Review of Midsommar (2019) by Rebecca31 — 10 Jul 2019

If any of you out there would like to experience the sensation of being on drugs without actually taking any drugs well then is Midsommar the movie for you! Thank you Ari Aster for the nightmares, thank you for the distressing images embedded in my brain forever, you’re definitely one of the most unique filmakers out there but I’m honestly frightened of what you’ll make next because I can’t take much more of this. Sorry Ari Aster but between this and Hereditary I feel I’m done with your films, no doubt there is an audience for Midsommar (though I have to question their sanity) but I’m not part of it.

Dani (Florence Pugh), her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and his friends travel to a remote part of Sweden for the fabled mid-summer festival. What’s that? A rural village out in the middle of nowhere? Why yes that does sound like we’ve got a cult on our hands doesn’t it? And you know what that means, eerie singing, some ritualistic sacrifices and lots of scenic shots of people dancing through the fields with flowers and pretty white garments. Call it whatever genre you want because it certainly doesn’t limit itself to only one. It feels like it wants to be a horror, though the result is not a conventional one but it’s pretty damn horrifying at times. Florence Pugh gave everything to this performance, it’s the one good thing I can take away from Midsommar. Jack Reynor simply shows up to read his lines and Will Poulter is the only damn person reacting the way you would expect someone to react in this scenario. He is a genuine mood in this film and adds some much needed comic relief.

As with Hereditary the first half plays out much stronger than the second. The set up was great but afterwards it starts to lose itself. I didn’t hate it and it’s not Mother! levels of bad but at some point I could tell where it was going and lost interest in the plot completely. I felt it didn’t have the atmosphere of a true horror movie but found a way to use graphic violence to unsettle you. I should also note that the way this film and indeed Hereditary portrays grief is really unlike anything else I’ve witnessed onscreen, largely due to Florence Pugh and Toni Collette. Their performance is so raw it’s almost unbearable to watch. And that pretty much sums up Midsommar in a sentence, almost unbearable to watch. That’s what it’s like to endure an Ari Aster movie, you know you should look away but you just can’t, it will push you to your limits and if you thought you didn’t have a limit then maybe Midsommar will help you find it. That’s not to say I didn’t get anything out of it. I laughed on more than one occasion, now whether I should have been laughing or not is up for debate. Yes one should not purchase a ticket for Midsommar without seriously considering if you’re going to want to see it, I know I could have happily gone the rest of my life without seeing it. Recommended for fans of Hereditary, this film is not for everyone, I repeat if you did not like Hereditary then you probably won’t like Midsommar either so you’ve been warned.