Charlotte Wells is a filmmaker unafraid to let a scene play out, to hold exactly as long as is required. AFTERSUN follows 31 year-old divorced dad Calum (Paul Mescal, sensational) and his daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio, an instant star), both trying to make the most of a holiday to Turkey and struggling to find connection. A symbolically relevant long-take early on sees Sophie fast asleep and Calum separated by a screen door behind her, frantically trying to light his cigarette one-handed, the only sound his daughter’s steady breathing in the room. This scene is repeated in reverse later on and several echoes in both their lives pack potent emotions as we draw towards the film’s conclusion. Films set in the 1990s are, depressingly, period films now, and Wells perfectly sums up universal memories of disappointing family holidays abroad in this period (you always arrived at 3am to a slightly shitty hotel with building work going on and had to endure some ghastly nighttime “entertainment”). This is completely grounded, soulful, beautiful stuff. SSP
Review in Brief: Aftersun (2022)
Review in Brief: Do Revenge (2022)
DO REVENGE is MEAN GIRLS meets STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, but with plenty of choice 90s needle drops. After a humiliating sex tape is leaked to her prep school, former queen bee Drea Torres (Camila Mendes) makes a deal with outsider new kid Eleanor Levetan (Maya Hawke) for them to exact each other’s revenge against the people who wronged them. We’re definitely going to need to add “bitchasaurus rex” to common parlance, for the good of the species, and Sophie Turner’s sweary meltdown scene deserves to be hung in a gallery. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s stylish and witty film hits most of the expected teen movie beats for sure, but usually with tongue firmly in cheek, plus it has more than a few big surprises in store in the constantly wrong-footing final act. SSP
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Review in Brief: The Quiet Girl (2022)
Colm Bairéad’s unassuming Irish Language drama THE QUIET GIRL completely broke me more than any other film this year. In the 1980s (though it could really be set in any era) timid girl Cáit (Catherine Clinch) is fostered on her aunt Eibhlín’s (Carrie Crowley) farm over the summer as her exhausted and heavily pregnant mother (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) convalesces. While living and leaning useful life skills on the farm, Cait begins to discover what a caring and nurturing family can really be. It’s a film of fragile, humanist moments and many a tranquil arable image that’ll stay with you. Uncle Seán’s (Andrew Bennett) invaluable words of wisdom, “Many’s the person missed the opportunity to say nothing and lost much because of it” should be taken to heart by everyone prone saying the quiet parts out loud. It’s an important film not just because it so fundamentally gets people who don’t quite fit in, but also in how it preserves cultural identity as one of the few prominent examples of Irish Gaelic film storytelling. SSP
Review in Brief: Brian and Charles (2022)
This simply delightful Wallace and Gromit-riffing absurdist comedy from Jim Archer follows Brian (David Earl), a lonely inventor of useless things who makes himself a robot friend from a mannequin and a washing machine. The AI mind of the robot, who calls himself Charles Petrescu (Chris Hayward), quickly progresses from helpless, loyal dog-child to stroppy teenager and eventually to student on a gap-year, his need for independence putting him in jeopardy from a family of bullying local farmers. BRIAN AND CHARLES is either the funniest film of the year or a completely and utterly baffling thing and it depends largely on how weird your sense of humour is. If you like deadpan delivery and surreal asides, you’ll have a great time and will get a really big-hearted and sweet story of friendship and dreams as a bonus. SSP
