Ari Aster's Midsommar (2019)

[Kane52630]

 

[Closerframe]

Finally saw the movie and....not gonna lie, I hated it. It's really just a poor-man's Wicker Man. And not even of the "Nic Cage screaming about bees" kind, and that's saying a LOT. When it's not trying to be out of nowhere trippy or shocking, it's surprisingly boring. "ZOMG THAT OLD GUY WHO JUMPED OFF THE CLIFF'S BADLY MAIMED AND HAS GOTTEN HIS HEAD BRUTALLY CAVED IN JUST TO FINISH THE JOB!" Seriously, that kind of shock gore needs to stop; it's a cheap tactic for arthouse horror right now IMO.

And maybe I'd like the ending more if it weren't made painfully clear that the movie, right from the start, is doing EVERYTHING in it's power to make Florence Pugh's character's life a living hell just so she can be manipulated in the position she ends up in in the end. ESPECIALLY the whole "her sister murders her family and then herself" thing at the start. And we never even meet those characters prior to that even for a second.That's ****ing disgusting and cheap if you ask me. Say what you want about the Nic Cage Wicker Man remake, but at least that movie showed the car crash incident that traumatized Cage at the beginning! Imagine if it instead opening with his old cop partner visiting him and then mentioning that incident instead? It'd be the same thing as this! And yeah, Pugh's boyfriend was an insensitive ass, but not enough to justify being drugged, raped and framed for infidelity just so he could be scarified in a really goofy manner at the end!

In the end, this whole thing rings hollow and I hope Ari Aster makes a much better movie than this next time. Hereditary was great, but I get the feeling he wrote Midsommar prior to that one, because that's what this whole movie feels like: a really messy rookie first script that never got more than one draft.

3/10

You’re completely entitled to your opinion, but I definitely had a different impression. Overall, Midsommar is this generation’s Wicker Man. Both depict outsiders entering a foreign land under misleading purposes and those very outsiders judging the rituals of the natives. Sure, one could understand why it seems like Midsommar is just trying to mimic an almost 50-year-old cult classic, but it goes beyond the Christian purists versus pagan doctrine prescribed. I wouldn’t call its gorier scenes added for shock value, they’re actually made to invoke a sense of bewilderment and awe (for some). One could criticize the unnecessary nudity of Wicker Man in the form of women jumping over a flame to impregnate themselves or Willow singing to the officer in the room next door.

Regarding Pugh’s character, I don’t think the film goes out of its way to make her life a living hell. It seems like she’s been living a very common life up until the point her sister kills herself and parents. She has a crappy selfish boyfriend, a lack of friends, and underlining emotional insecurities. This doesn’t seem too far fetched. And I don’t even think the village people manipulated her all that much. They were pretty straightforward with her out of anyone and she still had her boyfriend sacrificed. If anything, her trauma brought her to a place where she felt accepted.

 

[Motown Marvel]

The May Queen dress is up $30K.

Lawd...

Sold for $65,000!

Not gonna lie, if I were a rich bastard with a bank to spare, I'd have done the same.

 

[kvz5]

An individual nabbing it would be more fun though...
http://twitter.com/IndieWire/status/1262849072249155584

 

[Boom]

Includes a foreword from Martin Scorsese.

 

[Kane52630]

Basically every A24 horror movie.

 

[Kane52630]