Daily Movie Rec 7/24/2023

Aftersun (2022)

"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 bones don't work? They're just tired and everything is tired. Like you're sinking."

Directed by: Charlotte Wells

Cinematography by: Gregory Oke

Country: United Kingdom/United States

Genre: Drama

Plot:

A young divorcee struggling with financial hardships and depression takes his 11-year-old daughter on holiday to a Turkish resort where he tries to keep two sides of himself separate.

Reasons to watch:

Though these sorts of slice-of-life coming-of-age dramas are a dime-a-dozen these days, Charlotte Wells's feature debut, Aftersun, sticks out from the pack thanks to the tender and resonant performances from its two leads: Paul Mescal (who would earn an Oscar nomination) and Frankie Corio. The film's themes are subtle and freckled with subtext, but the images are evocative enough to saturate one's skin. A memorable intermingling of innocence and melancholy, sweetness and solemnity, and a meditation on the ephemeral nature of memories, refracted through emotion, fractured in truth.

Where to watch:

Paramount+/SHOWTIME