Convoluted

Rating: 5/10 (8 July 2019)

I thought Hereditary was one of the best films of last year (if not the best). So I hoped that Midsommar would be approaching the same quality. Alas no. Midsommar is convoluted, messy and doesn't really follow any sort of satisfying arc. It meanders along without any of the ratcheting of tension that Hereditary did so well. There is little that is exciting or compelling. It just seemed quite shallow but pretty looking. Perhaps there is a very clever hidden message in the film that explains everything and makes it much more compelling, but it wasn't present on screen. And for me, that is a basic film-making failing. The film is also massively long - which contributes to its unnecessary and meandering feel.
A real pity, I really wanted to like this. It seemed to follow hot on the heels of hereditary so perhaps Aster just wasn't allowed the same time to craft something as good. Hopefully he takes a longer time for his next film.
Something else that pops up with his two films are the themes of cults and family. Perhaps he could try not repeating the same themes for the next film? He has said enough about family and cults in Hereditary so it was unnecessary to retread old ground in Midsommar. Perhaps that is why it went wrong. It felt tired and 2nd hand.