Review of Midsommar (2019) by Wd7335 — 17 Jul 2019

This movie might be too smart for the average viewer. Most people who said it was unnecessarily gory or that the violence was too random don’t understand what they are observing. While not a documentary by any means, it was a movie interpretation of a belief system that really existed.

It’s a pretty solid interpretation of pre-Christian Scandinavian beliefs and customs. Maybe a little extreme compared to modern sensibilities, but not fantastical at all. Even the Swedish friend said “we only do this every 90 years”.

I was invited to the movie because someone said I would like it. (I studied culturaI anthropology) I had absolutely no idea what the movie was about. By the name I knew it likely took place in Sweden.

That’s it. About five minutes into them arriving at the commune, I said “those aren’t hippies, those are vikings”. I think that is where people that didn’t like the movie got lost. The movie was about the modern view of life, love, and loss compared to an interpretation of how they were viewed hundreds of years ago.

Look up the term cultural relativism. There is more to it than that, but I think that is the part that is sailing way over a lot of people’s heads. I really enjoyed the “what if that culture had survived into modern days” aspect of the movie.

The movie was nearly perfect. I feel like the protagonists were a little too oblivious to what was going on for too long. Especially considering two were supposedly anthropology students. For the most part, my feeling is that the people that didn’t like the movie wanted more fart jokes or that the movie “needed more Spider-Man”.

It was a little too artsy for some people. “Ow, my balls!” from Idiocracy might be your speed if you “didn’t get” this movie. It makes me a little sad for society when people can’t get a movie like this.

A lot of study and thought went into this movie. It’s not absolutely perfect, but I definitely loved it.