One of the tricky things about Netflix, and streaming services more generally, is that movies can come to and leave the service, and if you’re not obsessively following this, you can be totally unaware. Netflix only surfaces stuff that it thinks you’ll watch through its algorithm, and there’s plenty of great content that gets buried as a result.
If you’re looking for a great movie to watch (and there are plenty of great movies on Netflix), then we’ve got you covered with one title that you should definitely check out this September. Aftersun tells the story of Calum and his daughter Sophie as they take a vacation together, but from the perspective of the adult daughter looking back at the trip and realizing exactly what was going on with her father. Here are three reasons you should check it out.
Its central performances are beautiful
Perhaps the most important thing to know about Aftersun is that Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal are absolutely triumphant in the two central roles. Corio is remarkably self-possessed as young Sophie, a girl who both understands what’s going on with her dad and can’t fully absorb what it means.
Mescal is even better as a man trying his best to be present for his daughter, and realizing in real time how broken he might truly be. It’s a devastating performance because it’s so quiet and underplayed, and it justifiably earned him a somewhat surprising Best Actor nomination at the 2023 Academy Awards ceremony.
It features some wonderful flourishes
The movie is mostly grounded in straightforward storytelling, but Aftersun knows exactly how to deploy its less literal moments. One in particular comes when Calum is trying to lose himself in a moment of dancing and encouraging his daughter to join him. Suddenly, Calum is dancing in a club with an adult Sophie, and we begin to see the ways that the past has forced itself into the present.
Instead of feeling random or out of step with the rest of the movie, these more surreal moments underline the ways in which Sophie, even years later, is still trying to puzzle out who her father was and why he’s no longer around.
It is a realistic look at depression
Although the movie is ostensibly about a father and daughter bonding on vacation, the movie’s retrospective storytelling means that we in the audience are looking for all the hints that her dad is not as OK as he seems when he’s in front of her. These quiet moments are a reminder that people can be suffering even when that suffering is not obvious.
Few movies understand depression well enough to document it without moving into parody, but in balancing public and private moments, we come to see the ways Calum has judged himself inadequate even as he tries to make the most of his time with his daughter.
Aftersun is streaming on Netflix.
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