A kid had to face the world in his own animated version and conquer life's biggest monster. ANI (The Harvest) It's as if a child's imagination is a safe haven, a place where the world is a playground for all the possibilities the mind could think of. And even the tight and humble space called home, situated on a busy Metro could not hinder the inquisitive headspace of a young Mithi (played by Zyren Dela Cruz), a boy who accomplishes the day by playing with his colorful toy robots that perform a vital role in his imaginary narrative. With a loving father and a mother that sings him a self-assuring lullaby, Mithi is blissfully unaware of the harsh reality. But life decided to toy with his fate, and Mithi's perfect little world is now showing its cracks, putting his vulnerability to the test and slowly depriving him of his happiness he thought would last forever. And through his eyes, the world suddenly transforms itself into a menacing monster. Set in a lush
"Midsommar" Movie Review - Madness Under the Midnight Sun
A couple and their friends traveled to Sweden, on a small pagan community to celebrate a mid-summer festival. What unfolds next is gruesome cultural practice that torments in broad daylight.
Midsommar
Before our eyes is a rampaging yet tranquil landscape of pine trees surrendering itself with the destructive winter, slowly suggesting a melancholic and dreadful atmosphere accompanied by a rather disturbing and high-pitched folk lullaby, harboring a sense of depressive feeling and uneasiness. The same opening tone witnessed in 2018's horror film Hereditary, director Ari Aster commits heavily on the structure and presentation of what I call his visual art piece as equally as his commitment to writing his slow-paced yet inviting narrative.
Midsommar behaves on a similar fashion like Aster's debut film, and that both operates on the same cultish terror on top of the lead character's already tormenting state of grief and remorse. So much for an artistic choice, Aster combines blissfully soothing visuals and breathless eye-popping hues with equally perplexing horror elements that clings to one's confusion and intrigue, almost as if looking on a Renaissance painting, full of details yet raising so much justified questions.
But Aster's film doesn't just settle on style over substance. At the center of his cinematic flower-filled canvas comes a fidgeting tale that wasn't made for the anti-gores, carefully laced with a strong commentary on mourning, breakup, and cultural bias. Midsommar is like visiting a distant relative's abode, situated on a faraway outskirts of town, and then eating an experimental lunch or dinner specifically prepared for the occasion, questioning the contents of the meal all the while leaving you with no choice but to take a bite or two.
And true enough, the film is exactly that.
A group of college friends travels to a secluded out-of-sight pagan community in Sweden particularly during a mid-summer festival. For some of them, it was a perfect place to conduct their research for an important thesis project, or just a fun trip for some out of the country sexy time. But Dani (Florence Pugh) sees it differently, and takes the opportunity to collect her thoughts and pull herself back into her sanity, at a time where she's just hardly recovering from a tragic family incident.
The movie is effective at giving the audiences a feeling of distress and a heightened state of mental discomfort, as the camera maneuvers upside down and traverses on dizzying circles like a roller coaster ride, elevated by a brilliant editing all blending well with Aster's slow-burn storytelling. The close-up and wide-shots both invites a looming danger as the story unmasks itself bit by bit and it all works well with the setting, where for the most part, all scenes took place on broad daylight, in a lush greenfield with no sense of what is today or yesterday, under a 24-hour midnight sun, fueling the rather peculiar nature of the film.
The film has a lot of unnerving scenes all orchestrated by a cultural practice, and Aster's aggressive and bold choices makes it more a hard-film to watch with a still face. It was gruesomely impalpable and thus figuratively churns your guts in all imaginable directions. There were some comedic jabs to it but the laughs you were giving was not out of genuine happiness but rather out of sublimed concern and intense panic.
Aster could easily make this film like any other cliched, machete-chasing murderfest, but he ought to just take his time, let the story unleash its dark secrets instead of just shoehorning jump scares for the sake of being shocking and memorable. Of course, the film wouldn't work if the actors themselves aren't on par with the director's visionary. There were some strong performances in here but the standout is definitely Florence Pugh. Much like Toni Collete's frightening facial nuances, Pugh manages to ground the whole craziness with her convincing acting, especially during those scenes where she was required to hold back her emotions and you can just feel an incoming outburst of tears, demanding an inevitable outcry for help. She was just too good and you can see an A-lister written all over her face.
For what is worth, this film is not for everyone and is best experienced with people who has an open mind about outlandish visuals from an insane and talented director.
Let's Be Reel
Overall, Midsommar is a psychedelic acid trip of an experience. It lets you have a thought provoking internal debate of what the actual film was trying to say yet leaves you with nothing all the same.
Recommended but be warned about its graphic content.
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