Showing posts with label Ari Aster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ari Aster. Show all posts

Sunday, February 2, 2020

MIDSOMMAR (2019)

[This review is for the theatrical 148-minute version. I also saw the 171-minute Director's Cut in the theater, but didn't care for it as much. The shorter version is superior.]

Dani is not having a good time.  Some serious family drama puts her in a very bad place emotionally and her dingus boyfriend is beyond worthless.  While in this fragile state, she makes the fateful decision to join her college student boyfriend and his buddies on a trip to a remote area in Sweden to study a midsummer celebration put on by a commune.  Once there, it quickly become obvious to the viewer that these people have watched Herschell Gordon Lewis' TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! way too many times, but our heroes don't realize this and continue on as things get more and more sinister.  It's great.

MIDSOMMAR is an awesome movie experience. I saw it in the theater four times.  The story itself is very good, but the thing that I enjoyed most is the feel and construction of the movie.  It's hard to explain, but the whole thing just felt ominous and hateful.  I loved it!  Beautiful photography, outstanding acting, perfect pacing, unnerving stuff going on in the background, Florence Pugh looking absolutely gorgeous, synchronized screaming, synchronized hypermourning, synchronized sex moaning, suicide, a hammer smashed face, an Austin Powers reference, a celebration of death, people who you don't want to see naked...naked, a woman with an unexplained fresh cut on her face, a bear and so much more.  Including a badass ending that left me wanting more.  It honestly felt like the movie was just revving up to the perfect speed and...it ends!  I loved it.  Ari Aster is quickly becoming one of my favorite modern directors.

Not sure why, but I think MIDSOMMAR would make an interesting double feature with SOCIETY.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

HEREDITARY (2018)

"...the characters had no hope. They never had hope..."

HEREDITARY is fucking dope.  If you haven't seen it, fuck this shitty review and just go watch it.  Twice.  The first time to be disturbed and the second time to enjoy how masterfully director/writer Ari Aster unfolds the story.  The story itself, once you figure it out, isn't all that original (Remember Mary Young Cheney Greeley from your history classes?), but the way the story is presented on the screen is goddamn amazing.  I love it!  I wish there were more movies like this.  Hell, I wish I could live in a movie like this.  Especially the last act.

The home life of the Graham family ain't all that great.  Sure, they might live in an awesome house on a nice quiet neighborhood, but instead of living the good life, the daughter is cutting the heads off of small animals, the son is bashing his face into a desk, the father is bursting into flames and the mother, well, you don't even wanna know what she's up to!  Shit will give you fucking nightmares.

I could go on about HEREDITARY for a long time (the symbols, the stuff in the classrooms, the dude at the funeral, etc.), but I don't want to ruin it too much for anybody who hasn't seen it.  Just watch it.  Pay attention to the small details.  Put your goddamn phone down and pay attention.  Watch it alone.  At night.  With the lights down low.

If you need me, I'll be in my treehouse praying to Paimon for Hereditary 2: Electric Boogaloo. 

P.S. Bring your dick!