Midsommar

photo courtesy of inverse.com

     Director Ari Aster (2017’s Hereditary) returns with Midsommar, a folk horror film about a group of college students invited to a cultural festival in an isolated, rural Swedish community. As Dani (Florence Pugh) and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) get acclimated to the community’s unusual customs, they begin to feel uneasy. By the time they realize the true intentions of this community—in actuality a cult—it may be too late to escape.

     Between its explicit, often disturbing content and its intellectually demanding themes, Midsommar is a movie that’s sure to be controversial. To properly discuss the movie will involve wading into some spoilers, so for the spoiler-free crowd I’ll leave it at this: Midsommar is an artistically significant film that will excite film connoisseurs and genre diehards, but I suspect it’ll be too baffling and too dense to connect with anybody else.

Midsommar is rated R for disturbing ritualistic violence and grisly images, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.

TRAILER

BEWARE: HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

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     Like Hereditary before it, Midsommar is a movie about family that also happens to be a horror film. In this case, the relationship of note is the one between Dani and (the deliberately named) Christian, which starts out rough and deteriorates as the movie progresses. For Dani, of course, there’s also the lingering trauma from the death/suicide of her immediate family members, and the early scenes at the commune are dominated by the dynamics between Dani and Christian’s self-absorbed friends. The core relationship material here isn’t as solid or as meaningful as the same in Hereditary, but it does enough to anchor Midsommar’s emotional core in something human. It fuels Dani’s character development, adds a layer of depth, and—early on—even adds a dash of much-needed humor.

photo courtesy of rollingstone.com

     When it comes to horror, Midsommar isn’t in short supply of terrifying images, but it ends up being more disturbing than scary, per se. Aster does a good job of building tension, even in broad daylight and sunshine; his direction gives the movie a degree of vulnerability and anxiety. It’s to Aster’s credit that in the process, he utilizes some bolder, less obvious, more experimental camerawork. He frames a number of unconventional shots, alternatively beautiful or haunting. He also frequently focuses the camera close on Pugh, which, given her exceptional performance, proves to be a good investment.

     Midsommar’s meaning is something that will undoubtedly be the subject of much controversy. Some ideas come through loud and clear—symbolism about fertility and brokenness, over against fragile masculinity—while others will probably take a second or third viewing to fully investigate. It’s obvious that Midsommar has a lot on its mind, and Aster certainly has the ability to state his case provocatively. What might be in question, however, is his ability to state it convincingly.

photo courtesy of ew.com

     Midsommar might just be too dense for its own good. I love a movie that challenges audiences, but Midsommar risks alienating them altogether. Nearly everything the movie does well, it also does to excess: the screentime runs long past what the story demands, the fancy camerawork and effects become flashy and in-your-face, the horror itself begins to rely on shock value more than compelling story.

     The body of the story—Dani’s character arc—and many of the movie’s images—the pulpy remains of the elders, a friend cut open like a butterfly, Christian wandering around in the nude—are undoubtedly effective component pieces. Other aspects seem less compelling. My theater broke out in laughter during Christian’s sex scene, either to ease the awkward tension or because it was simply one step too far. And at times, it feels as if maybe all the gore and sex and artsy visuals might serve a more embarrassing purpose: to distract from what is really an extremely simple, and not entirely original, slasher movie formula.

photo courtesy of a24films.com