Through two feature films and several shorts (of varying notability), Ari Aster has shown that he is a really, really good filmmaker. Yes, he’s most notable for his work in the horror genre, but his films transcend that. They’re obviously terrifying and horribly upsetting, but underneath that there are films that work just as well as dramas. Hereditary and The Strange Thing About the Johnsons are horror films, but they’re also melodramas about family and loss. They’re also incredible. Something definitely happened to Aster, but man does he know how to make a movie. And Midsommar is his best one yet.
Midsommar opens on a snowy day in the dead of winter, which is the most badass way to possibly open a movie with (a variation of) the word summer in the title. And then Aster gets down to business, as a double murder/suicide occurs within the first, I don’t know, ten minutes? From there it becomes clear what the movie is about- Dani (Florence Pugh, in an absolutely unbelievable performance) and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor), and their deteriorating relationship. This simple domestic conflict is typical for an Aster film, but two things set it apart from Hereditary quality-wise. These things are as follows: The first is that it’s absolute art. Not that Hereditary isn’t, it’s just that Midsommar is on another level. The second is that it’s totally batsh*t. It’s a bright, colorful nightmare with dementedly brilliant drug trip sequences and the single wildest sex scene in cinematic history. Pawel Pogorzelski’s cinematography is at its best.
I mean, come on. But there’s more to Midsommar than how it looks. The drama created by the relationships between the characters propels the film to greatness (oh by the way, here’s where the spoilers start, so if you intend to see Midsommar, which you should, read no further). I already talked about how the core of the film is Dani and Christian’s relationship. But there’s so much more at play here. Mark (Will Poulter, who provides the movie with most of its shockingly plentiful humor) and his reluctance to have Dani join them on their trip to Sweden, Christian leaching off of Josh’s (William Jackson Harper of The Good Place) thesis topic, and Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) trying to bond with Dani over their past experiences of loss. These relationships end, respectively, with death by an unknown cause followed by the removal of his face, death by head trauma on behalf of someone wearing a mask of said face, and the decision to condemn a cheating boyfriend to death by burning while inside of a disemboweled bear carcass. That’s why Midsommar works so well- the events of the film are gloriously over the top and upsetting (I’m not going to talk about the ritual suicide scene except to say this: WHYYYYYYYYYYYY AHH GOD WHY), but it’s all rooted in human conflict and human emotion. This is where Ari Aster shows why he’ll be so successful in whatever genre he decides to work in next. It’s why Midsommar is his best film, one of A24’s (the best movie studio in the world, by the way) best, and the second best film of the year so far (it doesn’t quite reach the level of Us). Midsommar is such a masterpiece because, for all of its horror and fantastical elements, it’s very much of this world.
Rating: 5/5
The Movie Files 