Ari Aster's MIDSOMMAR (2019)

he's canny enough to go for something a little different here

well if the trailer is anything to go by it's all daylight, which is definitely an interesting (and challenging) choice

i thought hereditary was great, i'll watch the shit out of this - i really like the sun-dappled look of the cinematography

florence pugh's been great in everything i've seen her in so far, keen to see what she does here

new trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vnghdsjmd0

I'm going to avoid watching the trailers, but really looking forward to this. I saw Hereditary just a few days ago and loved it.

Conflicted about watching the trailer; considering Hereditary’s trailer had as much deception as some of the choices in the film itself, I can only imagine the Midsommar trailer would be well-crafted and avoid giving away anything you wouldn’t want it to ahead of time.

midsommar murders

Yes please:

https://pitchfork.com/news/the-haxan-cloak-releasing-score-for-new-film-midsommar/

interestingly polarized reactions on twitter so far, many raves but a few vicious dissenters. should be interesting.

I feel like this type of movie should be perfect for me, but they never go dark enough.

Hm. Okay, hopefully non-spoilery thoughts: Aster's metier, clearly, is trauma and survivorhood. That's what he explores, consistently. The question is how he constructs the vehicle. In this case I would add there's a definite sense being raised of *how* trauma/survivorhood is understood and interpreted not merely by the survivor but those around the survivor, especially, in this case, beyond family as understood, as opposed to <I>Hereditary</I>'s clear internal focus on family. I think this film will be one to reflect on with time, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, and I look forward to others' thoughts. Beyond that: beautifully shot (the all-encompassing/oppressive sense of light and its rare muting or absence is handled extremely carefully), some actual funny moments, truly striking diagetic (mostly) Haxan Cloak score. Will say that how the scenes are stacked to show all sorts of activity going on that is never fully explained (and doesn't need to be explained) is one of the film's strong points. Would add that this is clearly a case where if you know your horror tropes you kinda know where it's all going, which may or may not frustrate you -- this isn't <I>Wicker Man</I> redux, say, but it's a film that knows its heritage. Final note: it's LONG. Give into a pee break if you think you need it.

Oh and this is accurate:

#Midsommar spoilers out of context. pic.twitter.com/B70gkiMb8K

— JustinKnoepfel (@JustinKnoepfel) July 3, 2019

tbh I just want to know how long it takes them to kill the black guy

Final note: it's LONG. Give into a pee break if you think you need it

This gave me pause. But I'm going to a 10 a.m. screening. See you on the other side!

140 minutes

comedy and horror generally benefit from being compact

roundup (possible spoilers)

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6472-ari-aster-returns-with-midsommar

gonna end up seeing this despite how much i hated hereditary, hoping for the best. the length does not give me a lot of hope tbh

Also, now that I’ve had a night to sleep on it — sound design is pretty crucial in this film. Grief and its aftereffects are portrayed visually (natch) but the underscoring of how someone can *hear* differently in its throes is something that really stands out to me all the more. Like it is an aural representation of shock and what it means to work through it — things are murky, unclear, you feel disoriented, sudden memories overwhelm you and your senses don’t ‘work.’ Again, it’s there visually to a degree but the sound design really underscores it, and arguably has both vivid moments of sudden actualization in the narrative, making itself manifest and then part of a greater whole, leading to an ending where it is absolutely central on several levels. This might be one of the strongest such efforts in terms of how grief is portrayed since Twin Peaks season 3, though instead of Lynch’s operatic dream tragedy and confusion via sound, this is somewhere where we are constantly looped back into an internal headspace projected outward. It’s very striking the more I think about it.

the length does not give me a lot of hope tbh

An edit or two wouldn't've hurt anything.

Took me a little more thought but I finally put my finger on something that helps me think about the film: two themes, maybe more implied than directly stated, are culpability and conscious guilt. This plays out to the end, but in a way where I’m not entirely sure whether the resultant ambiguity is intentional. This could just be an overread on my part, though.

Also manipulation is more obviously central as well the more I think about this. I was initially treating the cult trappings as just that but the more I think about it the more obvious it is that you have to separate the actual 'trappings' part -- the rituals, the visuals, etc. -- from what a cult is like in any form. This all still feeds into grief as the core. And I'll finally stop for now.

It's dark enough.

I am intrigued by some ppl criticizing it for being not scary/horror-y enough (not seen yet), since I rewatched The Wicker Man recently and it reminded me how just a few plot trappings and a creepy scene or two were once more than enough to earn you the tag. Now people tend to whinge about classification if it's not wall-to-wall slayings or hauntings.

Yeah this is a movie with a very slow burn, one or two incredibly grotesque scenes, and the aftermath of same.

my main point of curiosity is what this guy can do without the WMD that was Toni Collette. Don't think I can handle a Hereditary rewatch just yet but I'm unsure how much of what I loved about that movie was her or the direction.

This movie is unthinkable (and unendurable) with the casting of Florence Pugh.

without, you mean?

haven't seen her in anything so don't have any expectations.

tired: midsommar

wired: midsummer murders

yeah, without

haven't seen her in anything so don't have any expectations.

See Lady Macbeth at first opportunity.

yep

oh shit, i had forgotten about that and yes she is amazing in it. that's reassuring.

the emphasis on casting and performance as being discrete and separable from directing is....weird to me

Alfred's got his review up -- there are spoilers so only read if you've seen it or if you know you're not going to, but I think it's a very sharp read on the film, including problems that I didn't address properly (but which DJP rightly noted upthread):

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2019/07/03/midsommar-wants-to-be-more-than-a-horror-film/

when you’re at an elite festival but IG is down pic.twitter.com/UGzBCtGTCG

— Eric Allen Hatch (@ericallenhatch) July 3, 2019

I literally just got out of this film and one of my first thoughts was “I bet Eric Hatch is on this”

Alfred's got his review up -- there are spoilers so only read if you've seen it or if you know you're not going to, but I think it's a very sharp read on the film, including problems that I didn't address properly (but which DJP rightly noted upthread):

I finished the thread, just read DJP's remark -- yep. The racial politics are....fucked up.

The racial politics are....fucked up.

I'm not gonna get around to this movie till it's on Amazon Prime, so if answering my questions would require too much spoilage feel free to ignore me, but...is there much made of the black guy being "a black guy," or is he just seen by the villagers/cultists as "not from here" just like the other protagonists? In other words, is his role in the film to be "the black guy" or is he a real character? And if it's the latter, why is it necessary or even good for a film set in a weird European village to hew to contemporary US racial politics?

You know what, never mind.

The summary on Wikipedia doesn’t even mention which character is black.

why is it necessary or even good for a film set in a weird European village to hew to contemporary US racial politics?

I mean, the writer-director is American (along with, we can assume, the bulk of the financing) and the festival is made up, so it hardly seems out of bounds

It's also a well-known horror trope that black people in those movies largely exist to be brutally murdered in front of or in the vicinity of the Final Girl

I'm not gonna get around to this movie till it's on Amazon Prime, so if answering my questions would require too much spoilage feel free to ignore me, but...is there much made of the black guy being "a black guy," or is he just seen by the villagers/cultists as "not from here" just like the other protagonists?

SPOILER

All these things, and he's the most committed to research, the smartest, yet he must collaborate with the boyfriend-asshole.

Lots of insane stuff in this movie but IMHO the most audacious move was to visually reference the Wicker Man remake during the climax. That is some next level cinematic trolling.

Good new Haxan Cloak interview re the score:

https://thequietus.com/articles/26744-the-haxan-cloak-midsommar-ari-aster-bobby-krlic-interview

Also worth noting — when I mentioned to my partner how I thought all the constant background activity was one of the film’s best points, she immediately said it made her think of Drowning By Numbers. Lo and behold, Krlic brings up that both he and Aster bonded over a mutual Peter Greenaway love among other things.

Seeing this tonight, but another thing I find interesting about this guy's movies is that no one can seem to agree about their degree of intentionality. I saw someone on twitter argue, for instance, that the ending of this one was "funny" and "wasn't supposed to be." Meanwhile in an AVClub interview Aster says he thinks of the movie as a dark comedy and specifically cited the ending!

I’m a bit bemused at the idea of seeing this film and thinking the humour was unintentional

Ari Aster is incredible at inserting bleak humor into his films. The reveal at the start of his short The Strange Thing About the Johnsons is simultaneously the darkest and funniest sight gag I think I've ever seen.

I enjoyed this.

Spoilery question - after the boyfriend was supposedly taken to the airport, did anybody else hear a woman screaming in the scene a few minutes later?

Yeah that was clearly Connie.

Figured. Thought that was a great touch. It was unsettling.

Loooooooved this for so many reasons. Haven’t read the thread yet. Some things I liked including but not limited to :
— casting no famous ppl, yes
— Dani was perfect, the intro scenes set up her emotional state perfectly, her face!!
— in spite of some of the gruesome scenes (the cliff!!), nothing about this movie rung gross to me
— I’ve never seen a cis het male character so obviously uncomfortable in a sex scene and I appreciated that, nice change of pace

Midsommar is a family drama transcendental comedy* disguised as a horror movie

*quite like this term. applies as well to...ooh, Toni Erdmann? some von Trier?

Midsommar’s wikipedia plot summary made more sense and was easier to follow than Hereditary’s

just watched this and i felt i saw a bjork music video fleshed out for 2+ hours.

https://a24auctions.com/auctions/midsommar-harga-collectibles/

"put your disgusting dick away!"

this is one of the most idiotic films I've seen

in that case, will I watch this a third time? maybe

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 8 January 2020 19:57

someone watched it three times. The idea that a ritual could occur every 90 years is the stupidest thing I've encountered in any stupid movie script.

wait til u hear about the "bicentennial"

I resist posting on popular movie threads about terrible films that people have enjoyed, for whatever reason. Fine, who cares... but this film is just enragingly stupid in every way.

You don't get it, man, it's a horror movie. It's supposed to be dumb.

good movie

I enjoyed it

but jed_ said you're wrong

And I'll never get over the shame of my rongness

It wasn't great but it was very good. Sorta like It Follows. It doesn't hold up to close scrutiny but I really liked the thrills.

The idea that a ritual could occur every 90 years is the stupidest thing I've encountered in any stupid movie script.

?????????????????????????????

EVER??

not even the stupidest thing about this great movie

The idea that a ritual could occur every 90 years is the stupidest thing I've encountered

I bet you hated Chrono Trigger then

would absolutely watch Ari Aster's Chrono Trigger

I know a ritual that occurs only once every 90 years YOU HAVING SEX ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

but jed_ said you're wrong

― muntjac wagner (Neanderthal),

I did?

What a bizarre gripe to have (xps to jed_)

the most nonsensical plot point of all time will always be the plot to Double Jeopardy with Ashley Judd

I mean...fucking Signs...

dicks out for Halley's Comet 2061

clearly none of you have seen the life of david gale

a film that fairly dared you to see it

oh haha, I haven't, but I read the plot summary, and....you ain't wrong.

Oh come on, the most nonsensical plot point of all time is "Jaws 4: The Revenge," in which the vengeful shark (I assume not the same shark that blew up in the first movie, though who knows) now has a psychic link to the Brodys and follows the family from New England down to the Bahamas. And then when they get there they all get wasted and have this weird pagan sex ritual.

The people or the sharks?

All of them, together.

"It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all."

I worked for the sharks

I was determined to read this entire thread before commenting because I didn't want to just reiterate what others have said and also because I always think it's rude to just barge into a long thread you haven't read and just start pontificating. Which is why it took me a year to return to this thread and post something! There are some really great insights above, learned a lot from reading the whole thing. But I just re-watched and wanted to comment on a few things:

Maybe the most true-to-life depiction of the psilocybin experience I've seen on film
The whole 'I don't want to meet new people' is perfect psylocibin talk
― frame casual (dog latin), Monday, July 15, 2019 6:50 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is otm, and I agree that it’s the most accurate depiction of a trip I’ve seen on film. Now, I know nothing about making films, so for all I know this simulation of a drug high is to fledgling filmmakers what the “looper pedal” is to people who don’t know anything about guitar effects (“but there’s only one of her! How is she doing that?”) but I thought it was really well done.

I also thought to myself that all of them should have realized they were doomed at the antestuppa ceremony. No community would let outsiders see that, for fear of them fleeing and exposing them. You either die or you become a Horge!
― Fuck Trump, cops, and the CBP (Neanderthal), Sunday, July 21, 2019 3:58 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, to me this was obvious. Like there’s no way any of the outsiders would be permitted to leave after witnessing what they did, which is why at some point Pelle is like “sure, you guys can totally write your thesis about this place, go nuts,” because he knew there was no way they’d live to tell about what they saw.

I also want to echo the praise of the sound design. The way sound for Dani sort of gets kind of muffled and narrowed when the elderly woman jumps rang really true to me.

My other very unusual reaction to seeing this film was that I – again, a person who knows literally zero about filmmaking – feel this compulsion to want to EDIT the damn thing. Like, I feel like if you lost, say, 30 minutes of this film by omitting or abbreviating certain scenes that either went on too long or were gratuitous or excessive, it would be a much better film. Many of you have mentioned the recurring shots of the smashed faces, and this is a great example, but I also feel like one or two shots (maybe through the crack in the door?) of the, err, fertility ritual would have sufficed. I've never had this kind of reaction to a movie before: not "this should have been edited better," but "I want to edit this into my perfect version of the film."

Anyway I think I’m ready to finally see Hereditary now

It is a better film imo

rewatched this last night. really held up.

- Christian's low-key obnoxiousness was felt much more strongly this time around. He's a true coward and there are very few scenes where he's not squirming around trying to cover his tracks, pass on blame, elide truth or just plain gaslighting Dani and his friends. Still, I don't know if he quite deserved to burn to death in a bear suit while physically drugged.

- The film never lets up, does it? Or at least for the first two-thirds. It's just relentlessly twisting and turning in terms of plot, mood and style. The opening scenes are just so intense, truly upsetting. Then we actually get to the vilage and the mood lightens for just a short while as Will Poulter does the best depiction of someone on shrooms I've ever seen. In fact I'd maintain that these are the best screen portrayals of the psychedelics I've seen on screen.

- The ending could have been shorter. By the time the denouement plays out, the film's most shocking and arreasting scenes are long gone, and whatever's left feels relatively light, almost comic (in the darkest possible way). The communal singing and groaning, the bear suit - these are entertaining ideas but they elicit a morbid chuckle unlike the opening sequence and the cliff diving scenes which definitely don't. These final scenes feel like they're tipping ever so slightly into farce or a parody of folk horror.

- That said, I think complaints of the film containing too much foreshadowing is missing the point. Yes, it's obvious how this narrative arc is going to play out, but this is very much about the ride

- Despite my complaint that the film tips into farce towards the end, save for a few of Poulter's lines I seem to remember it being a lot funnier the first time around.

- Also, but what a great cast. Flo Pugh is obviously fantastic, but everyone else (including the bit-parts) are so perfectly acted. They didn't do enough with William Jackson Harper though.

I couldn't tell you Herediatry is a better film. It's really not.

i probably just repeated a lot of what i said the first time around there lol

the sounds throughout the ending (the singing, groaning, screaming, crying) were super-intense in the theater - they didn't elicit any chuckles (from me)!

yeah, i was watching this on my beat-up TV this time around so the effect of some scenes was diminished

first time i saw it as at the cinema though

finally watching the director’s cut

this movie is so fucking amazing

Someone should tell those girls they're walkin stupid

lmao

I feel like I wast a whole genre of this movie.

Midsummer
Og Wicker Man

Yesterday I randomly remembered the scene where the kids are watching a DVD of Austin Powers and started lmfao in a hotel lobby

Someone tell those girls they're walking stupid

lol i just came here to post “somebody should tell these girls they’re walking stupid”