"Midsommar” Review
So after having gone through a bad break up, Ari Aster decided to write and direct Midsommar (not to be confused with the 2003 Danish film of the same name that deals with very similar themes and settings).
Throughout the screening, I was trying hard to not compare this to Hereditary but they seem to be different sides of the same coin. Both are extended contemplations on grief punctuated with folk horror elements. While Hereditary felt very original and fresh, Midsommar feels like a straight up reimagining of The Wicker Man and an amalgamation of several folk and pagan horror tropes. If you've seen The Wicker Man, there won't be any surprises here story-wise. That might be disappointing to a lot of people but its existence in contemporary horror is interesting with folk horror being one of the more lesser known film sub-genres. Another thing I was disappointed by were its side characters -particularly the ones played by William Jackson Harper and Will Poulter. Although they were both good in their roles with most of the best comedic relief coming from Poulter's lines, they felt way more ancillary to the story than I had hoped to the point where I think they could've been combined into a more compelling character or removed entirely instead of having one act mainly as an exposition device and the other used solely for comedic relief. That all being said, I really really really liked this movie a lot.
Undoubtedly, Ari Aster has championed contemporary folk horror like nobody's business. Once again teaming up with cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski and editor Lucian Johnston to deliver one of the most gorgeous cinematic displays ever put together. Every shot and cut is filled with tension and impact, each moment is in complete service to its atmosphere and performances with Florence Pugh being a clear standout. We see her at her absolute worst and at her most ferocious and she's able to play these emotions like a fiddle. While Aster and his crew has a chokehole at my throat, Florence Pugh has a dagger to my heart.
Big kudos to its costumes, set design, and dance choreography (yes there's dancing in this and it's as relentlessly wondrous as it is exhausting). Also the movie has one of the best sound editing and sound mixing... ever -featuring long sequences of near-silence and psycho-psychedelic soundscapes led by Bobby Krlic's (aka The Haxan Cloak) score which is a perfect mix of neo-romantic and modernist western classical music and diegetic folk choir passages culminating in one of the most memorable horror film scores in recent memory.
Midsommar is a slow, meditative epic that portrays past folk horror tropes with extreme competence. It's a technical marvel crafted by an emerging master of horror and drama. What it falls short in story and character, in my opinion, is completely made up by its incredible audio and visual presentation. It's a must-see for any cinephile and aspiring filmmaker but may be extremely boring and familiar to other viewers. Like The Witch and Hereditary, Midsommar will undoubtedly be polarizing among critics and audiences for years to come.