Jackson Riley
And that’s one thing you can guarantee with Ari Aster—whether you love his films or hate them, they’ll never get a ‘meh’ response.
It starts in mid-winter
Ironically, Midsommar starts with fifteen minutes of mid-winter, with a set up that could easily stand alone as a short film in its own right. But pay attention, because this is more than just scene setting; it could hold the key to the entire film. This pre-titles segment introduces us to the main characters: Dani (Florence Pugh – Lady Macbeth), her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor – Sing Street) and their friends Mark (Will Poulter) and Josh (William Jackson Harper – “Chidi” from The Good Place). Perhaps more importantly, it introduces us to Dani’s paranoid frame of mind, which is further shattered by a huge family tragedy.
Once the credits have rolled, Midsommar progresses as a typical student travel film, with a bunch of lads planning a trip away. However, instead of taking the action to the bright lights of Vegas for your typical boys’ weekend casino movie that we have seen many times before, Aster takes our gang to the bright sunshine of Sweden where the stakes turn out to be far higher, and there is a great deal more to lose. To make matters worse, after her recent tragedy, the boys now have Dani tagging along, hogging the spotlight and spoiling their fun.
All the fun of the festival
Their destination is a traditional midsummer festival that takes place in a remote Swedish village that seems to have been lost in time. Populated by smiling blonde villagers who live a simple life in wooden huts and barns, it appears to be a bucolic existence—a world away from Dani’s problems. But of course, this is Ari Aster, so nothing is ever going to be as sweet and innocent as it seems. “Have we stopped in Waco on the way?” asks Poulter’s Mark when he sees the cheery commune for the first time.
From here, Midsommar is a slow burner, and Aster is in no rush to crank things up; yet, at the same time, you’ll find that he’s out to subtly disorientate you from the moment the gang arrive in Sweden. Simple tricks—like flipping the frame to put the road in the sky or placing the roofs and floors of the village’s buildings at odd angles—disorientate and disturb you long before any of the creepy stuff starts. These smart touches combine to make the smiling welcome from the white-robed villagers thoroughly disconcerting for reasons you don’t quite understand.
Not a horror film
What follows is not a horror film, though it has its horrific moments. It is not a thriller, though you will never quite relax. It has moments of the surreal and moments of laugh-out-loud black comedy. It is both a break-up movie and a love letter to a simpler life—both Wicker Man and Stepford Wives. It is all these things and more, and yet it is also truly original.
Don’t expect any jump scares or monsters here, but don’t expect to sleep too well, either. Far from spooky darkness and lurking shadows, Aster’s genius is to set his film in the perpetual daylight of the northern latitudes. Yet, he somehow manages to make the atmosphere every bit as foreboding, despite the light.
A trip abroad
More than anything, Midsommar is a thoroughly trippy movie, with our young protagonists ingesting all kinds of local herbs with mind-altering effects. Both the score and the wonderful work by the VFX department ensure that you are taken along on the trip, through pulsating flowers, throbbing tree trunks and grass that grows right through your feet. Florence Pugh’s incredible performance has her every emotion writ large on her face to the point where you start to feel everything she feels.
In fact, we see and feel so much of Dani’s character, and the themes of family are so much to the fore, that I wonder if the whole thing isn’t just happening in her head. There are plenty of clues in the early scenes to back up this theory, and it would certainly explain a lot of what happens later in the film as it gets deliciously carried away with itself. Maybe, just maybe, the whole thing is nothing more than a Midsommar night’s dream?
