Midsommar (R18+)
Director: Ari Aster
Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter
Duration: 147 minutes
I really cannot understand how Midsommar got a wide release in theatres - it is the antithesis of what lucrative films are about in today's cinema landscape, and goes out of its way to make the audience feel as uncomfortable and disorientated as possible. It is was honestly a joy to see something as wild, bold and horrific as this on a multiplex screen. In a time when superhero films are causing people like Martin Scorsese expound their elitist views on cinema, contributing to a generally untrue feeling that cinema is dying or changing form at the very least, one can only point to Ari Aster as one of the directors working today that prove those people very wrong.
Coming off of last year's wonderful but flawed Hereditary, Midsommar is a completely different beast, but one that is a much more cohesive whole with a better sense of internal logic and structure. Whereas Hereditary very much felt like a film divided by its own structure - a perfect opening section, then a slower middle section, followed by the crazy ending - Midsommar has a much stronger spine holding it all together as one behemoth of a film that will undoubtably mess you up for days. Hereditary was a film that relished in claustrophobia, shadows and an oppressive sense of the inability to escape what fate has handed to you, but Midsommar feels much more expansive and open, due in large part to its decision to spend most of its time in washed out sunshine. Not only that, but Midsommar is a lot funnier than Hereditary. It has real laugh lines and jokes in it, and the first time I saw it in a cinema there were points at which the entire crowd were laughing out loud. Will Poulter provides most of these moments in the film, and acts as a sort of stand in for the audience, as someone who always says what he is thinking, and by extension what the audience is thinking. One of the great moments of the film is when he asks if no one is going to say anything about the bear that is locked up in a cage that everyone seems to be ignoring.
The central relationship between the characters played by Florence Pugh and Rack Reynor is the spine I spoke about earlier that holds the entire film together. The film spends time with them, allowing us to sympathise with both of them equally and get a real understanding of the relationship that is really doomed from the start. Aster has said that perhaps the best description of the film is that it is a breakup movie, and that is something that I suggest you take seriously, because the focus absolutely is the relationship. The prologue that details a horrific tragedy that comes to plague Pugh's character throughout outlines the chains that are keeping the two of them in a relationship that can only be described as one-sided at best, and does a wonderful job of communicating exactly what is going on between them with hardly a word spoken between them about it.
But this is a horror movie too, of sorts, and a good horror movie needs to evoke an emotional response from the viewer. Midsommar is probably the most uncomfortable and unsettled I have felt in a movie this year. There are scenes of graphic violence that made my stomach churn, but there are scenes in which the implication or the situation itself are just as horrific. Drawing from other classic folk horror films like The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, it's horror comes from outsiders being dropped into a culture and situation that is foreign and strange. Given that this is a horror movie, it should go without saying that it does not end well for at least some of these characters. Eagle-eyed viewers will also be clued in to where the film is going if you look closely at the tapestries and paintings around the place. If you've got the ability to, I encourage you to pause the film and pour over them and see how much you can get out of them.
As will now be expected from Aster after these two films, his direction is meticulous and executed with an incredible eye for style and aesthetics. Hereditary was wonderfully shot too, but throughout Midsommar there are too many shots to count that are stunningly beautiful to look at. The setting allows for more of a wondering, curious camera, and also allows for more textures to be played around with under the Swedish sun and under the influence of hallucinatory drugs. Which there are a lot of in this movie, by the way. The subtle visual effects that are used to immerse the viewer into the experience of having a bad trip are really troubling, and even more amazing is the way faces are hidden throughout. There are the obvious ones, like the one in the mirror that appeals in the trailer, but if you spend time looking for them you will discover more and more throughout, the constant reminder of the tragedy that opens the film and colours it right through to its cathartic final moments. The sound design is staggering too, it must be said. There are moments in the film in which the lines between diegetic and non-diegetic sound are blurred, with musicians in the film appearing much like the drummer that appears throughout Birdman. There is one sequence in particular in the back half of the film where the camera is spinning with one of the characters, and the sound of the band follows in surround sound in a way that is incredibly immersive but also really off-putting and disorientating, in keeping with the general mission of the film to feel like a really bad trip.
When the climactic ending arrives, it is one for the ages. It is an ending that will frustrate you, fill you with the sort of elation you know that you really shouldn't be feeling, confuse you, deeply unsettle you, or all of the above. It is the sort of ending that packs a huge punch on an aesthetic level, but also makes sense in a deeply involved and twisted way with the internal logic and thematic direction of the film. It is an ending that is asking you to think about it more, or in fact is leaving you no choice but to think about it afterwards in the way that it aims to burrow into your head and poke you in uncomfortable places. I think Midsommar really is a treat, and it is a film that I will be praising for a long time. It is important to acknowledge when a filmmaker turns up that has a distinct and bold voice like Ari Aster, and it is a pretty amazing bonus that his voice translates into films that are damn good, too. It will test the patience of some, and it will test the stomach of others, but I think that those are only good things in the context of not only the horror scene at the moment but cinema as a whole. If more movies like this are going to be getting wide releases in the future, then it is a very exciting time to be a cinema-goer.
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