Thisis FRESH AIR. The new art house thriller "Midsommar" stars FlorencePugh as a young woman reeling from tragedy, when she decides to accompany her boyfriendto a Midsummer festival in the Swedish countryside. It's the second featurewritten and directed by Ari Aster, who made his debut last year with the horrorfilm "Hereditary." Film critic Justin Chang has a review of"Midsommar."
Inthe viscerally unnerving films of Ari Aster, there's nothing more horrific thanthe reality of human grief. His haunted-house thriller "Hereditary"followed a family rocked by traumas so devastating that the eventual scenes ofdevil-worshipping, naked bogeymen almost came as a relief. Aster's new movie"Midsommar" doesn't pack quite as terrifying a knockout punch, but itcasts its own weirdly hypnotic spell. This is a slow-burning and deeplyabsorbing piece of filmmaking full of strikingly beautiful images and driven lessby shocks than ideas. It's not interested in frightening you so much as seepinginto your nervous system.
Andlike "Hereditary," "Midsommar" is very much rooted in loss.It begins with a young American woman named Dani, played by the great Englishactress Florence Pugh, panicking over a family emergency that moves swiftlytoward its worst possible outcome. As she tries to pick up the broken pieces ofher life, Dani seeks solace from her boyfriend Christian and is surprised tolearn that he's about to go on a trip with some of his grad school buddies.They're headed to a remote, Swedish commune that is holding a nine-day festivalto observe the summer solstice. Dani presses him about why he didn't tell herearlier, and an argument ensues.
Thehandsome Irish actor Jack Reynor clues you in to the selfishness beneathChristian's quiet, sensitive-sounding demeanor. Dani doesn't know that he wasabout to end their four-year relationship before tragedy struck, and he's onlystaying with her now out of a sense of obligation.
Christianreluctantly invites her to join him in Sweden, and she accepts to theirritation of some of his friends, who don't want his mopey girlfriend along tospoil their fun. They fly to Sweden, and after a few hours' drive, arrive at aremote, centuries-old village where they are greeted by about 60 men and womenwearing white robes embroidered with mysterious symbols. They are known as theHarga, and they invite their American guests to participate in each day'sfestivities, which include lavish feasts, silent meditations, exhaustingmaypole dances and the consumption of various mind-altering drugs.
Asterhas a gift for dreaming up fictitious subcultures. And he visualizes theseancient customs and artifacts with an almost anthropological attention todetail. The Harga seem benevolent enough at first, and there's somethingcomforting about their strange rituals and their intimate communion withnature. But then the mood takes a sinister turn, and Dani and Christian'straveling companions start to disappear.
Thestory owes a clear debt to "The Wicker Man," Robin Hardy's 1973horror classic about a pagan fertility cult. But "Midsommar" is moreambiguous and slower to come into focus. This is a nightmare that unfolds inbroad daylight, under a midnight sun that bears down relentlessly on thelandscape. The sun could almost be a metaphor for Dani's grief, somethingever-present and all-consuming, especially since Christian seems to take solittle interest in consoling her.
Asterhas said that he was inspired to write "Midsommar" after the end of along-term relationship and that Dani's experience is a fictionalized version ofhis own. Whatever the real-life details, he's made the ultimate bad boyfriendmovie - a withering portrait of emotional neglect that has nothing nice to sayabout Christian, his petty-minded friends or, indeed, the state of contemporaryAmerican masculinity.
Amongother things, "Midsommar" is a wickedly funny movie about the clashbetween pagan traditions and the ways of the modern world. One of its moreprovocative notions is that Dani may, in fact, be better off with the Harga,with their seemingly selfless, utopian way of life. Sex and death, a source ofso much pain and anxiety in the outside world, are here just part of life'sunending cycle.
"Midsommar"is in no rush to solve its many mysteries. The third act is full of surrealimages of revelry and ritual sacrifice, plus a sex scene that's as hilarious asit is appalling. What do you remember most is Florence Pugh's quietlymesmerizing performance. Your sympathies are with Dani at every moment, and soare the movie's. Toward the end, she fixes the camera with an extraordinarylook of terror and exaltation as she beholds the stunning fate that awaits her.Her story may begin in heartbreak and end in madness, but Aster ensures thatshe gets the last laugh.
JustinChang is a film critic for The LA Times.
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