Midsommar (2019)

* major spoilers *

Dani Ardor is used to putting aside her own feelings in favor of others. The first scene of the film has her holding back tears and desperately trying to sound casual while asking her dismissive boyfriend Christian for emotional support. Then she experiences an unimaginable loss. Christian is physically there, but she is constantly bottling up her grief and panic attacks by herself. At every turn, her own needs and feelings are put aside for others (usually Christian). When she finds out from his friends that he's going to Sweden for a month and a half and already has a ticket, Christian spins it as an attack on him and she ends up apologizing just to get him to stay. When they arrive in Sweden and she doesn't want to take the psychedelics right away, Christian and his friend Mark pressure her into taking it right away. Dani spends much of the film saying things are ok when they're not and explaining away Christian's bad behavior. The one support that she has is in an unnamed friend who gives her good advice, but it's one phone call before the tragedy and she doesn't appear again.

Christian and his friends aren't the best people for Dani to travel with. Christian constantly gaslights her and browbeats her with his wrong opinions until she agrees. He has no direction in his life and is only still in a relationship he's clearly not interested in because he might regret it later. Halfway through the film, he gloms onto Josh's dissertation topic and claims it as his own, acting as if he had no idea. Mark only views women as objects and doesn't care about anyone else. The rites of the Harga hold no interest for him beyond ogling beautiful women and greatly offends the community with no remorse. Josh has some respect for their culture, but only to the point where it benefits him. His dissertation is partly on the community and it doesn't even occur to him to ask for permission to write about them. When denied pictures of their sacred book, he sneaks in the middle of the night to get the pictures anyway. He also knows about the suicide they will witness and doesn't bother to warn Dani, who is still in great emotional stress. The main theme of these men is selfishness.

The Harga are the exact opposite of Dani's world. Where her world is shown as industrial and impersonal, theirs is almost supernaturally sunny and bright, every experience is communal, and everyone seems happy. Underneath the politeness and pageantry, lies a layer of self sacrifice. These people believe so much in their faith and community that they would literally give their own lives for a newer generation and for prosperity. The Harga take advantage of their visitors' politeness and purposefully keep them off balance until they are used for whatever purpose the community needs. These methods seem well practiced and the Harga have no remorse or uncertainty about their practices. Everyone is complicit and supports their ideals completely, which makes the next layer even more disturbing.

Underneath that layer is another more insidious layer of white supremacy. The first clue is a book in Pelle's apartment about a secret Nazi language, buried but visible on his coffee table.  The Harga employ eugenics by only approving certain (white) outsiders to mate with and "keeping their bloodlines pure." I went to Sweden a month ago and the Harga do not represent the country's population. Outwardly they welcome everyone, but people of color and people who insult their ideals only serve as sacrifices. Although the Americans all transgressed in some way, the British couple Connie and Simon were innocent yet dispatched first. Ingemar brought them as revenge after being rejected by Connie and in his mind replaced by Simon. They went on one date which Ingemar put way more significance in, showing his toxic masculinity and incel interior. Furthermore, the spiritual enemy of the Harga people is the Black One and everything they do is in defiance of him. Their policies and beliefs consistently lure in and kill people of color. They only welcome white people to take part or assimilate into their community.

Dani experiences a spiritual journey from completely bottling up her emotions to being crowned May Queen and being embraced by a crowd of women feeling her emotions with her. She finally has power and these people revere her. After immolating her toxic boyfriend, she finally smiles and experiences freedom. However, that same event shows that the Harga also lie to their own people. The two willing sacrifices are given tree sap to feel no pain in the fire, but die painfully and horribly. Like the promise, the community is hollow and just more toxic than the relationship she just left. Dani is used to feeling less than and gloms onto the first thing that makes her feel like a person. For her, and many white women today, that thing is rooted in white supremacy. It's easy to turn a blind eye to the deaths of people you don't know or like when that same system makes you feel special for the first time in your life. It's phenomenon seen over and over in US politics as well.

Although Midsommar is a complex, well made film, some things marred the experience. Some of the foreshadowing is more like a truck to the face because it's so obvious. I love how you see everything that will happen if you look carefully on the walls of the building where they sleep. However, panning slowly over a five panel "love story" makes it completely obvious it will happen later in the film. I found the flowery plateaus reminiscent of Hannibal and the overall vibe of a secret, exploitative religion with performative, communal rituals as reminiscent of the new Suspiria. I also find how Ari Aster chooses to use disabled people in his films troubling. Through Midsommar and Hereditary, the disabled characters are played for scares and don't really have character arcs of their own. It's worse here because Ruben, the oracle, has no lines and only serves to unsettle the audience despite being revered by the Harga. We should have moved well beyond this type of ablist horror and it's disappointing.

Midsommar is an impressive folk horror film with layers upon layers of themes, symbols, and foreshadowing to wade through. The pace is in no hurry and reveals its secrets in due time. Even at two and half hours of runtime, I would have easily sat for an additional half hour to see more of this world. I had to watch it twice to formulate my opinions and truly dig into the material. The details of the Harga culture and their artwork alone is so rich and expansive. The visuals are gorgeous and unsettling, even in something as typical as a travel sequence is literally turned upside down and feels new. However, the treatment of Ruben was so unnecessary, disappointing, and rooted in ablism. I do recommend this film with this one caveat. Midsommar defies expectations of the horror genre by rooting it in flowers, sunlight, and friendly white people.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins