Cannes 2022, remote notes

[Chris Knipp]

A SMALL SCOTTISH DEBUT IS A CRITICAL HIT OF DAY 5.
(MAY 21).


FRANKIE CARO, PAUL MESCAL IN AFTERSUN

AFTERSUN (Charlotte Wells).
Cannes, Critics' Week. This Scottish-born, NYC-based director's 96-minute debut feature, which MOONLIIGHT director Barry Jenkins produced, is the bittersweet reminiscence of a woman's (probably too young, certainly emotionally challenged) divorced father when they went to the seaside in Turkey twenty years earlier. Its performances by Irish actor Paul Mescal (of the much admired series "Normal People") and nine-year-old Frankie Caro have garnered raves. Carlos Aguilar in The Wrap calls it a "heart-achingly stirring and sensorially entrancing debut feature." Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian gives it 5/5 stars and calls it "captivating" and "brilliant," describing the subtlety of the unfolding picture of memories that now mean much more than at the time. ("What a pleasure," he concludes.) Anna Smith in Deadline says it's "absorbing" and "a terrific two-hander with engaging supporting performances." Fionnualla Halligan of Screen Daily says this "Marks Wells out as one of the most promising new voices in British cinema in recent years." She says "you have to go back to Lynn Ramsey to find a voice with this much potential." Sheri Linden in a lengthy review in Hollywood Reporter calls this debut "sharp and tender" and "indelible" and goes into detail about the richness and subtlety of the performances, especially Mescal's. This sounds like Competition material, but its modesty seems to mark it for small release, only with more critical praise and perhaps lasting recognition.