense of what may occur if the since-departed relative was alive and present today.
Definitely gonna try watching it again at some point, and keeping my eyes peeled for whatever project Charlotte Wells involves herself with next, as it's almost hard to overstate how purely impressive and masterful of a debut this was for a first time writer-director
I saw it last night and it stayed with me. I've been the daughter and the father. I've never seen something that made me feel so much raw emotion and connection. It made me remember the time when I started understanding my mom wasn't just my mom, she was a whole entire person. It made want to hug my daughter more and give her as many memories as possible, because one day I'll be gone too and that's all she'll have left of me. It made want to go back in time and record my mom so I didn't forget how she sounded like. My mom didn't commit suicide but she died unexpectedly when I was 15 and no movie has ever expressed that loss like this one. A true masterpiece.
it was a great movie but tbh i wish i didnt had watched it fr this kinda destroyed me, the karaoke scene of "losing my religion" was devastating and idk why but i keep remembering it in my mind. thanks for the review, it was good as always!
My work mate told me about this film and he said "watch it then watch this TH-cam on it and youll enjoy the film even more"
What a film, have had bad anxiety/depression myself and much of this film is very relatable.
I watched this movie yesterday and I'm still crying.
watched the movie and cried unstoppaby and saw this video and kept crying unstoppably
what part did you cry? just curious because i couldn't feel the same way. i just want to know so i can go back and see it differently.
@@emptylikebox hmm. i think it has to do with connecting with that feeling of loss and the whole climax of the end sequence. realizing that what you have been watching are haunting bittersweet memories from an already-decided tragedy that can't be reconciled makes you feel like sophie. the relationship has so much love at the core between both people but the conflict of the father having sophie at 20 and him feeling lost and defeated with life feels so inevitable and tragic. i have some experience with depression, and it can be such an unstoppable force because of how those who struggle with it tend to bottle it up and decide for themselves that they are doomed. as i see sophie's older and younger selves flash back and forth, i can feel the frustration of her wanting to know so much more about her father but having so little to cling to and feeling reverted to a child in her helplessness. i don't know. i need to watch it again. the images' abstractness and the unconventional way the climax played out invited me to connect more with the emotions related to loss and suicide. this movie was such pure art.
Thank you for putting words to how I felt about this film. I walked away from the theater not quite understanding this film but loving everything about it. Now I think Aftersun is actually my favorite film of 2022
Damn bro what a great video, the analysis the interpretation and the wording is all there. I feel like after watching this movie I grasped some of the main ideas but I could never speak for 15 minutes explaining everything like you did. Truly a way of intelligence.
agreed!!! I couldn't figure out some things until he worded them, like us not really having a lot of information about Callum because we only get as much as Sophie had (and he's not very open with her, perhaps with the intention to protecting her)
A brilliant film that needs to be seen twice to truly appreciate it. Devastating and beautiful. How it missed an Oscar nomination for best picture defies all logic.
Awesome review. This film really touched me as well. I was just a year older than Sophie when my mom's depression reached a breaking point. I went to live with my dad after that and my relationship with my mom severely deteriorated until we became permanently estranged. I can relate with so many of Sophie's feelings in the film, and that vague sense of distance before the big horrible thing.
I also particularly loved the cinema photography. My favorite moment is when they are having their last dinner and the camera pans so we can only see the polaroid while they talk. The faintness of the image echoes so well the way that memory feels. But since we are also watching it develop it also mirrors the way that as one gets older these confusing traumatic memories become more clear.
I'd like to share my take on that polaroid scene. I hope there's something here you can take from it.
Sophie asks why couldn't they stay there longer, but the shot just stays on this undeveloped polaroid for the entire scene.
On one level, it's a metaphor for their relationship, this is as far as it'd develop. On another level, it's a metaphor for her memory of Calum slipping away. All she could remember in this scene is the content of the conversation. Everything else is becoming hazy like this polaroid.
Really great analysis!
i watched this movie earlier today and really loved it. I was crying almost non stop through out the second half. And now, watching this video a few hour later, I again cannot stop crying. It's amazing to me how some people don't feel it and think this movie is boring. I literally couldn't care less about the plot, I wasn't even too sure if he actually killed himself because i was so invested in just feeling their pain. I also think that the child's grieve is something so important. We never talk about it, just supposing that the children are completely oblivious (i even read one review that said that about sophie) but they're not. She is reaching out to her dad, she knows, maybe she doesn't funny understand, but she's there with her arms open.
What a beautiful video! Thank you
Never cried during a film analysis /review this is a first. I loved this movie so much at the London film festival. Going to see it again next week.
Watched this last night and was looking for a vid like this after, thank you!
This is amazing. Thanks ❤
i lost my dad when i was 15, and this movie hit too close to home. reviewing the images i have of him in my mind trying to figure out who he really was aside from just being a dad
This explanation was fantastic and opened my eyes up to details I was clueless about. Thank you so much!
Thanks for making me cry again just by watching your review
Your ability to express with words what is going on in motion picture is without peer. I think your reviews are so much better than anyone else on TH-cam including any of the GoldDerby editors whom, I used to think, were all there was when it came to reviewing indies and arthouse. Thank you so much for this. Even the music you had behind you felt right.
Brilliant analysis!
I just watched this movie today and you articulated it all so well. still processing the depth of this movie 🙌
Great analysis. Thank you
Great insights into the movie, thanks a lot!
I just saw this and have barely begun to process it, but you convinced me. Good work.
I cried a lot watching this :( I feel like I should prevent sophie from going back to her mom so that Calum would stay alive, like maybe. Also, Sophie as a kid was really understanding of her father. I like her
they cant stay at the hotel forever :)
thats what sophie said
thank you for your analysis 👍
Excellent analysis, please keep them coming
Such a great review. Nice job man.
Great video! Made me appreciate the film even more!
really beautiful analysis here. great video.
Thanks, you answered all my questions in this review..
Another song in the movie during the last part while they share the ice cream is Gamsız hayat. Means carefree life. When i think through now, it feels pretty spot on!
Great breakdown of this movie. It really brought back the emotions of watching it.
this is such an excellent film, thank you for this
brilliant, detailed analysis of an tremendous film
loved the video!!
Really excellent insight into this beautiful film
great analysis, mate! loved the movie and you brought up points i hadn't even considered. think i love it even more now after hearing some of your takes.
Thank you for this brilliant review and giving us a deeper analysis of this wonderful movie.
this is an incredible analysis. thank you so much for making this video! After finishing this movie it made me cry yet at the same time there were things about it I didn't quite get so this was really helpful.
What an excellent review 👏🏾👏🏾 keep up the good work ⭐
Thank you for this analysis, it is a great summary of all the nuances of this layered film. 💛