MIDSOMMAR (2019) REVIEW

Watched in: July 2019

Didn't like ▢ Alright ✔︎ Liked ▢ Loved ▢

Would I watch it again: Maybe

Would I recommend?: To very specific people

Watchability: Hard

Watch with: Family ▢ Friends ▢ Self ✔︎

I recently watched Midsommar, dir. by Ari Aster and starring Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor. Following Aster's smash hit Hereditary in 2018, I was expecting big things from this horror-meets-break-up movie, but I don't know if it necessarily delivered. Read on to find out why...

Limited spoilers for MIDSOMMAR but heavy spoilers for HEREDITARY!

Plot & Story

The first thing I'll say about this story, and this film in general, is that it had so much potential, and I think in some areas it really delivered. The first act of this movie was so well crafted and fleshed out, giving us loss and grief right off the bat, building these characters around the tragic event that hits us in the face within the first 15 minutes of the story, all the while interspersed with dry humour and wit from side characters that give us much needed bouts of relief. It has all the markings of another excellent cult not-quite-horror film and I was so ready for it to follow in Hereditary's footsteps. However, it quickly spirals into an all out gore-porn scare fest, hitting us again and again with intense and not altogether necessary images baring giving us time to breathe. I avoided looking directly at a particularly gruesome image, only to have it shoved in my face another two times shortly after, which really made no difference to the story itself. There were so many scenes like this throughout the film which didn't need to be as full-frontal (sometimes literally) as they were. Less is more, and Aster proved he knew this with Hereditary, where the small details often were used to make scenes more intense and scary. Midsommar, however, felt like he had taken the image people remember from Hereditary, Charlie's head on the road, and multiplied it by a thousand, relying more on shock factor and making the audience recoil than on interesting story telling and a compelling story.

My issues with this film don't just lie within the excessive amount of shocking imagery however. It just wasn't very coherent as a storyline; there was too much going on, we were moving too quickly from one thing to the next, and none of the new things being introduced seemed to connect with anything else. We find out at the end how it all comes together, which I suppose answers some questions, but as its happening it all seems a bit all over the place. I'm trying to avoid comparing it to Hereditary, but it is tough when the two films share so many similarities while being so different. In Hereditary, every single tiny thing that happened was important, premeditated almost, whereas in Midsommar things were being thrown in left right and centre that never come up again and don't have any real impact on the story. There are whole scenes that are unnecessary, like Mark and Christian's thesis storyline, which really added nothing but a small wedge between the two characters that is neither important nor addressed again.

Overall, I just struggled to find a coherent storyline to follow during this film. I'm sure there was a basic plot line, but it was so buried under random cult-y things and over-the-top sex scenes that I missed it altogether. Maybe it's a puzzle you have to piece together, but you'd think in a 2 and a half hour long film they'd at least give you all the pieces.

Characters & Performances

I think the performances and the portrayal of the characters were what mainly drove the movie. I really enjoyed Pugh's portrayal of Dani and it was really interesting to watch her character develop and grow throughout the film. She was a strangely relatable character, and showed a real broken soul that only became more broken over the course of the film, almost to the point of numbness, so when she did show any strong emotion it was a jolt for the audience. It was difficult to know whether or not we should root for her as the film progresses, as obviously you believe you should, but when you delve deeper into the emotions behind her and also her boyfriend Christian, along with their motives, the lines start to blur and questions about who is wrong and right begin to arise, which is more interesting to think about than a lot of the stuff that actually happens in the film. Men and women will see the film differently from different perspectives, and I plan on doing a whole separate post on that, so stay tuned.

My absolute favourite theme of the movie was how on par the audience was with how Dani was feeling the whole time. She didn't speak the language, understand the rituals or feel at all comfortable, and therefore neither did we, and that element added a really interesting vibe to the film. As the film progresses and Dani starts to become more involved in the cult we start to feel more comfortable as well, which is dangerous, as when things get intense again it hits us as hard as it hits her. This links back to how things could have been shot differently and still had impact; if we could have had shots of Dani looking horrified while we hear what is happening in the background, or shots of her discovering things implying what was going on rather than showing us directly all the time it would have had a stronger impact and connected us even further with the character.

There are other side characters who offer mainly comic relief and plot advancing exposition, as well as kickstarting the whole reason for them going to the festival. Despite how disturbing it was, this film at points was really funny and had some good lines, however it was clear that the Mark character was there just to provide this comic relief and served little other purpose. The humour was handled well however, creating moments of levity that quickly made you worry about what might come next and ruin it all.

Direction & Cinematography

Aster has a knack for creating visually beautiful films while still keeping the creepy vibe he's going for, and this film is no exception. It's gorgeous to behold, and the bright sunny shots make you forget its supposed to be a horror. The whole idea of having a horror film shot almost entirely in daylight is so interesting and I think it was executed well. It was colourful and happy at points and I think the fact it was so different from any other mainstream horror actually made it creepier. You're conditioned to expect scary things to happen when the lights go out, but in Midsommar things can turn around at any moment so you're always on edge. I've said it before, but the first 15 minutes were brilliantly constructed, and were very reminiscent of Hereditary. The scoring was wonderful and fit brilliantly with the theming and there were a lot of lingering shots and close ups, which work wonders to make the audience uncomfortable. I did find there were a few shots that fell a bit flat for me and felt almost cheap and unoriginal in an otherwise brilliantly edited and shot film. The tracking shot of the car that then slowly turns upside down and the layering of images when Dani is getting tired are all cool shots, but felt a bit forced and unnecessary in the midst of everything else. I also found the nightmare sequence a bit strange, as it showed us nothing we didn't already know, and again was just a bit of a typical trope which I don't really expect from Aster and his movies.

I think this movie's main downfall will be that people won't 'get it'. This stems from A24's advertising choices, as they tend to advertise their movies to feel like something different, which is a risk, because when the audience gets in they're faced with something they weren't expecting and thus react to it differently. There's so much in this film that is unfamiliar, both in real life and in terms of modern movies, which has the tendency to alienate audiences, especially if they're not expecting to see it. This film is definitely not mainstream and does require attention and will power, which a lot of modern movie-goers, especially horror fans, are not necessarily willing to give. This of course is perfectly reasonable, as most people see films for an escape, so it's understandable that if they went to see Midsommar just to watch another horror film, which is how it was advertised, they would be shocked at what they actually saw. We aren't used to hearing cultish chanting in Swedish or suddenly being shown a room of naked women, so we don't know how to act when we are, and a lot of the time the first reaction is to laugh. These kind of instinctive reactions need to be considered by screenwriters and directors when going for suspense; they can't expect a theatre full of people to sit stoney faced while all this goes on. Sometimes scenes like the sex scene need to be included to further the plot, but I think some, this one included, go just a step too far and push the limits of the audience too much, and thus takes away from the intensity already built up and the atmosphere the film has worked so hard to create.

Personal Opinions

If I'm honest, I think I am mainly to blame for me not liking this film very much. I went into this film knowing far too much about it having ready spoiler reviews and the IMDb page. I think if I'd have gone in knowing less about it it would have had a bigger impact on me, but its hard to say if that impact would have been positive or negative. I was in suspense for the wrong reasons throughout the film, on the edge of my seat only because I was waiting for things to happen, and I think that really changed the movie for me. I think it had so much potential and Aster is without a doubt a brilliant director, it just got too caught up in itself and decided about half way through it wanted to tell a different story. I think my experience was somewhat ruined by the other cinema-goers if I'm honest, as when the whole theatre couldn't control their laughter the mood wasn't the same afterwards and the last half an hour dragged by. I'm sure I'll revisit it at some point in search of things I missed, but right now my overall feeling is disappointment about a film that could have been so much more.

Final rating: ★★★☆☆

Did you enjoy Midsommar? Let me know!

Stay tuned to hear my thoughts on the different sides of Dani and Christian's relationship.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8772262/