Jo Stubbings

Not much appears to happen in Aftersun, the first feature film of young Scottish director Charlotte Wells – unless you count the snooker games, scuba diving, mud baths, and other holiday activities. But don’t be fooled. Like the water polo players in one of the many watery scenes, all the grunt work takes place below the surface. All you have to do, as spectator, is sit back and look for the clues.

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He may shock, horrify, polarise, and disgust but one thing Darren Aronofsky will never do is bore an audience. This is true of the director’s latest feature film, The Whale (2022), which has all the intensity of Black Swan (2010) and fascination of the controversial mother! (2017). Happy to say there’s no gore at all in this surprisingly sympathetic study of man who is morbidly obese, striving to right a wrong he committed in the past. ... (read more)