Written and Directed by: Ari Aster
Cast: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren
Swift shot: Unnerving to the end, Midsommar gives us a glimpse into the darkest realms of co-dependence.
As all my longtime followers and friends know, I lived in Norway for three years. Truthfully, I never shut up about it. Luckily, none of my Norwegian friends were in a cult, or if they were, they never tried to recruit me. Takk, ikke sant?
On the surface, that is what Midsommar appears to be, a horror film about a reclusive cult with a buildup to some inevitable, horrible twist.
Much like with Hereditary, which also featured a cult, that is just the surface. Where Hereditary was about how a family deals with grief and loss, Midsommar is actually about relationships, and maybe knowing when to end them before it is too late.
Dani (Pugh) is a mess when we first meet her, she is on Ativan for anti-anxiety, and her sister is constantly threatening suicide. Meanwhile, her parents are also struggling through something, and Dani feels lost.
At the onset, Dani’s sister has not responded to several messages, and she is worried, so she calls her boyfriend, Christian (Reynor). He’s not really very supportive, and Dani catches on that she might be pushing him away with her family drama.
She’s not wrong.
In fact, Christian has been working up the nerve to tell her they need to break up. His friends have invited him to Sweden to explore new cultures and, well, get laid there. Obviously, dragging his crazy girlfriend along would be counter-productive to their agenda.
But, something soon happens to Dani that fractures her, wholly. If she was messed up before, Holy Shit, she barely survives this one.
Now, Christian can’t break up with her unless he wants to be the world’s biggest asshole. So, Dani guilt trips her way into their fun little trip to Sweden. And nothing will ever be the same again.
From there, the movie slows down quite a bit, as they enter into a bit of a tranquil commune, and proceed to do drugs.
“Hi, I’m Christian, and this is Dani.”
“Hei Christian and Dani, have some drugs.”
To say that Dani has no business doing drugs in her state, is well, yea, just no, if you aren’t stable to begin with, taking psychedelics is not a wise move.
Their visit was akin (or perhaps a direct juxtaposition) to how the old explorers used to visit tribes in Africa or the Amazon and how they had to kind of roll with whatever was happening around them with the notion that they simply don’t understand another culture’s customs.
They are all grad students, and Christian is still not settled on his thesis but Josh (Harper) is an anthropologist and is happy to be heading to Sweden to study this hidden culture. But, by God, keep your wits about you!
Their other friend, Mark (Will Poulter) kind of bullies Dani the entire trip, because he thinks Christian should have broken up with her and not invited her along.
He isn’t wrong.
Not much happens other than a strange introduction to the culture, they are told about a great feast, and Dani is told about how they have a May Queen at every festival. They are shown to their quarters, which are actually pretty cool looking if not for how creepy the tapestries and tiles are. It’s like, literally READ THE ROOM!
The set design was impeccable. Apparently this whole film was shot in Hungary, not Sweden, and the entire set was fabricated from scratch. The village, the language, the artwork, everything is all, as we would say in the military . . . notional. It’s made up, as in not real!
Obviously the village is based on actual viking era sects that lived hundreds of years ago. But, to understand that they even made up a new language for this one film is pretty impressive.
World building in Midsommar is commendable as is the cinematography of Pawel Pogorzelski, again, a true master with no equal.
And, if you pay attention to all the clues in the movie, each meticulous shot is foreshadowing something horrible on the horizon.
I mean, I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that, if you know anything about Aster, and anything about A24, unnerving is their brand. Something sinister is definitely going to happen, it’s just a matter of what, to whom, and when.
Then, something horrible does happen.
Can a movie be good without being entertaining? Yes, and that is what I think about Aster’s films. They are thought-provoking and unnerving, vital pieces of visual art. Not everyone wants to see movies like that, because they aren’t much fun. But, yes, I highly recommend Midsommar to those looking for an exceptionally disturbing film.
