Swedish Meatballs, Breakups, and a really bad trip

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2019)

After walking out of a late night screening of this movie I felt something I had not felt from a film in a long time, genuinely disturbed. Ari Aster's work in this film is simply stunning. From the beginning you are hit over the head with a gut punch, and the film isn't quick to relent. The themes in this movie are heavy: suicide, grief, bad relationships, and violence. Where Midsommar excels is in its ability to draw you into its world. The commune community in Sweden is so well portrayed and executed you begin to understand its language. Like the protagonist Dani, by the end of the film you "feel like you can speak Swedish" in that the symbolism of the commune all lines up nicely.
This is a ethereal film in every sense. Cameras shake and pan in unusual ways. Transitions are creative but not repetitive. The violence and sex in the film is both shocking and uncensored. The result is a movie that clearly has a vision and purpose and hits the ideas its trying to convey effectively.
The cinematography and production design are Oscar worthy. Truly the world created here is so believable and well done that alone is worth the price of admission.
Why this movie is a 9 instead of a 10 for me is that I felt it was a touch too long and could have cut a character or two. Some of the auxiliary doesn't serve that much of a purpose in the greater story of the film.
That being said, I highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers, horror, drama, and character drama. It is a reminder that the human spirit is weird, disturbing at times, and tragically chaotic. Nature is naturally violent, and as is said in the film "nature is effortlessly in balance" and human beings are part of that balance.