About a month or so ago, a famous critic told me that Aftersun was his favorite film of the year and judging by his Letterboxd, it’s not even close. This was just days after I mixed up the date of the press screening at the NYFF and so I would have to wait until the Philadelphia Film Festival to see this film that’s been talked about all year. And I have to say that while going into a film with high expectations can oftentimes make or break a film, Aftersun met and exceeded all expectations. It’s just a stellar film led by wonderful direction from a first-time feature-length director, nuanced lead performances and a final scene that will leave you in shambles. 

Aftersun is a relatively simple film following a father and daughter on a trip during the latter’s childhood. Calum (Paul Mescal) is the father to the young Sophie (Frankie Corio), and the two travel to Turkey for a summer holiday. The film is not focused on some bombastic vacation. Rather, it’s an exploration of a father and daughter who share a touching bond. 

Mescal, who is most known to me as “Phoebe Bridgers’ partner” (lucky man), is stellar as Calum. I now remember him being in The Lost Daughter, which is not a film I particularly enjoyed outside of its performances, and he left a lasting impression there as well. While we don’t get a whole lot of background on Calum or his relationship with his ex-wife and daughter prior to the events of Aftersun, you do know that he’s a loving father. A lot of Mescal’s performance is very subtle and not to be ignored. Watch his face when his daughter wishes him happy birthday or the final scene that I won’t spoil here. Mescal’s phenomenal and I appreciate the fact that Aftersun shows both the good parts and flaws that Calum has as a father.

And Calum’s really not the perfect father. Aftersun is also not to portray other fathers as a juxtaposition to Calum. For example, there’s one father that drags his screaming son out of the hotel waterpark after his child “embarrasses” him. While Calum wouldn’t necessarily do that to Sophie, he can be stern when needed and even left his daughter hanging on the karaoke stage. However, Calum is capable of some good fatherly advice, including the line he says to Sophie about the fact that once you’re an adult, “you can live where you want to, [you can] be anything you want to be.” 

Sophie is still coming-of-age at this point and we’re getting a glimpse of her formative summer. She shares moments with her dad including a karaoke rendition of “Losing my Religion” and laying by the pool, but she also meets a young boy and shares what we assume to be her first kiss and also hangs out with the older, “cool” kids. A lot of these moments are ones that we’ve all had in our younger years, and that’s the beauty of Aftersun.

A lot of the success of Aftersun is due to Corio, who is an absolute gem — congratulations on the Gotham Award nomination. This should serve as her breakout performance and the first of many phenomenal roles. Aftersun is Corio’s acting debut and if that’s the case, what better way to debut? Corio resembles a young Natalie Portman in Léon the Professional — which was Portman’s film debut. I can’t forecast whether or not Corio goes on to have the award-winning career that Portman has had, but Aftersun is a fantastic start on that path.

One of the best scenes Corio has is when Sophie is recording her father and he asks her to stop. Throughout the film, Sophie is periodically videotaping her trip on an old camcorder and there’s a point where she asks about something uber-personal to her father. He requests she put the camera down to which she cheekily replies, “it’s not filming,” though he’s quick to point out the red dot on the camera. For a film that takes place in what I assume is the 1990s, this was the lone scene where Sophie felt like a kid in the 21st century when YouTuber “pranksters” insist to Target employees that they aren’t filming when they clearly are.

But to reemphasize, both performances are nuanced despite how tender and quiet they are. Coming off of seeing The Whale just a couple of days prior, this father-daughter relationship — while inherently different — is far more moving and real. Mescal and Corio have a symbiotic bond that is required for the film to make any lasting impact. From the opening moments that see the two making fun of their travel guide to the way Sophie adamantly insists that she’s not tired despite nearly passing out by the end of her sentence, these moments just feel real. I can’t think of a more authentic father-daughter relationship in a film in recent memory. 

Despite the fact that Aftersun may be Wells’ first feature-length directorial effort, nothing about her work here would suggest that. Tuesday, her previous short film, proved that she’s got a great handle on the coming-of-age genre and that directing comes easy to her. She’s also just got a phenomenal sense of blocking, and while Gregory Oke served as the film’s DP, I’d like to imagine Wells had a hand in it, too. One of the many great shots is when the camera hangs on a polaroid as it develops. As this is happening, Calum and Sophie are speaking, but all we can see is the picture develop much like we’ve seen our two main characters do throughout the film. 

Another strong choice Wells makes is her usage of “Under Pressure.” It’s ironic that I write this on the heels of the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer release because my biggest criticism of the trailer is the usage of Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellowbrick Road.” I do adore the song, but gatekeeping aside, I generally think that the editing of iconic songs in trailers is infuriating. Take Lightyear, for example, which used David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in the trailer. It did that thing where it chops up the song so notes are extended and it hits the beats of the trailer, but it normally butchers a perfectly great song.

In Aftersun, “Under Pressure” is used to, well, visualize the pressure felt by Calum. Throughout the film, there are quick snippets, almost like flashes on a strobe light, that are sprinkled throughout various scenes in the film. It’s hard to clearly make things out, but Calum can eventually be seen. I won’t give away who also becomes clearer as these sequences happen in the film, but the scene eventually becomes set. Add in a shot of Calum floating aimlessly in the ocean and you have a great representation of feeling pressure building. 

Around the middle eight of the song, all of the background music including guitars, pianos and drums are softly drowned out and we only hear the vocals of Bowie and Freddie Mercury. Maybe upon first thinking of the song, you wouldn’t think that the song is that intense — it is, after all, a relatively upbeat song — but there’s something about the isolated vocals that are so intense and this is where Oliver Coates’ very melancholic score is interwoven into “Under Pressure.” To my recollection, this is the first time I’ve seen someone use their score and stitch it with an iconic song. Even if this isn’t the first instance of it, it’s a beautiful touch.

Aftersun isn’t an overly-long film, its runtime is about 96 minutes without credits, but boy does it make the most of that. The final scene puts the icing on the cake of a near-perfect film. There’s a beautifully seamless transition that occurs and leaves one of our main characters alone. The facial expressions of the actor and the lonely walk down a hall and what you get quick glimpses of behind the door all put a neat bow on the film. It left me absolutely shattered, but Aftersun is a film that sticks the landing and closes the book on this chapter of a story.

It may be too hyperbolic to say this, but Aftersun is my favorite film of the year. I’m such a sucker for any film that can take a relationship whether it be familial or friends, just look at my favorite films of the last few years Booksmart, Minari and CODA, and Aftersun joins that class of stellar films. It’s such a tender and authentic portrait of a father and daughter on holiday together that will break your heart as often as it’ll make you smile, and I cannot express how excited I am for the futures of Wells, Mescal and Corio. 

Aftersun had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on May 21 and is in select theaters now.