Aftersun and To Leslie - A Review in Two Parts
- Matthew Spence
- Feb 21, 2023
- 9 min read
Updated: Feb 26, 2023
Today I thought I would do something different and review two movies at the same time and explain why one movie, in my opinion, works while the other does not. I was inspired to do this for two reasons, the first being that I watched these two movies back to back, and the other being that they are both character studies to a degree. Thus, I thought it would be interesting to explore why I enjoyed one film so much more than the other. I will begin by reviewing the first film, the one I enjoyed, and later move on to the second which I did not and explain why that film did not work as compared to the first one. Lets begin.

Aftersun:
The first film I will be discussing is the A24 produced film Aftersun which is the directorial debut of Charlotte Wells which is amazing given how well made this movie is. The film explores the relationship between a father and daughter who are on vacation for several days though there is much more to this film than the simple plot would lead you to believe. The thing that intrigued me the most about this film was the lurking sense of unease that runs throughout even at the start of the film where the viewer is not even sure what the movie is really about given the juxtaposition between past and present tense which show the daughter at two different points in her life. The movie reminded me of the TV show Bojack Horseman, especially the more surreal episodes where things at first seem normal even though it is clear to the viewer that something is wrong but they cannot quite put their finger on it, that is what this entire film exudes to the audience. This constant anxiety was spellbinding to experience given that I was not sure where the movie was heading unlike many other films, including the one I will later compare this to, where plot points can be seen far in the distance so as to ruin any sense of excitement or anticipation. It is a delicate balance to try and make the viewer feel unsure about the nature of the film while not allowing the movie to descend into chaos as did the film Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths. In terms of the acting the father, played by Paul Mescal, is amazing at portraying a father who at first appears to be dependable and steady until the movie later reveals the inner turmoil he is experiencing which he exudes painfully in one scene where he lets his emotions run raw throughout. Frankie Corio plays his daughter and she too is excellent especially in terms of her dialogue which did not feel scripted especially in the scenes where she makes video diaries during their vacation talking to the camera in the chaotic manner reminiscent of a real child and not some character in a movie. The movie also does a good job of showing what it is like to be younger than the people around you which was most noteworthy in two sequences at the pool one where Frankie Corio’s character is ignored by an older group of young people she is trying to befriend who would rather make out with each other and later at a water polo match her father wants to participate in where she ends up being overlooked and given little chance to participate. The most interesting part of this film though was the unraveling of the mystery surrounding Paul Mescal’s character. The general sense of unease present in the film originates mostly in his character who appears increasingly distraught throughout the film. The first clue to his inner turmoil comes when he notes that he did not see himself living to 30 years of age and does not picture he will see 40. Later, in a scene that is handled in a subtle and not bombastic manner, the dad walks across a street and a bus nearly comes in contact with him and honks its horn which he pays no attention hinting to the fact that he may not care about living. The movie, to me, felt as though it was a collection of haunting memories or even a nightmare reliving a family vacation especially given that the light seemed to be flickering in the father and daughter’s hotel room a few times again reflecting that something is wrong. All of this tension is paid off in one of the most haunting final shots I have seen in recent memory aside from the conclusion of the 2021 horror film Censor. In the closing moments of the film we first see the joy the daughter is exuding to her father from the point of view of the camera he is holding which is then juxtaposed with a shot from the daughter’s perspective wherein we see the father alone in a white void capturing this moment and then retreating back down the long empty hallway and through a dark doorway. This shot shows that the father’s life is empty without his daughter and that the emotional turmoil he is going through which he tried to hide from his daughter will be all that he has left when he is without her which is both terrifying and incredibly sad. Among all this melancholy there was a beautiful quote I will remember from this movie that being the comment the daughter makes in the film that even though the father, who appears to have divorced her mother, may not live under the same roof she does the daughter still believes they are together given that when they look up in the sky they both will see the same thing meaning that they are together in some sense. The one scene that I thought stuck out as a weak point in the film was the scene where the daughter tried to coax her dad into performing karaoke with her which felt more like an artificial moment ripped from Lost in Translation especially given that the daughter chose to sing Losing My Religion which seemed to be a weird song choice to perform with your dad in front of a group of vacationers. All in all though this is an amazing film that I feel is more reminiscent of a horror film in the vein of One Hour Photo where the film at first seems normal until a darker image emerges. Having the payoff of seeing the dad’s anguish at the end of the film after it had been alluded to throughout in a subtle way was highly rewarding as a viewer as I was not sure the impression I was getting that something was wrong was intended at the start or just me misinterpreting the film. I highly recommend this movie even though it is very bleak and I give it an 8/10.

To Leslie:
In comparison to the above film with its naturalistic characters and nuanced script is the awful and contrived movie To Leslie where every plot point is telegraphed to the extent that you could watch the first minute of the film and guess what the rest of the movie is filling it in with any cliché you could imagine and you would probably be right. To Leslie tells the story of one woman’s battle with alcoholism and the repercussions this has on her life. This movie had an amazing opportunity to discuss the greater awareness being given to the harms of alcohol use as of late, the increasing impact alcohol use is having on women, and the push to have alcohol be labelled a carcinogen. However none of these topics are addressed and instead it is just another generic Oscar bait film wherein the lead actress tries her damnedest to appear as the stereotypical version of a person suffering from addiction which has been all to prevalent in Hollywood as of late in the gluttony of Biopics where the lead character almost always has to overcome some kind of addiction problem. Much attention has been given to the unorthodox campaign put forward by the creators of this film to get the lead actress Andrea Riseborough, who plays the alcoholic main character Leslie, nominated for an Academy Award through their lobbying of several Hollywood elites to see and promote the film in the hopes that she would get nominated which she did. Knowing this may have influenced my opinion of her performance but I have a hard time believing under any circumstance that I would have enjoyed her in this movie. However, at first I had hope given that the introductory montage was compelling showing several pictures from throughout Leslie’s life with a feel good song in the background even though some of the images depicted darker aspects of her life, such as abuse she experienced, which was unsettling while still being compelling. However any sense of delicacy and intention is quickly erased the first time we are introduced to her where she is already at an eleven in terms of the emotional register she is exuding which continued throughout the film except for a few moments where she abruptly, and for no good reason, begins behaving more modestly. The reason I wanted to review both Aftersun and To Leslie at the same time was to point out that I may have been biased toward feeling the acting in this movie was inauthentic given that I had just seen the great performances in Aftersun which did not appear to be typical Hollywood performances. As for To Leslie, I just did not buy into Andrea Riseborough’s portrayal of an alcoholic, it just felt very performative and the longer the film went on with its almost two hour runtime the more I was reminded of similar films which had much more believable performances such as The Florida Project or Leaving Las Vegas. The film tries to look into the darker side of alcohol addiction, such as the health impacts and the lengths Leslie is willing to go to in order to get her fix, but this devolved into ridiculous melodrama such that she is shown to be suffering from only a minor tremor in a single scene and another instance where she is nearly forced into having sexual activity with a man who bought her alcohol but quickly fights him off never understanding this to be the arrangement. A recent film that better dealt with addiction was the 2020 movie Four Good Days where Mila Kunis more authentically embodied someone suffering from addiction issues reflected in her physical appearance and her detailing how she resorted to prostitution in order to acquire illicit substances and the traumatic impact this had on her life. To Leslie, on the other hand, never comes close to attaining this kind of honesty and emotional resonance which was most noticeable during the excruciating sequence where Leslie goes back to her childhood home and barges in on a family she does not know and begins having an emotional dialogue with them about how she used to live here which was intended to be a heartfelt moment but instead was one of the most cringeworthy moments in the film. While we are discussing cringe I must discuss Allison Janney and Stephen Root who also appear in this movie as sort of pseudo parents of Leslie and while I typically enjoy both these actors they were let down here by some laughable makeup and hair styling reminiscent of something belonging in an SNL sketch which made it hard to take their performances seriously. Stephen Root’s character is especially awful both due to his poor performance, where he seemed to be channelling Randy Quaid from the Vacation films, and the absurd makeup and hairstyle given to him wherein his beard did not even match the colour of his hair. I was happy to see Owen Teague in this movie, who I thought was great in the series Bloodline and the It movies, here as Leslie’s son though the movie did not allow him to showcase his ability to act as he was only given a handful of scenes wherein he abruptly went from permitting his mother to use drugs to scolding her in the next over her use of alcohol which felt hypocritical. Lastly, while in Aftersun the father is increasingly shown in an organic fashion to be suffering here Leslie abruptly changes course from her dependence on alcohol to going cold turkey simply because she sees a picture of her son who earlier was unable to inspire her to go sober after he kicked her out of his apartment at the start of the film due to her alcohol use. One last comment about To Leslie, the plot device of having her be a lottery winner felt totally unnecessary especially if this was done solely to show how her addiction issues ate into her finances as she did not need to have immense wealth to show that. Additionally, her being a lottery winner led to her being made fun of several times in the film as she was a noticeable figure in town which all culminated in one of the most laughable scenes I can remember where she gets in a war of words with someone at a carnival who tries to make fun of her for squandering her wealth only for her to claim that the one accosting her amounted to little in life making her a very unsympathetic main character. I gave this film, which felt more like a cutaway gag from Idiocracy, a 1/10 as there was nothing redeeming about it and its portrayal of alcohol addiction bordered on offensive with how stereotypical it was.
Here is the trailer for Aftersun.
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