Midsommar (2019)

Ari Aster's 2019 Swedish cult movie started with a bang, drawing me in immediately. The first scene is gripping and haunting, as the camera slowly pans up and enters the carbon monoxide filled house. In an effort to dart around spoilers, I'll stop here and encourage readers to first watch the movie but needless to say Midsommar begins perfectly, setting the tone and theme that will dictate what the rest of the movie will be like. But then, the movie slowly falls from its interesting premise and into its surrealist abyss. The plot runs as follows: Dani (Pugh) and Christian (Reynor) are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that become increasingly disturbing. 

Don't get me wrong, Midsommar is not a bad movie by any means. It has amazing cinematography, casting, and performances, particularly from one Florence Pugh. But it's severely hampered down by Dani's sporadic arch that doesn't quite pay off resulting in the movie's severely underwhelming ending. The ending feels mismatched, and despite Midsommar's best attempt to make it justified, it simply doesn't work. Like, I get Christian cheated on her during the festival and I get he was a shitty boyfriend, but I didn't see Dani suddenly accepting this insane "family" around simply because her boyfriend's an asshole and her family's dead. Midsommar's central theme is Dani's attempt at trying to find a new family but her immersion into the cult feels off and slightly forced as if to appease this theme. 

Florence Pugh, on the other hand, was amazing, pulling a viscerally raw performance from the brink of her soul. The first scene sets up exactly what we can expect from Pugh and not once did her performance deflate. That coupled with a brilliant cast around her, makes this movie rise above its mediocre themes. Will Poulter's character is a brilliant douchebag, making me laugh several times at his stupidity. I mean at one point he pisses on their sacred tree and then complains that the cultists are overreacting. Not tryna spoil, but he gets what he deserves. 

Midsommar's strongest asset is its cinematography. Most viewers of the horror genre tend to perceive light as hope and darkness as a danger, it's an innate animal fear. Midsommar reverses this, there is no hope in the light, in fact, ninety percent of the movie is in the light. Yet the light works and doesn't, because now the viewer loses a sense of unknowing in the darkness. Instead, Midsommar focuses on graphicly disgusting scenes and hallucinations. The end result is that some of these scenes work wonders, and some simply don't. Midsommar's set pieces are amazing, however, as the camera will sometimes place things slightly off-center. The drive into the countryside is perfectly done with the camera transitioning upside down as if transcending into another world. Things that are upside down demonstrate unholiness or evil and Midsommar knowingly places things upside down on purpose particularly in the background. 

The movie also masters the art of the foreshadowing, as we are shown the bear immediately and the drawings on the wall where the foreigners reside describe the entire movie's synopsis. We are even shown where the movie will end with the plastic bags in the ground foreshadowing what is to happen to the Americans. Midsommar also plays with symbols, with Mark (Poulter) being skinned and wearing a jester hat to symbolize his role as the fool. The symbol of the bear is still unbeknownst to my understanding but it is fascinating. 

I didn't hate this movie, but I felt that it could have been far more disturbing. I felt at times it relied too heavily on gore rather than its premise of existential dread. Midsommar is a good movie that is an incredibly strange watch but lacked the tenacity to haunt the minds of its viewers. Now to watch Aster's Hereditary, a movie that's supposed to be scary as shit, guess we'll see. 

- GL

7 / 10

 

 (above) my favorite shot:

(below) runners-up: