Review: Midsommar

Dani! May Queen!

Midsommar is the latest film by director Ari Aster who gained everyone's attention in 2017's Hereditary and produced once again by A24. The film tells the story of a young American couple who are on the brink of a break-up but remains together when Dani (Florence Pugh) suffers the loss of her parents and her sister's suicide. Christian (Jack Reynor), Dani's boyfriend and anthropology student decides to go on a trip to Sweden with his friends Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter) where Pelle's small commune is about to hold their once-in-a-lifetime fabled mid-summer festival. The idyllic summer getaway takes a turn for the worse when the festival increasingly becomes violent and disturbing. Whenever we speak of horror we immediately think of supernatural forces attacking us from the outside like Hereditary which Aster says is absolutely a horror but in the Midsommar trailers we are led to believe that the terror lies within the Hårga cult that lives in the rural Swedish village but once we view the film, the real horror is Dani and Christian's relationship. Dani often worries herself about what Christian thinks or that's she's leaning too much on him when he never really showed any vulnerability in their relationship, predictably it's Dani who apologizes to her boyfriend for the most part while Christian uses their relationship as an excuse as to why he doesn't have his anthropology thesis set in stone.

The beautiful mural in the beginning of the film.

Before I start talking about the film's merits and some of my criticisms I just want to put it out there that I've seen the film twice before writing this review, initially I've already written a review after viewing it the first time around but felt like I needed to watch it twice to fully take in the film and give it my full attention. On my second watch I really have to say that the film is very well crafted and there are little things sprinkled throughout the film that foreshadows what's to come later on and it's already there at the start of the film and only makes the final product a treasure trove for film fans who love finding these treasure nuggets or should I say runes?

An example of the references in the film on both paintings the 90 year cycle until the next
Midsommar festival and Dani's drug-induced run through the woods later on in the film.

When people compare this to Hereditary the similarities are very minimal, the only things they have in common are the cults though both films touch on the grief, trauma and the loss of family members. Hereditary to me felt like a horror in the traditional sense while Midsommar is more rooted in the reality of a toxic relationship. Dani joins Christian and his friends who are either irritated or indifferent towards Dani and her presence during their much anticipated trip to Sweden. Mark is the obnoxious American tourist of the group, he also makes for a perfect fool as for the most part illicit nothing but disgust and irritation for both the audience and the members of the commune, Josh is the academically inclined scholar of the group who is committed to writing his thesis on the Hårga. Pelle, who invited them to his rural village is the only one who cares for her, and comforts her, he makes a valid point when he confronts Dani on her relationship with Christian. 

Jack Reynor as Christian and Florence Pugh as Dani

To me, one of the themes in the film that isn't mentioned often is commitment. Christian and Mark are committed to themselves, Josh to his academics and Pelle to his commune while Dani aimlessly wanders, still haunted by the deaths of her family and this makes her a marked woman for the cult to lure in, and it's already there once the group arrives for the festivities as they are greeted by one of the elders who greets her 'welcome home'. The relationship between Dani and Christian takes a toll on the former, once they arrive in the commune where Christian becomes a target for Maja, one of the women living in the commune it all goes downhill from there despite the illusion of their relationship still being in tact as presented to the people outside of it. In the end Christian gets his comeuppance while Dani, who for the first time in a long time is happy but it's such a short-lived moment until we finally digest the ending of the film that we the viewers realize that while she's finally free of her hapless boyfriend, she's now also trapped under the thrall of the commune.

The group takes mushrooms before their final stop to the commune.

Ari Aster really is a brilliant filmmaker who I hope will have many opportunities to show us more of his imagination and this is even more ambitious than his directorial debut in Hereditary. The film runs for 2 hours and 24 minutes but it never feels boring or drags in certain places. The production values are also very well done especially since the film has quite a modest budget of $8-$10 million for such an ambitious film that's rooted in world building. The cinematography by Pawel Pogorzelski is lush, and hallucinatory under Aster's direction while the original score by Bobby Krlic can be haunting, fairytale-like and feels very much influenced by the likes of Wagner, his involvement gives balance to the films lush visuals when needed but both Pogorzelski and Krlic never overpower each other's contributions. 

The May Queen dance competition

Overall, Midsommar features a strong cast led by Florence Pugh as Dani, she's a performer who's work I'm previously unaware of but if her performance here says anything it's that she has a maturity that she brings in her roles even her wailing is unsettling. Jack Reynor who plays Christian is one of those brave young actors who go full-frontal for a role, his looks might scream the love-child of Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth but he's a fine young actor, he and Pugh make their characters feel real in the chemistry they shared here. I praise this film because I enjoyed it, but I feel like Christian's character didn't deserve his fate as much as Dani thought he did, perhaps there's something in the 3-hour Director's Cut of the film that gives us that push towards the choice in how the film ends. 

4 1/2 stars.