Midsommar

I watched this at home on BluRay from my public library, not my wife's type of movie.

This was made by the same writer/director that brought us "Hereditary" a year earlier, I like this one much more. It is confusing much of the time but when it is all over you realize it is a fable of sorts for the lead character, Dani, to come to some resolution from the loss of her family and coming to terms with her dud of a boyfriend.

Look up the entire lyrics of 'Hotel California' by The Eagles, with this movie in mind you can find many parallels.

I already was a Florence Pugh fan from her roles in Lady MacBeth (2016) and Fighting With My Family (2019). Here she is Dani who tragically loses her sister and parents, in grief accompanies her boyfriend and three other guys to Sweden in late June to witness, and ultimately participate in, a ritualistic Pagan festival. But it also goes deeper, to the core of the group's beliefs. By the end Dani achieves resolution, the other four are not so fortunate.

This is a really strange movie once they get to Sweden, there is very explicit and gory violence, there is a big non-erotic sex scene with a number of nude characters. Everything is designed to shock the senses of the viewer. I would not like to see movies like this on a regular basis but as a one-off experience I found it a totally worthwhile 2 1/2 hours.

"I have always felt held. By a family... a real family. Do you feel held?"

One of the most universal and innately human desires is a sense of belonging. The human brain is not meant to be alone; we are evolved to be a part of something. Belonging fundamentally allows us to form our own sense of identity, establish social connections through community, and provides us with love, attention, security, and purpose. Perhaps more importantly, a lack of belonging is when we begin to lose sense of ourselves and who we are. This loss of touch with who we are when the world around us suddenly disappears... this slight loss of footing, dip in reality, always feeling somewhat displaced and perpetually unsettled... this encapsulates the mood of Ari Aster's Midsommar.

Aster has delivered a psychedelic genre-defying horror fable that wins its audience by creeping into our darkest corners of angst, longing, and loneliness. At its core, the film is about a young woman who copes with crippling anxiety rooted in a desperate and fearful need for love as she comes to terms with the end of a relationship. It's about anxiety, fear of abandonment, and moving on. It is a meditation on human belonging; an operatic catharsis played on the strings of emotional dependency; a journey both inward and outward, to finally let go of something that was never meant to be.

Midsommar is not a mystery or suspense movie. It unveils itself unapologetically, as if the filmmaker has no intention of hiding anything from us in the first place (the entire movie is visually depicted almost constantly in the background on walls or tapestries). Yet the film establishes its own rhythm and pacing. As the characters embark on a mushroom trip and grow weightless and spacey, so do we get entranced by the beautiful Swedish settings and sounds--at times indistinguishable from flutes being played by characters on-screen, and at other times, woven with a spell-binding aural hypnosis (listen to "Attestupan" without falling into a meditative trip).

Like Hereditary before it, the casting is exceptional. Florence Pugh portrays and embodies isolation and anxiety so effectively that the ideas feel nearly concrete. Her part as Dani demands an incredible range and her commitment to the role is apparent. Her character has an air of desperation to her. A perfect casting for a lonely soul. Jack Reynor, a critical piece to this opera as the unlikeable and detached boyfriend, also delivers in a solid performance that leaves us conflicted, or at the very least, challenged.

If Satan and Cannibal Corpse got together to shoot Blue Valentine in Sweden, I'd imagine it would be something like Midsommar. Aster taps into a dark and vulnerable place--he opens the door to chests you may have locked away and have had no intention of coming back to. If you've gone through a break-up recently, it may resonate even stronger. It's uncomfortable, unpleasant, but ultimately, cathartic.

The director goes on to describe the film as almost a perverse wish-fulfillment fantasy. You see what you want to see. The inclusion of this overarching idea bears a universal relevance to how we can behave in the midst of the most toxic relationships. Entering the ethereal fog of Hårga perhaps a metaphor for willfully indulging in our clouded judgment to escape our fears.

If Hereditary was a thematic exploration of inescapable fate, Midsommar is a tighter, more centered thematic reflection on emotional dependence. The thought given to the characters and script and the details within the various shots, symbols, and sounds will all surely leave many viewers coming back for more.

Plan to watch it twice, if for nothing else, to drink the tea again.

It is worth saying upfront that MidSommar should be a very divisive movie. If you tend to watch mostly popular movies or standard horror films, Midsommar is not for you. Which explains the amount of 1 out of 10 reviews here on IMDb, despite an overall 7.1 rating.

But if you don't mind a slow building narrative with tension, innovative cinematography and plenty of look-away gore, then you might be able to appreciate just how unique Midsommar really is.

Briefly - MidSommar shows us a group of friends going on what seems like an idyllic trip to the Midsummer festival in a village in Northern Sweden. But that quickly turns into a harrowing display of Pagan rituals and ceremonies.

The movie is long because it's not afraid to take its time explaining the background of the characters (the group of friends and particularly the young woman in which it focuses). So from the start you can feel that this will be a different experience from most horror films.

But the movie really takes off once they arrive in Sweden. And it goes a long way to explain why Ari Aster is being so buzzed as a new director. Some of the shots shown are, at least in my book, completely outside the norm. And early on help you involve in the world of the film, and in the experience of the main characters.

In the terms of cinematography, it is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. And that becomes an even more impressive achievement because of its contrast with the horrid gore images displayed throughout the movie.

The grass's green, the floral arrangements, the group dances, everything really paints a picturesque image of the Midsommar festivities. Despite all the unexpected events the characters are witnessing, that sense is kept all throughout 2h30 of film.

All of the imagery helped me, as a viewer, to truly feel in the perspective of the characters. Walking into the festival, hopeful, experience the shock of everything that happens in front of them.

I felt I too went on that trip with the characters, and I was shocked again and again together with them. It stuck with me for hours on end after watching. Which is one the best complements I can make to the work of a director in my view.

Truly recommended it if you are up to watching a different yet aesthetically beautiful piece of cinema.

Gorgeous visuals, creative cinematography and solid performances but the movie feels long winded and disconnected. The characters are underdeveloped and the plot is a little all over the place. The movie does however manage to be intentionally funny at times but not scary or very disturbing.

Be first thing I wanted to do after leaving the cinema, was to discover what the swedish thought of this film, in general they saw it with humour, and an open mind, as I expected.

It's pretty much split right down the middle, first half, dare I say it, normality, drama, with a heavy focus on grief, and the harsh way it can affect someone, particularly if there's trauma involved. The second half is very trippy, and we delve into the world of pagan ritual and bizarre rights, which makes The Whicker Man look like a tea party.

The main leads, Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor, were terrific. Pugh had impressed previously in The Little Drummer Girl, it was obvious she was destined for big things, she played Dani with a real sense of torment, very impressive. The cast had a realism, it was refreshing not to watch a cast that look set for a Dior catwalk.

It won't be for everyone, and I must point out that some scenes are painfully long, needlessly. Some amazing special effects.

Violence and nudity, but neither are gratuitous or simply for shock. A few laughs, several times the cinema erupted in laughter.

Very good. 8/10