A brightly sunny and bleak destruction of toxic relationships

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2019)

Beginning in the grey snowy America, an emotionally troubled Dani is struck by the death of her family. And before that she is having relationship problems with her boyfriend Christian, a guy who does the bare minimum to be emotionally supportive for her. In an effort to avoid to having an ugly breakup, Christian invites her to his guys-only trip in a remote Swedish community. There the seeds of their relationship's end take root while the horror shows itself in broad daylight.
While Ari Aster last movie Hereditary was about grief and psychological pain consuming us, Midsommar is about releasing it in a chaotic and destructive fashion in order to heal. As the characters continue to learn about the bizarre and somewhat disturbing traditions of the pagan community called the Hagra, Dani struggles to keep her emotions in check to avoid humiliating Christian. To Christian and his college buddies the Hagra's approach to death, marriage and tradition seem alien to them as Americans. Dani, however, begins to see their connection as a community may actually be more psychologically healthy compared to her own relationship.
The surprising thing about Midsommar is how Aster makes it feel different to Hereditary. Aster shows to have great comedic timing as a director to show the American's oblivious and ignorant behaviour to the Hagra's traditions. He also relies more on the use of bright daylight and exterior wide shots as opposed to Hereditary's dark claustrophobic feel thanks to his returning cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski. The almost heavenly-like sunlight exposes the weird and surreal elements that make the little community feel uncomfortably otherworldly. And it reveals in full glory beautiful set decorations made by Henrik Svensson that creepily foreshadows the disturbing events to come if you look very closely. And the score by Bobby Krlicis is surprisingly beautiful and majestic at times in an otherwise disturbing movie.
Florence Pugh (the only few good things from Outlaw King) stands out as her emotional performance leaves you heartbroken. Pugh plays Dani as someone who acts calm and sane to avoid public humilation but her performance comes out in full force when she lets her character cry out her emotional pain and anger. On the other side of the relationship, Jack Reynor portrays Christian with subtly as a guy who feels trapped in a bad relationship but lazily tries to play the role of a sympathetic partner. Reynor makes Christian seem relatable at first but then later displays how manipulative he can be to avoid taking responsibility. Will Poultier surprises as the culturally ignorant and sexist Mark whom most of the movie's comedy comes out.
While the examination of Dani and Christian's toxic relationship is what elevates the story, the movie's plot is a very standard horror. Most of the twists and surprises are ones would you actually expect in a horror movie. And since Midsommar is very straightforward the long runtime is definitely felt by the last quarter and you get to a point of just wanting to get to the big finale.
Like many other art-house horror films, Midsommar is not for the mainstream audience. It is a slow burn with plenty of gruesome imagery and acts of violence to make you feel uncomfortable and disgusted. But it is also one that has a lot of smart humor to not make the bleakness feel too overwhelming and worth talking about its examination of relationships and cultural appropriation.