Midsommar: Directors Cut
MIDSOMMAR: DIRECTORS CUT - Entertainment Video/A24
Ari Aster's Midsommar: Directors Cut does exactly what it says on the tin, to put it simply. A more prolonged, more personal and layered horror that puts Aster — on his sophomore effort — in a category of greats within the genre. The blot beats, narrative and outcome are all the same, but do not panic: this is not one of those casual marketing ploys with three more minutes of footage that feels void on impact.
Aster's film adds a significant amount of footage, in the realm of around an extra twenty-or-so minutes, that manage to craft an even stronger feature. Not beefed up in violence or gorier set-pieces that add nothing but senseless provocation but elongated, layered moments of plentiful immersive character depth — specifically, moments of small, albeit integral, interactions between the core group of characters. The core dynamic between Florence Pugh's Dani and Jack Reynor as Christian is fleshed out with wonderful results. It is more of the same with extended sequences that the viewer saw beforehand prolonged to a more of an eerie and challenging disposition. The camera lingers to an extremely unsettling extent amidst flavour and weight of each respective character’s emotive thematic depth flushed out on screen.
It is quite surprising why director Aster and editor Lucian Johnston decided to shape Midsommar together in the manner they did for a cinematic release. Presumably, at a running time of just under one hundred and fifty minutes, both felt fit to trim a little fat along the way for a far stronger chance of a broader cinematic release, but an extra twenty minutes or so seems not too much in the way of excessive over-indulgence. More striking is that nothing aside from one scene feels like "fat" or woefully unnecessary to be included in the overall trajectory.
Said scene contextually regurgitates a particularly horrifying moment for the group to witness but unravels in a more personalised and different context. However, that said, it leads into a drastically dark and upsetting character motif for Reynor's Christian to delve into with morbidly exciting outcomes. The interaction is wonderfully venomous, making that climactic finale all the more suspenseful, as well as the broader group splitting and hemorrhaging their support for one another. Small details here and there begin to beef the running time up, but a smaller and subtle genius inclusion is the nuance of Vilhelm Blomgren's Pelle.
Pelle is a character who, in both versions of the film, acts as a silent witness and guide. However, here, Pelle's actions have more profound meanings and implications to everyone around him. They are so much more radical and unsettling, in fact, that it makes the performance of Vilhelm Blomgren a far more vibrant and compelling creation. Sly, subtle comments and brash conversations to one character and not the other, or his captivating moving monologue to Dani unfolds with a more valuable and concerning weight.
Before long, it becomes clear that it is the little details and subtle elegance that makes the bravado of Midsommar: Directors Cut. Sentiments and details that showcase how comprehensive of a filmmaker Aster is in simplicity and direction. A staggering accomplishment in only his second feature is an achievement quite intoxicating to behold. However, the final product of Midsommar: Directors Cut showcases that there is a significant amount of hotly-anticipated work still waiting behind closed doors for everyone to see, with a future filmography one to wait for in an utter delirious state of obsession.
Midsommar: Directors Cut is released October 28, 2019.
