Midsommar is a Gem Which Still Needs to Be Polished

-


This review contains spoilers for the movie Midsommar.

Midsommar is a film which I have complicated feelings toward. In some aspects it's perfect. Visually, it's stunning, and the bright flower specked landscapes linger through the horror. I love the concept of a horror movie where daylight is not safer than the darkness, and I love the strange visual effects which make the plants and flowers breathe and pulse slowly. In other ways it feels restrained. The run-time was cut drastically, and it leaves certain aspects feeling underdeveloped (such as the "unclouded" who frantically scribble the community's holy texts). The film was intended to be a full half-hour longer, and I imagine losing that footage is the reason the movie feels rather incomplete. Don't get me wrong, Midsommar is good, but it doesn't feel fully realized.

Our protagonist Dani is desperately clinging to a failing relationship after the loss of her family. Her uninterested boyfriend feels obligated to stay with her (and to invite her along on his trip to Sweden) because he's essentially all she has left now that her family is gone. Ari Aster stated that this movie is a breakup movie, and it's largely influenced by the disintegration of his own last relationship. Unfortunately, this narrative gets muddled within the other unintentionally more prominent narrative of finding one's own family. Aster claims that the cut footage goes directly against the idea that the cult is Dani's loving new family, and it depicts them as far more frightening than what audiences were exposed to.

However, I find the idea of a young woman choosing a new (albeit strange) family after the loss of her mother and father at the hands of her sister far more interesting than the main focus of the film. The unraveling of Dani and Christian's relationship may have hit a little too close to home for me in some aspects, and I've met many others who agree with the sentiment. The discomfort of their drawn out breakup is excellently depicted, but it doesn't make for a powerful core of a film. Florence Pugh is a phenomenal actress who spends the majority of her time in screen wailing in agony, and it would have been nice if we were permitted to see some depth beyond her suffering.

I understand I'm asking a lot from a film with such a limited run-time. I suppose I'd just hoped for more from the director of Hereditary (one of my favorite horror movies ever made) which had such depth in relation to the complexities of grief and the complexities of family dynamics. Midsommar feels like it wanted to tackle these subjects too, but we meet Dani in the midst of grief so devastating that it feels like we're never truly allowed to meet her.

My main problem is we never really see Dani become one with the Swedish cult. She's crowned and praised, yes, but we never see her embracing their culture or forming bonds with the other members. There's the implication of a romance between her and Pelle (which I like to imagine came to fruition), but aside from some confused questions and her participation in the big dance, she never seems to desire to belong to them or anything other than her boyfriend who she desperately tries to cling to despite him rudely shrugging her off.

I enjoy this movie, don't get me wrong. The cast does well, Jack Reynor's performance as Christian was unsettling enough to make me think of some rocky past relationships, the visuals are stunning, I absolutely adore the soundtrack, and it did what it could with its limited run-time. I suppose I just wanted more from it, and maybe that's just me being greedy and wishing the film had time to fully realize all the aspects it only half presented to me. That being said, if you're reading this review you've probably already seen the movie and most likely have some thoughts and feelings of your own. It's pretty apparent that people either love this movie or absolutely hate it, and while I like it I can certainly understand both sides of the argument.

Midsommar is available for streaming on Google Play, Amazon, and Vudu.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Host Shudder Original Movie Review: The Little Movie That Could

-
Image
The following review of Host  is spoiler free! As the coronavirus pandemic stretches on, filmmakers have found themselves struggling to find innovative ways to continue on in their craft. While movies like Searching  (which is fantastic, by the way) and Unfriended  attempted to provide stories via webcam footage and glimpses of a laptop interface, Host  does it out of necessity rather than due to a stylistic choice. Director Rob Savage uses the pandemic as a realistic backdrop for a relatively simple movie. Due to the technological limitations from actors being restrained to working from their webcams and Host's  devotion to realism, the movie is very brief. It's only 57 minutes long - the length of a free group Zoom call. However, the short length of the movie doesn't hold it back. In fact, it makes Host  a fast and fun horror movie for a season where we can't expect many new films. There's no unnecessary exposition, nor are there lengthy scenes to show us the rela
Read more

The Lodge Movie Review: An Underrated Gem

-
Image
Discussing The Lodge  without spoilers is incredibly difficult, but this review will be completely spoiler free. The basic premise of the horror movie is simple, but admittedly a little strange: two children are forced to spend the holidays with their father's girlfriend in the titular lodge during a terrible blizzard. All three of them are unhappy with an arrangement which sounds disastrous from the start, yet the girlfriend and father decide it's simply what they should do. So, we join Riley Keough in her babysitting adventure isolated in a cabin. My biggest critique is that the writers should have decided on stronger reasoning for Keough to wind up stuck with the two children in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps it could have been a situation more like  The Shining  and less along the lines of "your dad said this is a good idea, so it's clearly a good idea." Silly set-up aside, The Lodge  is decent. The film longs to discuss complex subjects like religious abuse,
Read more

Netflix's Enola Holmes (2020) is Condescending and Dull

-
Image
(The following review is spoiler-free!) "Enola is alone backwards," our protagonist tells us in one of her many monologues. She tells us many things - how she's feeling, what she's thinking, where she thinks she should go next. Her wide gaze is disconcerting and her sunny disposition grating. This isn't Sherlock Holmes, this is Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill playing dress-up. Everything about Netflix's newest release is grating. Its mystery begs us to care for cartoonish characters who speak to us as if we're watching an episode of Dora the Explorer. Showing rather than telling is thrown to the wayside in favor of constant fourth wall breaks to beat your sense of immersion into a bloody pulp. Enola Holmes  wants you to know that you're watching a movie, and that it's the funniest, wittiest, and most important movie you're ever going to see (unfortunately, in light of recent events that very well may be true). From its fast-paced editing to
Read more