Paul Mescal's Big Breakthrough Drama Is Free To Stream in March

5 days ago 11

Paul Mescal hosting Saturday Night Live.

Published Feb 22, 2026, 1:00 PM EST

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If you somehow missed one of the most quietly devastating films of the decade, now’s your chance to fix that — for free. Paul Mescal’s breakthrough drama Aftersun is available to stream at no cost this March on Kanopy, the library-backed streaming platform. All you need is a participating library card or university login, and you’re in.

Written and directed by Charlotte Wells, Aftersun follows Calum (Mescal) and his 11-year-old daughter Sophie during a holiday at a fading Turkish resort in the late 1990s. Told through Sophie’s fragmented adult memories, the film slowly reveals the emotional undercurrents beneath what first appears to be a simple father-daughter vacation.

Mescal’s performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and firmly cemented him as one of the most compelling talents of his generation. The cast includes Paul Mescal as Calum, Frankie Corio as young Sophie in a remarkable debut performance, and Celia Rowlson-Hall as the adult Sophie.

How Good Is 'Aftersun'?

Paul Mescal as the father on a boat with his daughter in Aftersun, 2022.

Collider’s review stated that Aftersun was a quietly devastating and transcendent debut. The review praised the film’s lived-in intimacy, describing each father-daughter interaction as so natural and unforced that it blurred the line between performance and reality. Mescal delivered a hauntingly restrained turn as a loving but deeply troubled father, balancing warmth and vulnerability with flickers of unspoken despair. Corio, in her debut, matched him beat for beat, capturing Sophie’s perceptive innocence with remarkable authenticity.

Ultimately, Aftersun was described as a film that lingers — a tender, melancholic reflection on the fragility of memory and the quiet tragedies we only recognize in hindsight. It washes over you, hitting you with wave after wave of vibrancy until it subsequently pulls the rug out from under you. What remains is a work of remembrance, overflowing with all the joys and pains to be found in looking back, that shows just how tenuous our connection to the past can really be. After all is said and done, it is films like Aftersun that will stand the test of time long after we are gone.

Aftersun will stream for free on Kanopy next month.