ok much like Phantom Thread, this
- hits so much stronger a second time
- is just the most delightful fairy tale in the most twisted of ways 

it’s an interrogation of faith in all of its folly and wickedness yet also its beauty and necessity, all through the lens of your everyday, contemporary grad students (Mark’s ignorance, Josh’s hubris, Christian’s complacency, and Dani’s isolation). 
the Harga’s mantra of compassion is at once fulfillingly hopeful in essence while deludedly horrifying in practice and if that doesn’t sound like a probe into our own various belief systems, then i don’t know what is.

Aster has created an endlessly entrancing nightmare and i can’t get enough of it.
2019 ranked.
A24 ranked.