Poignant and anchored by Mescal and Corio’s terrific performances, Aftersun is an outstanding debut from Charlotte Wells that quickly confirms her directing talents.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 25, 2024

Its striking imagery evokes both the power of memory and its obscurities through the ingenious use of analog video and purposeful audio/visual distortions.

Full Review | Feb 13, 2024

Aftersun is a sad and beautiful exploration of grief, of Sophie's struggle to reconcile complex and conflicting feelings about her father, and her struggle to forgive his decision, and perhaps to forgive herself.

Full Review | Dec 29, 2023

Charlotte Wells’ stunning debut is a quiet rumination of the lost daughter.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

Charlotte Wells’ picture-perfect debut visually epitomizes the heart-wrenching processes of memory.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

Director Charlotte Wells gives us one of the most piercing debuts in recent memory with this intimate dad-daughter relationship drama.

Full Review | Sep 12, 2023

Shimmering like a mirage that retreats and dematerializes the closer one gets, Aftersun may just be the best movie of 2022.

Full Review | Jul 27, 2023

Aftersun is so interesting in the way it explores the reality of parents that they keep their children in the dark about.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Aftersun is left open-ended, and that’s a perfect conclusion to this portrait of a father and daughter relationship. It speaks to the inability of a child to truly understand their parents, no matter how valiantly they try.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

'Aftersun' depicts an unvarnished portrait of a young man grappling with responsibilities, struggling to hold on to his own life while willingly shouldering responsibility of another.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2023

Aftersun is a tour de force for its two leads, a phenomenal child performance from Frankie Corio with Paul Mescal cementing himself as one of the best actors of his generation and showcasing incredible range

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 19, 2023

In addition, there’s a dark side to all of this; you begin to remember the darkest of memories – the ones you try to avoid...

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 19, 2023

The Scottish director is not only beautifully attuned to the most minor nuances of human sensitivities, but also capable of translating this natural inclination through a refined command over form.

Full Review | Original Score: 5 | Apr 25, 2023

Without being an overtly dramatic or narrative lesson, Aftersun sticks a finger into the wound and digs into the most intimate to devastating effect. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Apr 4, 2023

The film is small, discreet, intimate, a little coy—at times, a bit self-involved and inward-turning. The somewhat self-conscious insistence on the lack of great drama can be tedious at times.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2023

The easy pace of Wells’s direction brings out the best in her central performers, and the chemistry between Mescal and Corio plays out effortlessly. The light moments between them are warm and the darker ones linger heavily.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 21, 2023

A quiet, emotionally unmooring portrait of father and daughter in moments of blissful silliness and small confessions... it’s a devastatingly honest rendition of the aftershocks of a parent’s love when we realise, too late, the simple joys we shared.

Full Review | Original Score: 5 | Mar 20, 2023

Wells shows how interactions that were solid within their own moment become more ambiguous as time has gone by and the adult understanding of Sophie has grown.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 17, 2023

Charlotte Wells’s self-assured debut takes pains to be specific to its time and place.

Full Review | Mar 16, 2023

A subtlety—a nuanced exposition of storylines that might have easily been too simplified—that one doesn’t often find in larger films, particularly American ones...

Full Review | Mar 16, 2023