ari aster is just a brilliant storyteller. and filmmaker. two films two wins. this one is a reflexion on grief and mourning done in a very insightful way.

Rating: 9/10 (17 May 2020)

I watched midsommar a whilbe back and i loved it. it's very different from this movie, more raw and contemplating, but also disturbing and most of all clever and very well shot. this is mostly a story about grievance and loss - while midsommar is more about a breakup. they both grab very common human feelings and put them into a movie pedestal - a bit what lynch did in eraserhead which was about his fears of becoming a father.
i'm not sure but it's possible aster will go that way. both this and midsommar still are in a way "closed" movies, we can explain everything from front to back, even though we have problems on figuring it out firstly. i just watched this film and need already to make a lot of thoughts in my head in order for all to make sense. but what we have here is a family that needs to deal with grief, loss and the feelings of guilt. all of those put in an horror movie that metaphorically grabs them and conveys them into its universe.
in a way the characters are feeling different things: one is feeling complete guilt, the other loss and desperation and i also think we have mourning and confusion. instead of putting this into a drama we have a very well crafted horror film beautiful shot (the camera movements aster does never cease to amaze me - the long shots where we can identify so many elements inside a scene, the shots from night to day, the panoramics around the head of the characters...) brilliant cinematography and music too. why a horror film: well we can argue that those feelings are scary. because they are. they make us powerless incompetent, inept, and most of all impotent. we're very fragile in those moments.
this fragility seem to affect everyone in this family. i think what to movie wants us to understand is how the human being can't live without certain type of certainty - usually invented by his own brain. when collete's character doesn't have it...she explodes. everyone does. we can even argue that the "horror part" is kinda ust a gimmick to divert from what this movie is: a piece about human powerlessness. but it fits so well in the genre it's so well shot, told and acted that we can't do anything but applaud.
i did enjoyed more midsommar than this - this one is more conventional i thought midsommar more brave styllistically speaking. but i can't do anything but applaud again. i don't know what aster does next but this kind of stuff can make him a classic director. let's wait and see.