Hereditary's great follow up

Rating: 8/10 (5 July 2019)

After Ari Asters debut film "Hereditary", I had that itching feeling some have when I first saw it. I wondered if, like many other directors, his first film was just going to be a fluke. Yes while the directing was amazing, the acting was phenomenal and some may argue if there's enough talent put out it's unjust to assume the next one won't be amazing. But I had my fair share of meeting flukes too (cough cough Nightcrawler then Roman J. Israel, Esq.) and know that too familiar emotion of disappointment . So I went in with normal-to-high expectations, re-watched Hereditary in preparation and went with my brother... And here I am and Midsommar proves that he's a capable promising director and should be looked out for whenever he makes a new film.
Now this movie is obviously similar to hereditary but I wouldn't say it's the same as hereditary. It's almost like a different take on it. Both are about grief and family but both say something different. Hereditary talks about mental illness, family dynamics, and coping. Meanwhile Midsommar talks about toxic relationships, culture, friends and relying on people. Like Hereditary though both have amazing performances. Florence Pugh at least deserves an oscar nomination if not because they didn't give one to Toni Collete last year. She definitely is in her own when it comes to this movie. Not only portraying someone with extreme anxiety very accurately but like Collete shows subtlety where it's needed.
When it comes to the horror aspects that are the tone for both films, they contrast here and there. Hereditary is shot in a dark house to make you feel like someone's watching you in the dark (the parts where you have to almost squint to see what's in the dark not only puts you in the characters shoes but is also unnerving not knowing right away what the danger is). Midsommar has this bright white color palette the whole movie, confusing the watcher of what the time is or how much time has passed (which is brilliant considering the characters in the movie felt the EXACT same way). At points some of the scenes even feel euphoric and striking. Again similar to Hereditary, the way it's shot has a lot of purpose to it.
Just like Hereditary it's well thought out and deserves extra watches for things we missed and things that add extra weight to scenes once you know what happens. Now having time to think a lot about this movie, I saw some female empowerment things there but I need to watch a second time to make sure.
Now comes to the question on whether it's better than hereditary or not. The people I've seen online review this are mixed. My brother for example liked it even more. But where my gripes come in that keep it from a perfect movie or even being better than hereditary (which I think despite being fantastic, for me hereditary wins there) are that it's too slow at parts. Mind you everything they show is essential but they could have gotten there a lot faster, which by the way I think Hereditary did. It's ending too is something that'll make you finally decide whether the movie is fantastic or not liking it. What I think this film did better was expand on the other characters in the film (Hereditary's dad is someone almost no one goes bananas over performance wise.), the horror in general I thought was more disturbing, and being a more complex film (in a good way). There are a small things I could nitpick but I'm going to keep that to myself.
strong7to8/10