The thin line between pure joy and utter pain

Rating: 9/10 (28 January 2020)

This film made my stomach hurt. But what induces such queasiness? Is it because we are presented with ideas that shake the very core of some central things about life, like love, religion, reproduction and sustainable farming? Midsommar exists on the thin line between pure joy and utter pain. It's a place the human mind does not want to willingly traverse. Ari Aster pushes us there and he keeps us there for the better part of three hours. Length is a necessity in this all-encompassing long game.
Much has been made that this artful horror is an allegory for a relationship falling apart; the director himself has pushed this forward so I'm not here to discount that in anyway. It certainly is that in the plainest of terms. Why my brain kept wanting to go bigger picture with it perhaps indicates I see everything in a state of decay? This is getting too personal. Sorry.
Aster is part of a new crop of filmmakers who are genuinely raising the bar for the horror genre, and simply making some of the best movies of today period. He set the bar ridiculously high with Hereditary just last year, and while this doesn't quite get to that level, it's a noble and overall successful attempt.
At times, the big picture, quasi-historical elements of the cult seemed to bog things down. Early on, by its very nature, it was clear that anything could happen, thus negating the onscreen shock of the "surprises" when they did. The idea that much of the action takes place with the characters on hard psychedelics removes some conflict as well.
But Aster thrives in moments. His execution of specific scenes and set pieces, and his knack for nailing realistic dialogue in otherwise unreal worlds are amazing. And he ramps up the visual FX this time around with some of the best if not most lowkey CGI work out there; I can't get those trippy pulsing flowers and landscapes out of my head. Ultimately, while I didn't feel like the movie was more than the sum of its parts, those parts are just too damn good to ignore.