MIDSOMMAR is one of the best movies of the summer so far (and 2019 in general). I say that as someone that was not a gigantic fan of HEREDITARY (for those of ya keeping score: previous film by the same dude). It was great, but I thought it could have been shorter. Despite the fact HEREDITARY had some of the best performances of the year, I thought it ran outta steam at a certain point (sorry).
Very quickly, here are a couple reasons why I thought MIDSOMMAR was so great. Just a couple random thoughts I’ve been having about the movie in no particular order since leaving the theatre. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, don’t read this yet I guess:
-It felt like a modern-day Criterion movie.
-When the movie was over, I overheard an older couple talking to each other. A classic North American couple: the wife was wearing one of those shirts with wolves on them that Napoleon Dynamite’s grandmother wore, and the husband looked like tourettes guy. They had the following exchange:
“That was the worst movie I’ve ever seen.”
“Ever?”
“Yup. The worst.”
I love this kind of stuff, because that is usually an indication a movie is doing something exciting. I am an “I want to make movies” type of guy, and if I ever got a film made and managed to get it into theatres, this is the exact reaction from that crowd I’d want.
-There is a distinction between a movie like this and whatever else is available in theatres right now for me, and that is: a film has to really bask in its medium. A “film” for me has to do something special and unique to that particular form. Like for example: if you take most romantic comedies, you can probably recreate the entire experience as a novel and nothing of value would be lost. There is usually nothing very “cinematic” happening in a standard romantic comedy; no interesting choices, nothing innovative, just flat storytelling. The director could leave and the movie would basically still get made on time if everybody there wanted to continue making it. No disrespect to any of those filmmakers, nothing’s wrong with that, etc, I’m just saying: certain movies don’t really do anything interesting with the art form, and that’s fine.
In MIDSOMMAR, I really enjoyed how Ari Aster plays around with your sense of spatial awareness. When Florence Pugh’s character enters an altered state of mind, Aster uses the medium to its full advantage in a way you cannot possibly imagine being conveyed properly in a novel or something (if I had to choose one art form: parts of the film could MAYBE be conveyed as a painting, because the movie is so fun to look at). This film does what very few movies released this year have done, with the exception of maybe László Nemes’ SUNSET: it invites us to fully explore the space&world the characters are in.
-Editing: this is closely related to the above point. The editing in this film takes an active role in telling the story; sometimes the choices are deliberate. Nothing is just presented to you for no reason. In particular: I really enjoyed how the beginning and everything pre-Sweden was put together. The rest of the movie is great too: Ari Aster’s approach to pacing throughout the movie was pretty solid.
-Close-Ups & Florence Pugh: She was great in LADY MACBETH, and she’s pretty awesome in this movie too. Something about her face is very cinematic and says a lot, and Aster uses the power of her face to marvellous effect. Silence says a lot; the use of close-ups in the film overall is wonderful. One of my favourite movies to use a great, lingering close-up on an actor’s face is the movie PIXOTE. It was perhaps the first instance I was able to fully understand, “THAT’s what it’s supposed to look like. WOW.” MIDSOMMAR came very close to taking that “top close-up” spot for me.
-The “trippy” visuals: MIDSOMMAR never overdoes it and goes too far. That’s a problem I have with a lot of these movies: in the attempt to portray some type of altered consciousness, the director often goes way overboard with what the characters are experiencing. Here, everything looks and feels accurate. If those characters were in the same circumstances in real life, the visuals would probably look very similar. At certain moments when the characters were experiencing trippy visuals, you couldn’t notice right away. The hallucinations are not extreme in this movie, sometimes they’re subtle and you’re not sure what to expect next.
-The story felt real: in a lot of horror/thriller or whatever genre you prefer to call movies like this, the story ends up becoming something so far from reality I personally become disconnected. MIDSOMMAR felt like an exploration of something VICE would uncover. It feels real: that is its main strength. At certain points I got Jonestown vibes from the people in this movie. It treats the reality of the situation with full respect, and you’re able to go along for the ride with the rest of the characters. That brings me to the last point:
-The humour. It’s not slap-your-knees funny, but the humour is there in a subtle way. This movie elicited some of the most unique laughter reactions in a theatre I’ve ever heard. When people laugh in a movie it’s generally because: the moment is truly funny. OR: they are uncomfortable with what’s going on and it’s the only way their body can react. In MIDSOMMAR, you rarely know which is which and the two reactions often overlap.
This one goes hand in glove with the previous point because the characters are allowed to be their flawed, shitty, comedic American selves. It really brings the reality of the situation home: this is real and these folks have no clue what they’re in for.