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Tom Thomson Gallery Night at the Movies presents Aftersun, Monday, Feb. 6, at 1:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and 7:00 p.m. at Galaxy Cinemas in Owen Sound.
From A24 comes this brilliant first feature by Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells.
A lazy holiday at a Turkish resort becomes a window into the relationship between a troubled young man and his daughter.
Calum (Paul Mescal; Normal People,The Lost Daughter, TIFF 2022 selection Carmen) is a melancholy 30 year old who’s brought 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) to a seaside resort, apparently on short notice.
He couldn’t afford the all-inclusive package, but Calum is willing to indulge his precocious daughter in other ways – letting her play pool with the older kids, for instance, or stay out a little later than her mother would allow.
Sophie’s parents are no longer together, and while Sophie herself seems fine with it, it’s clearly a sore spot for Calum.
We follow them along on this seemingly unexceptional holiday – the point of view switches back and forth from crisp 35mm to messier MiniDV in a manner that turns out to be surprisingly portentous.
Aftersun is about the hazy gap between experience and memory and how children never fully see their parents until much later in life. It’s a gorgeous film to watch, all sun-dappled landscapes and moody nighttime beaches, and Mescal and Corio are compellingly watchable protagonists, their slight changes in expression speaking to primal emotional shifts. This isn’t a film made up of shocking revelations or big speeches; it’s an accumulation of observations that Sophie will be thinking about for the rest of her life.
“Deftly constructed and utterly heartbreaking, AFTERSUN announces Wells as an eminent storyteller of prodigious powers.” –Pat Brown, Slant
You can view a trailer for Aftersun here.
The remaining dates for the Winter/Spring 2023 Gallery Night at the Movies are: March 6, March 20, April 3 and April 24.
With the start of awards season, plenty of great movies are getting lots of buzz. We will confirm the rest of our film selections very soon. Meanwhile, mark your calendar with the dates!
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source: media release, TTAG
