Trauma bonding

Rating: 9/10 (26 April 2020)

Only on a few occasions have I felt motivated to write a review immediately after finishing a film for the first time, but after taking a quick scroll and seeing just how polarizing this film has become, I felt I needed contribute to the conversation.
Ari Aster deserves some recognition and credit for taking such a bold and unadulterated approach to the horrors of the grieving process. He's made 2 feature length films in the past few years and neither shy away firstly from the extreme violence, horror and neglect that humans are capable of. But secondly, and more importantly, he is disturbingly willing to show the horrifying ramifications of these atrocities on those who survive them.
No one escapes this life unscathed, we all have a personal relationship with death intermittently through our travels until ultimately we no longer can be distant from it. Aster's films act as a Rorschach test for the grieving process.
I dare to say those who are less willing to face the horrors of grief and the human condition are going to be the ones most likely to be repulsed by his films.
His motif is violent and abstract, and his subject matter is difficult, but ultimately Aster is Force feeding us the grieving process unadulterated.
This movie is a marvel of cinematography, it's disorienting it's so gorgeous.
The acting is fantastic, and the score is unnerving but tonally perfect.
This is not a horror film, this is a traumatic experience. But I believe those who are willing to view the film with an openness and an allowance for their own experience to shape their process, the film will offer them a sense of comfort and relatability that is really unmatched in cinema today.
No one in cinema today is making films that are an experience like Aster is, and he should be celebrated for it.