One of the Most Devastating Movies Oscar-Nominated Films You’ll Ever See Is Now Available to Watch for Free

Scan through all the lists of the best movies of the first half of the 2020s, and you’re more than likely to encounter Aftersun charting high on most writers’ rankings. The universal praise for the 2022 film is no accident, and it is also the most assured and triumphant directorial debut in years. Charlotte Wells‘ semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama will emotionally tear you to pieces, but it remains a must-watch for all audiences. Now that it’s available to stream on Tubi, prepare to get choked up, or, at the very least, spend the rest of the day in total shock by Wells’ portrait of grief and ennui.

Aftersun, which earned Paul Mescalan Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, is a tender and heartbreaking tale of repressed psychological despair clouded by the veneer of a sunny, joyous vacation. Wrestling with her father’s passing at a young age and her evolution into adulthood, Wells pours her heart on the screen, and you’ll do the same as an immersed viewer.

‘Aftersun’ Was a Triumphant Debut for Charlotte Wells

Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival and released to theaters in the fall of 2022 by A24, Aftersun came out of nowhere, but it quickly announced itself as one of the crowning cinematic achievements of its era. The mass critical acclaim was enough to push Paul Mescal as an Oscar nominee. While the Normal People star‘s award recognition was more than deserved, his co-star, Frankie Corio, who plays Wells’ teenage avatar, gives not just one of the best child performances, but one of the most awe-inspiring performances, period.

Aftersun is set at a Turkish vacation resort in 1999 between father and daughter duo Calum (Mescal) and Sophie Patterson (Corio). Following the perspective of an adult Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) watching old mini-DV home movies of the trip, we watch Calum put on a good face for his daughter as he suffers from an unknown source of emotional trauma and anguish. With her father gone in the present day, Sophie watches these tapes to uncover what was bothering him, as well as to appreciate his valiant effort to entertain her during this harrowing period.

Simultaneously lifelike and re-imagined as a hazy dream, Aftersun is a film of various layers, despite its familiar synopsis. Beyond the thematic and character complexities between Calum and Sophie, the movie precisely captures the ennui of vacation. Time and time again, these celebratory occasions are filled with intense disappointment and yearning, which are concealed by the glossiness of luxurious spots of leisure. Wells frequently switches between crisp 35mm photography and handheld mini-DV camera footage taken by Sophie, which attempts to honestly capture Calum’s true feelings, but even the nakedness of the grainy, digital photography can’t plunge into his psyche. The dichotomy between the two film stocks enhances the distortion of memory that the grown-up Sophie is reflecting on.

‘Aftersun’ is a Tender but Heartbreaking Portrait of Grief and a Father-Daughter Relationship

He will certainly have a long and prosperous movie career, but Aftersun will likely remain Paul Mescal’s signature performance. In a striking multidimensional showcase, Mescal effectively portrays a father’s desperate attempt to seem hip and fashionable to her teen daughter while always trying to speak to her as a friend. He conceals the psychological pain with such ease that when he finally vents his depression while crying alone on the hotel bed, the moment feels earth-shattering.

Aftersun would be incomplete without an equally transfixing performance opposite Mescal, but Frankie Corio is fully in tune with Wells’ poignant and meditative tenor. She expresses the wonder and exuberance of a child and the skepticism of an adult, and even though her heart is in the right place, Sophie is perplexed by what is eating at her father, culminating in the “Losing My Religion” karaoke scene, where Calum is mysteriously scared to perform despite his outgoing behavior throughout the film.

Luckily, Aftersun is anything but “trauma porn,” as Wells crafts a painterly film that is genuinely nostalgic, even amid the suffocating anguish carried by Calum. Wells’ treatment of Calum’s emotional distress lacks any judgment, but instead, the utmost reverence for trying to leave a beautiful memory for his daughter when the mini-DV camera is on and off. The self-conscious father is so preoccupied with creating a positive image that he hides his proclivity for smoking on the porch. Without explicit hand-wringing, the film serves as a treatise about the toxicity of storing away your vulnerable feelings, a tendency that men/fathers are meant to abide by.

Charlotte Wells’ magnificent feature debut may feel cold and distant on first watch, but upon revisiting it, Aftersun will leave eternal ripple effects on your soul. Rather than unspooling all its emotions, the film as a whole is proverbially not trying to burst into tears, which only causes the viewer to become devastated.

Aftersun is now available to stream on Tubi in the U.S.