I’m kind of torn? Overall, I really did enjoy it, but was let down.

I feel like I need to talk this through to get a better understanding of how I feel about it. There are elements at work here that excited the crap out of me. The implementation of these elements didn’t feel neat/focused to me, though. Midsommar wears itself on its sleeve in a not so interesting way? Not sure if prectiable is the right word for it,  but in my opinion the presentation of the story could’ve been much more effective. 

That being said, the idea of a Swedish “cult” serving as a metaphor for a break up is just incredible. Seriously, there are so many ambitious components/themes to this that I admire: culture, existentialism, spirituality, relationships, academics, grief, the list goes on. 

In a technical sense, Midsommar is fantastic. Really freaking icredible that the set was built from scratch - it really felt like it, too. For whatever reason, the camera work pulled me slightly out of the movie. The rigidity of the camera even in the midst of those slow wide pans added an aspect/tone of detachment/ woodenness. However, there’s this one scene in particular where a handheld camera is used, and it really brought everything to life. Lastly I love how indulgent Midsommar can be. It’s obvious Aster at one point had a 4 hour cut of this film. I’d love to watch that lol. 

After first viewing, I like the idea of this movie more than the actual implementation of it. Wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up loving this after more viewings! So many scattered thoughts on this one. 

Side note: hoping for Aster’s next movie to be a comedy. This movie was hilarious when it wanted to be.

EDIT: The more we learned about the Swedish cult, the less interesting the film became. Since the break up is such an integral theme, as we learned more about the cult we should’ve learned more about the dynamic of the relationship between Dani and her boyfriend. Instead it more turned into a cult going nuts and then it felt like they jammed the metaphor in at the end reflexively.