Unfilmable 29: Midsommar
Added 2021-07-30 21:01:01 +0000 UTCThis month we have a movie that could have been entirely avoided if couples knew when to break up. Dani is suffering from traumatic grief, Christian is her insensitive boyfriend, and they're both taking a trip with some college friends to a remote Swedish community that has some secrets. Dark secrets, of course.
Comments
I just exited a relationship on Friday where I no longer felt the spark and hearing the opening of this I feel a sense of vindication for not allowing myself to end up a POS like Christian
Fromaginator
2022-05-12 22:08:58 +0000 UTCJust got around to listen to the review. I really enjoyed it and you had many interesting observations about the movie. I especially liked your analysis of Dani and Christian's relationship. Personally I think I liked the movie overall a bit less than both of you guys. The first 30 minutes of the movie are amazing. It is scary. The relationship between Christian and Dani is very interesting and nuanced and I got really invested in them. My problems start once they get to Sweden. More specifically, I really don't like the cult and how it is portrayed. My first issue is with the cult itself. A cult is a horror movie cliché. We have seen it many, many times, and for a good reason. Cult are scary. They are filled with mystique. And in a movie, they are used to justify events that would otherwise be too unbelievable (human sacrifice, ancient rituals etc). It is a cliché because there is something inherently interesting and unique about it. A movie is allowed to use a cliché, but only, and only if, it does the work to integrate the cliché into the rest of the movie. It must be attached to the central drama of the story and feel like a natural part of it. This is where Midsommar fails, in my opinion. I usually love cults in media but in Midsommar the cult feels like a completely foreign element that is stuffed into the movie without any justification on a story level. It seems like the filmmakers needed some scary, evocative element to act as a backdrop for their characters, searched the shelves in the “horror” library, found “cult”, and put it directly into their movie. First of all the cult feels very unspecific. It has a lot of details and evocative elements (blood angels, rituals, may queens, old books) but none of them really hang together and make sense. It feels like you could take any one of them out and it would make no difference at all. It does not feel thought out. It’s like the filmmakers are saying: “Hey! Here is a cult. They do weird things. Don’t think too much about it, please!”. Another problem is that the movie does very little to justify the cult's existence. Midsommar does take place in the real world. People have cell phones, arrive at the cult in modern cars, go to study abroad etc. Why would anyone from the real world join this horrible, murderous cult? Why would modern, Swedish people drive out to the country in their Volvos to be a part of it? What is the benefit to them? Are they forced to do it? We don’t get any good explanation for this. The only explanation the movie gives is a vague mumbling about traditions, and that is just very, very weak to me. The people of the cult are more like Santa's elves who kill, make love, cook and dance, whatever is needed to make the plot go along. Almost like they are actors instead of the real people we are supposed to believe they are. But hang on, one might say, the movie is not about the cult. It is about the relationship between Dani and Christian! Who cares about the stupid cult? That brings me to my second issue, which is how the cult is integrated with the story. For me, the different elements of a movie have to melt together and become more than the sum of its parts. The setting has to enhance the drama, the drama has to enhance the setting etc. Because the cult is so unbelievable and generic, it never manages to enhance the central drama which is the relationship between Christian and Dani. It feels tacked on. An attachment because they needed something “scary”. To me, it feels like they could have exchanged the cult with a summer camp or a haunted house, and the film would have been exactly the same. The cult is just a skin. They use a few things (the sacrifice for instance) but it is on a very superficial level. It never manages to do what good movies do which is to create a unique relationship between the story and its setting. It could have been so great if the cult had more personality. If it could have been a third player in the conflict between the two. Maybe the cult could have some sympathetic qualities? Something good that attracts Dani and makes her question her relationship. But there isn’t. It is just a backdrop. And unfortunately, it holds the movie back for me. In the end, I am more puzzled than scared. Was I really supposed to take it seriously? I usually love horror films. The Ritual was awesome. This time I just couldn't do it. That being said, I really appreciate your review! And I am looking forward to more like this.
Toke Bruun Jensen
2021-08-17 14:59:46 +0000 UTCHereditary is far and above a much better movie but I've rewatched Midsommar way more. Guess it's because Hereditary is actually emotionally devastating while in Midsommar I just say "Die you idiots!"
Hade
2021-08-15 09:05:51 +0000 UTCNot standing up for yourself is the sin that this horror movie punishes, and it took me a second viewing to see that this extends to the entire group of Americans, not just the main couple. Chidi could have denied inviting Dani on the trip in the apartment scene. In the car ride He Who Is Not Paid could have said, "you nerds have fun at hippie camp, I'm gonna party down here in Stockholm." I also reject the "girl power" interpretation along with you. While Christian is certainly an asshole, the cult went WAY out of their way to make him into a monster, which allowed Dani zero need or opportunity for self reflection. This is another relatable relationship thing, where your friends and new lover will amplify the guilt of your ex to absurdity, turning them into a subhuman who "bears" all the blame for everything that went wrong while you were always a perfect saint. The message I got from both Ari Aster films is: "Not every tragedy makes you a stronger person. Sometimes when bad things happen, you learn the wrong lesson and your life becomes worse for it."
Matthew Lee
2021-08-04 17:48:07 +0000 UTCJust wanted to say I love this series. This might have overtaken BSC and ETG as my favorite show on the network! If I can add a suggestion; just watched As Above So Below for the first time and enjoyed it. Its a rip off of Tomb Raider but feels like an Abyssal D&D campaign once you get past the awkward first act. Antichrist would be another one to consider; pretty messed up movie but worth it for Willem Dafoe being a manipulative psychiatrist prick
Timeandwatch
2021-08-02 20:32:43 +0000 UTCIt's an episode of Duckfeed Presents. Click that tag, it's a couple scrolls down.
Duckfeed.tv
2021-08-02 18:18:24 +0000 UTClow key the scariest part of Midsommar for me, in a yelling at the characters “GET OUT! DONT DO IT” way, is when Dani relents to taking the mushrooms. Absolutely horrible time and place in her life to trip, even if the horga turned out to be perfectly safe it would have been a bad idea. The way hallucinogenic effects are presented in the movie is REALLY well observed, it captures the slow unnerving come up that’s the hallmark of even a good trip (and hoo BOY is this movie a bad trip). Contributes to that theme of being trapped, that’s a unique horror that accompanies the feeling of a scary psychedelic experience, that it’ll never end and you’re stuck in this discomfort.
sleepysmiles
2021-08-02 15:17:15 +0000 UTChow do we find your original discussion? I haven’t seen the director’s cut yet and don’t want any spoilers.
Lynk Jonesy
2021-08-02 12:57:29 +0000 UTCHoly shit. Gary's 'I have no culture, that's why folk horror works so hard on me' is really working for me. I'm such a folk horror fan, and I guess, on reflection, that yeah that's pretty much why. It's the terror and awe of people feeling a tradition that I just never feel in my regular life. Well done boys; a great listen.
Lewis Shaw
2021-08-01 09:50:18 +0000 UTCme - how am I going to get through these last hours of work!? *Unfilmable 29: Midsommar had been released* me - thank you.
cojiro123
2021-07-31 20:42:45 +0000 UTCI just revisited the episodes on Hereditary and Midsommar today. Y'all peepin'?!
Corey Hiscocks
2021-07-30 21:34:00 +0000 UTCOh my God, Yes! I've been waiting for this episode for so long! Thanks guys!
E E
2021-07-30 21:29:46 +0000 UTC
