An Empty Little Rollercoaster

Rating: 1/10 (10 March 2020)

Films are a method of communication. It is up to filmmakers to articulate ideas, which can be aesthetic or intellectual.
What preconception does is gives filmmakers a shortcut. It's like the use of stock phrases or buzzwords in a conversation. They can be used to establish a common basis, which can then be continued from tangentially to communicate something new. However, if they are relied on heavily they can be used to cover up a lack of substance to be communicated.
Ari Aster is a filmmaker who operates entirely in preconception, without anything being taken further on his part to articulate anything new. Every work starts out with something taboo or seductive ( grieving, breakups) and goes through the most obvious, surface level aspects of these topics and iconography of the central genre trappings both ineffectively, and while refusing to articulate anything that could allow for any form of progression.
His films are successful because Aster has a strong interest in the primal, emotive aspects of film. The films he's enjoyed have a strong initial impact, and even if they've articulated something meaningfully in another aspect he has ignored it in favor of the initial emotional response. His films are inoffensive and operate within the expectation of both a work of "art horror" and the work of an "auteur talent" that the emotional response is not overridden.
We need to look deeper than this initial emotional response if we want film to be a meaningful method of communication. This is especially important since film requires a greater investment both financially and in terms of external involvement than other mediums. To base our opinions, and therefore popular canon, on pure initial emotional response, we misdirect our attention and potentially deprive more articulate filmmakers the opportunity to express themselves.