BEFORE: I had a lot of different paths I could take from yesterday's film with such a high-profile cast, like I could have chosen "The Laundromat" with Meryl Streep, but that's already on the schedule for May, or "The Company Men" with Chris Cooper, only that doesn't really get me where I want to go. Same goes for "City of Ember" with Saoirse Ronan, or "Dolemite Is My Name" with Bob Odenkirk. I've got two films with Tracy Letts coming up in May, too, so that path is out. For a while I was planning to follow the Timothee Chalamet path with three films that he's in, but then I found out that my proposed April chain had grown a bit too big, so I found that one film, "Midsommar", could get me to the same connection that three Chalamets would, plus one of those three films, "Beautiful Boy", seemed more on point for Father's Day in June, and those three films could also help me make the connection between Mother's Day and Father's Day, so that's a bonus for sure.
All that really left me was one notable path - or should I say that with such a large Swedish cast (and no crossover between this film and the Bergman chain, too bad...) so Florence Pugh carries over from "Little Women". Ah, I'm kind of seeing now how I could have gone via Emma Watson to "The Circle" and then to "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" via Tom Hanks. Chris Cooper's also in that one, so why didn't I notice several roads leading me to that film? But since that's not a screener I grabbed from the office, it doesn't matter much, the die is cast. Florence Pugh is the next connector, and I know my chain's good for another two months. No time for regrets.
THE PLOT: A couple travels to Sweden to visit a rural hometown's fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
AFTER: SPOILER ALERT in effect, please turn back now if you haven't seen "Midsommar" or have any interest in doing so in the future. It's impossible to talk about this one without giving some things away.
There were people buzzing about this film last year in both studios that I work in, but some of those people get to see almost every movie for free at Academy screenings - so often I have to take their recommendations with a grain of salt or two. Would they have sought out this mostly-Swedish film if they had to pay for it? But it still got me intensely curious about it, why was everybody talking about this film in hushed tones, afraid to divulge any of the key details? Were they just being polite to avoid spoilers (that would be nice, but also uncharacteristic of some of them) or was there something there? Either way, it put the film on my radar, and there it was destined to stay, perhaps, like with "Parasite", or so I thought, until it seemed like the most convenient way to shorten my April list by two films and make a more direct connection between "Little Women" and tomorrow's film.
It begins with a family tragedy suffered by college student Dani, and perhaps that sets the dark tone - but for a while things seem pretty OK, honestly who wouldn't want to get out of town for a month or so, go on a hiking trip in Sweden while your boyfriend and his mates do a little research into world cultures and ancient tribal rites, what could possibly go wrong? The locals turn out to be part of a very tight-knit, insular farming-based group who all enjoy wearing white robes and giving back to the community, I'm not seeing the problem here. Besides, there are psychedelic mushrooms and everybody seems to be cool with getting high in public, so what's the harm? Anyway, I hear that Swedish people are very liberal, so it's like a college student's paradise, they've probably got some home-brewed alcohol and a refreshingly open attitude toward casual sex. Their special festival happens only once every 90 years, so it's the chance of a lifetime to get a glimpse of another culture's traditions and also find some inspiration for that looming thesis, we'll eat, drink and dance, again, what could POSSIBLY go wrong? Wait, what's that guy over there doing? He couldn't possibly be...
Yes, this one turns out to be part of the horror genre, did you really think we were just going to be exploring other cultures in some kind of documentary fashion? Or that a bunch of naive city folk were going to go visit an insular community in the countryside and everything was going to be just fine? That's now how movies work, things have to go wrong (even in romantic comedies) for the plot to be propelled forward. And what's the engine that moves things forward in horror movies? Why, it's dumb people doing dumb things, of course. THOSE teens have sex out in the woods near the abandoned summer camp, THAT couple foolishly buys a house without checking to see if there's any kind of Native American ancestral burial ground nearby, and THOSE idiots over there make the mistake of not properly servicing their car and breaking down in the deep South right near the old chainsaw repair shop that's just over the hill. Clearly, they all deserve to die.
What helps a great deal is making the audience hate the characters, so we won't feel so bad once they're gone. Here we've got some obnoxious (good...) American (nice start...) college students (I kind of like where you're going with this, yet I still sort of hate myself for it...) who drink, take drugs, are fantasizing about sex with the stereotypical loose Swedish women. (And, it's like a perfect trifecta if you hate millennials or Gen Z-ers and all that they stand for.). If they were to make a horror film full of skateboarding hipsters who walk around with their (probably empty) guitar cases while they over-discuss their proper gender pronouns, then I'm probably going to be rooting for the serial killer (or demon, or zombies, or whatever). Sorry, that's just where I find myself these days.
So we all know what's coming here, or not exactly, but there's enough of a sense of dread built in to the system that we know SOMETHING'S gonna go down, and it probably isn't going to be pretty. These bros are totally bummed that Christian brought his girlfriend, and to be honest, Christian was a bit of a dick when he invited Dani, just to score some points and make up for him NOT inviting her, because he completely figured she wasn't going to GO. I mean, come on, who DOES that, accepts an invitation to go somewhere, when he CLEARLY didn't want her to say yes. Besides, she's been a total buzzkill ever since her family died. She's going to totally harsh their mellow, Christian! Those mushrooms aren't going to give you a good trip unless EVERYBODY takes them, that's just how it works.
What can I say, I don't want to give away the details here, but you'll know it when you see it. Then you'll probably wonder why all the Americans ignore the very obvious signs and stick around, instead of just heading for the hills. Sorry, I mean heading AWAY from the hills. Whatever you do, don't go near those hills. But then we wouldn't have a film, just like the movie's over as soon as the remaining campers get in the car and drive away from Crystal Lake, or the family packs their bags and moves out of the haunted house, no, no, leave the furniture, you can buy a new couch later. What's keeping the people here in the Swedish commune is the fact that two of them decide to write their thesis on world cultures on what they've seen so far in Halga, provided they don't use real names or reveal the location, which, by the way, would take all the credibility out of their research and would make it impossible for a proctor to fact-check. Others are kept in place by the non-zero chance of scoring with one of the clueless-but-beautiful peasant local girls, or the fact that the meat pies are really delicious. But it's a little odd that nobody wonders where the meat is coming from, since the communal farm doesn't seem to have any animals in it. Just sayin'.
And those outsiders that do try to leave, well, they obviously succeed, right? You mean Simon? Oh, no, we drove him to the train station this morning, it must have been before you woke up. Yeah, he said he wanted to catch the early train back, we wanted him to say goodbye to you but he thought you'd prefer to sleep in. See, he left you this note! Now, here, drink this and we'll start the festival! Let there be much rejoicing while we prepare the sacred rituals! Here, have another meat pie while we set up for the bingo game!
Look, this isn't really my bag, as much as I love to see backpacking millennials made to suffer. I'm not a big fan of horror films, though I do force myself to watch them each October as part of some vast cultural experiment. I had an OK time last year with films like "Rampage", "The Predator", and "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" but honestly I'm way out of my league here. I can't even tell if this film was intended to have a serious tone, like "Bird Box", or a more comedic one like "Velvet Buzzsaw". (UPDATE: According to the IMDB trivia page, Swedish people consider this to be a black comedy, not a horror film.). Either way, how can I possibly take this one seriously, after seeing what it wanted me to see? Better, I think, to just make a quick clean-out with mental floss and try to move on.
I will note, however, that this year's line-up has had a notable Scandanavian/Northern European influence. Near the top of the year I watched "Smilla's Sense of Snow", which was set in Denmark, and then later in January came "Stockholm", about a notable bank robbery in Sweden. Put those together with this one, and I don't know, maybe it's all a warm-up for watching some Ingmar Bergman films? I should probably check to see if there's a way yet for me to work them in, because who knows, maybe it's an omen?
Also, I watched today's film on Amazon Prime - my wife's going to kill me when she starts getting recommendations to watch all kinds of Swedish horror films... It's been nice knowing you, guys.
(UPDATE: I forgot to mention how the situation depicted in "Midsommar" reminded me of a vacation that my wife and I took over a decade ago, at an "all-inclusive" resort somewhere in Pennsylvania, maybe the Poconos. It was one of those very cheezy hold-overs from the 1970's, a place that catered to couples, with dining and dancing and outdoor activities like archery and such. When we asked at the front desk about other activities to do in the area, they looked at us kind of strange and pointed out how many fun things there were to do at the resort, so why would we want to leave? When I said that maybe we just want to go to a nearby shopping mall, or a silly museum or just eat a sandwich at a diner, again I just got a quizzical look, and that's when I started to get a bit of a commune or cult-like vibe from the place. We started referring to the resort as "The Gulag" in hushed tones and wondering what we'd gotten ourselves into, and whether someone from the archery range would shoot us if we tried to go home early. The good news is that it wasn't a cult, and we eventually were allowed to leave, but once you get that strange sinking feeling, it never really goes away - that makes me wonder why the Americans in this film didn't try to leave earlier, but of course, then we wouldn't have a movie.)
Also starring Jack Reynor (last heard in "Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle"), William Jackson Harper (last seen in "Paterson"), Vilhelm Blomgren, Will Poulter (last seen in "War Machine"), Ellora Torchia, Archie Madekwe, Henrik Norlen, Gunnel Fred, Isabelle Grill, Agnes Rase, Julia Ragnarsson, Mats Blomgren, Lars Varinger, Anna Astrom, Hampus Hallberg, Liv Mjones, Louise Peterhoff, Katarina Weidhagen, Bjorn Andresen, Tomas Engstrom, Dag Andersson, Lennart R. Svensson, Anders Beckman, Rebecka Johnston, Tove Skeidsvoll, Anders Back, Anki Larsson, Levents Puczko-Smith, Gabriella Fon, Zsolt Bojari, Klaudia Csanyi.
RATING: 5 out of 10 prophetic tapestries
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