In a sign that A24 recognizes that physical media collectors also value presentation, “Midsommar” comes packaged in a clothbound, yellow slipcase that opens to reveal a 62-page booklet. The actual disc here doesn’t include a single special feature, leaving the film to stand for itself, while the packaging and booklet serve as the supplemental material. It includes artwork for the film by Ragnar Persson and a foreword by Martin Scorsese himself, who writes, “I can also tell you that there are true visions in this picture, particularly in the final stretch, that you are not likely to forget. I certainly haven’t.”
About those visions—Aster’s formal control seems to be a dividing point for his fans and detractors. While Tomris Laffly praised the film’s tangible dread on this site, Scout Tafoya argued that the detached approach of Aster’s reduces the actual messy humanity of grief. While I love Scout's personal reading of the film, I’m closer to Tomris by some stretch, but the truth is that my favorite films are usually the ones that get people talking, and in the months after this film landed some of the best writing on film, pro and con, concerned “Midsommar.” I wish there were more movies that provoked such passion. (We also posted pieces about the film’s role in the history of break-up movies and the film’s relation to Bergman, and I have a feeling we’re not done writing about this movie.)
However one feels about the film, the director’s cut of “Midsommar” looks stunning in 4K. The colors are richer and more intense—you can almost feel the heat of the neverending sun. It is a richly transferred release that highlights the film’s remarkable technical prowess in ways that streaming services simply cannot. Even 4K streams on Netflix and Amazon don’t look as rich as 4K Blu-rays.
Finally, there’s the question of this version's quality. Watching the director's cut reminded me what I really admired and liked about "Midsommar." It plays even more confidently when you know where it’s going. And there are some elements of the director’s cut that I like more. It mostly forefronts the villain arc for Christian more completely, including more gaslighting and general asshole behavior. He’s more explicitly awful in his exchanges with Dani in this edition, which is valuable but I’m not sure it’s necessary. I’m torn because I like the idea of this film further stretching out its mood and experience, but I’m not sure it needs to explain more about the Dani/Christian dynamic than what we see in the theatrical version. I also think a sequence that involves a possible second suicide ritual, and the fight between Dani and Christian that follows, feels extraneous and not as well-composed as some of what’s in the theatrical. If I could, I would probably include the other re-insertions in the DC and cut that whole sequence, but we really don’t need a third cut, do we?
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