Film

Aftersun

Name: Aftersun
Genre: Drama
Released: 2022
Cast: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Brooklyn Toulson, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Sally Messham

Family drama
Slow-burning

A daughter remembers a holiday with her father two decades past, watching home video footage and filling in the silences with what she couldn't see then. Tender and haunting, *Aftersun* finds the unbearable smallness of parental damage—not dramatic rupture but the quiet things a child misses. For anyone who's had to revise their understanding of someone they loved.

TMDb rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love quiet films that build their emotion from small gestures, half-heard songs and the ache of memory, and you don't mind doing some of the feeling yourself.

Skip it if you want a clear plot, sharp dialogue or things to happen; very little is spelled out, and the pace stays gentle and drifting throughout.

What it asks of you: Roughly a hundred minutes of patience with unhurried scenes, long pauses and fragmentary home-video glimpses, with attention rewarded more than effort is asked.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Manchester by the Sea2016

A man returns to his hometown to care for his nephew, and the film excavates his grief through small gestures and unsaid things. Like *Aftersun*, it trusts you to feel what lives in the spaces between words.

But Deliberately slow and bleak. If you need plot momentum or catharsis, this will feel like watching someone stare at a wall for two hours.

C'mon C'mon2021

A journalist spends time with his nephew across America; shot in black-and-white, it's a meditation on connection, time, and what we owe the young people we love. Quietly wise without being sentimental.

But Plotless and conversational. The emotional payoff is internal; if you want external action or resolution, you'll be frustrated.

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a man's life exploring identity, touch, and the people who shape us without always understanding how. It moves the same way *Aftersun* does—through mood and unguarded moments rather than exposition.

But Fragments of narrative can feel abstract. Some viewers find the elliptical structure distant rather than intimate.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Aftersun

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Still Walking2008

Both films understand that the deepest ruptures in families happen in stillness, not in screaming—in what isn't said while washing dishes, eating a meal, watching the world together.

A Japanese family gathers for a memorial; almost nothing happens, and everything matters. Koreeda watches how love and resentment live in the same breath, how the past sits at the dinner table uninvited.

But Requires patience with silence and the everyday. Subtitled, deeply understated; it will feel like nothing to those who need plot.

A Ghost Story2017

A meditation on time, presence, and what we leave behind told through the simplest visual language possible. It captures the same ache—the unbridgeable distance between what we see and what was really happening.

But Deliberately strange and slow. The ghost is literally a sheet; if the premise feels too precious, the whole thing will lose you.

Paterson2016

A bus driver in New Jersey writes poetry and observes small moments. Jarmusch's film is about the poetry hiding inside ordinary days—the kind of thing *Aftersun* understands so well.

But Nothing happens. There's no conflict, no plot arc. It's a film about noticing, which some people find boring.

Waves2019

A family fractures after tragedy, and the film braids together pride, love, and the damage parents inflict on children they're trying to protect. Formally ambitious and emotionally raw.

But The tonal shifts are bold and not always seamless. Some find the second half sentimental after the first half's brutality.

The Florida Project2017

Childhood glimpsed through the eyes of a girl living in a motel, her mother struggling invisibly. It understands how children and adults live in separate realities of the same moment.

But No safety net appears. The poverty is lived-in, not tidied; it can feel too raw if you're seeking uplift.

First Reformed2018

A pastor's crisis of faith becomes a portrait of isolation and the weight of witnessing suffering. Deeply strange and austere, it captures spiritual vertigo—the feeling of standing alone.

But Austere bordering on punishing. Schrader's style is glacial; warmth appears only in moments, which some find withholding.

Boyhood2014

Shot over twelve years with the same actors aging in real time, it's a portrait of growing up. Like *Aftersun*, it trusts that small moments—conversations, dinners, car rides—are where life happens.

But Three hours of deliberately minor events. If you're looking for dramatic shape or arc, the formlessness of real life might feel like a waste of time.

Before Sunrise1995

Both believe that the real story lives in unguarded moments and small revelations—the camera stays close to faces because that's where the truth is.

Two strangers meet on a train and walk through Vienna talking. Linklater captures the strange intimacy of conversation with a stranger—the way we reveal ourselves in small, unguarded moments to people we'll never see again.

But Entirely dialogue-driven. If you need visual spectacle or plot incident, ninety minutes of two people talking will seem insufferable.

Yi Yi2000

Like *Aftersun*, it understands that we're always standing at a distance from the people we love most, seeing only a fraction of their inner lives, always revising what we thought we knew.

A Taiwanese family navigates love, marriage, mortality, and disappointment across generations. Edward Yang's film sees everyone at once—parents blind to their children's depths, children unable to see their parents' wounds. Profound and funny.

But Three hours and Mandarin with subtitles. The structure is mosaic, not linear; some find it exhausting rather than enlightening.