Underwhelming, with glimpses of genius buried beneath self-indulgence.

Rating: 6/10 (6 July 2019)

Expectations were sky-high for Ari Aster's sophomore effort following his absolutely horrifying debut Hereditary (2018). Aster's debut feature is a truly unsettling watch and was my favourite film of last year by a country mile. For me, Aster cemented himself as a director to watch out for, and Hereditary easily ranks as one of the greatest horror films of the last ten years. I've been looking forward to Midsommar ever since its announcement. Pitched as a hallucinogenic folk-horror nightmare largely influenced by the brilliant The Wicker Man (1973), Midsommar ultimately serves as a twisted break-up movie. After suffering a traumatising loss, Dani (Pugh) embarks on a trip to Sweden with her boyfriend Christian (Reynor) and his friends to participate in a midsummer celebration festival that occurs only once every ninety years. As friendly as the brightly clad villagers appear, Dani soon discovers that a sinister nature is concealed behind the ritualistic practices that take place during the festival. With her anxieties amplifying and tensions steadily intensifying within the group, it becomes apparent that the villagers have their own ulterior motives that prove to be inescapable once the festivities begin.
Midsommar is a very interesting, if not precariously muddled, sophomore effort from Aster. From a technical standpoint, it's a remarkable accomplishment. Aster's shot composition is flawless and Pawel Pogorzelski's cinematography is outstanding throughout. Visually, it's a beautiful looking film to behold with an illuminous aesthetic fused with infrequent bursts of ghastly, bloody imagery. Florence Pugh is great as Dani, and very much like Toni Collette's performance in Hereditary, Pugh drives the whole thing forward through the emotional sincerity of her performance. With that said, I found Midsommar to be largely underwhelming on the whole with a startling lack of frights.
Clocking in at two and a half hours, it can at times feel like quite a sluggish viewing experience (particularly due to the slow burn approach of Aster's storytelling), and the film would have perhaps fared better if it were thirty to forty minutes shorter. Aster's script contains an assortment of twisted ideas, some of which work rather well (mostly during the films first half), whereas others come across as distractingly ludicrous (not to mention unintentionally hilarious). Unfortunately, Midsommar never quite lives up to the excellence of its first act, in which Aster sets the stage brilliantly for another unsettling nightmare in the same vein as Hereditary, but Midsommar is no such nightmare. It doesn't even come close. Once the third act of the film begins to unfold, Aster plunges into total self-indulgence. The most disappointing aspect about Midsommar lies within its storytelling. Despite its solid concept, it is far too long and frustratingly silly at times, and although Pugh's performance is emotionally engaging, the storyline (that is stretched way too thin) is not. I never felt entirely invested in the plot, which is a startling far cry from the emotional torment and unrelenting terror I felt throughout Hereditary.
Midsommar is bound to divide audiences. It is a film designed to provoke reaction. Even though the films flaws are aplenty, I cannot in good conscience call this a bad film, for there are still moments of genius to commend and technical aspects that are brilliantly crafted. Aster is undeniably a very talented filmmaker, but Midsommar is an underwhelming effort that ultimately fails to tell an engaging story, and most crucially, it never once unsettled or disturbed me.