Midsommar - At first, I was really into this. Like, thinking it might be headed for my own tops list. Aster does some masterful camerawork here (also when Dani looks up at the tree is the most accurate representation of a mushroom trip that I've ever seen). Though there is undoubtedly a debt to The Wicker Man, the film is enough of its own thing to deflect comparisons... it's not like The Wicker Man has the market cornered on paganism anyway (one could say that film owes a debt to Haxan). And it was unsettling in a provocative, engaging manner. Florence Pugh was really good, and I was surprised and thrilled to see William Jackson Harper.
But along the way it lost me a bit. Partly because of the unnecessary graphic gore, but more because it felt like it was trying to do too much thematically. The cult allure of a "family" for a grieving girl, the disintegration of a relationship, the boorish behavior of Americans abroad, and then of course the paganism (and the would-be anthropologist interlopers). In the midst of all that, the characters got kind of lost and didn't feel very real to me. On top of that, it was all a bit sluggish (maybe not an issue if you watch films at 1.5x speed?). Perhaps the director's cut does more to flesh out the characters, or maybe it just slows it all down even more.
I liked it a tad more than Hereditary. I think Aster has very good artistic instincts, but fumbles a bit in the execution. Rating: Good (75)