Okay, so the draft I had of my thoughts on this got deleted, and then I forgot to post, but I saw this on Saturday. To sum up:
I didn't love it like I loved Hereditary, but I think it's still pretty damn good. I just have to agree the pacing is a bit of a bitch to get through - I didn't expect that, but I actually felt the length of this. There's a lot of repetition of certain stuff (like I almost cannot remember how many dinners they all had) and it put me into this interesting mindset, as if I was getting excited for the final culmination of the film, but also, with each dinner, increasingly annoyed. Those are just my superficial thoughts really, how I felt watching this, without giving it any further thought.
If the general audiences had some chance with Hereditary, I honestly can't imagine people liking this, at all. Like, off the top of my head, I can't really name anyone to whom I'd confidently recommend this lol. I'm not really using this to indicate the quality of the film. But it's an incredibly bizarre, disturbing and freaky film. The horror of it doesn't hit you as deep as Hereditary, but it's unsettling enough to send you into a perpetual "WTF" mood for the entirety of its runtime. The whole movie just has that off feeling about it, it's almost tangible. On the flip side, it's also pretty hilarious often times.
The prologue section of this is probably the most directly similar to Hereditary. Aster just knows how to deliver mental and/or family tragedies in an extremely raw way. Those moments were probably the most "difficult" emotionally to stomach - although that, along with the status of her doomed relationship, helps you connect with Dani.
The acting is obviously really amazing, but that's like water is wet. And this is a beautiful beautiful looking film, oh my god. Overall, even with my own gripes, I'm just amazed at Aster's direction. I'm extremely excited to see what he does next - if he sticks with horror, I'd be interested to see a change of pace for a bit, and see him move away from the overlapping themes in both this and Hereditary. I agree it's a way more ambitious film - maybe a bit too much to stick that perfect landing ultimately. I'm torn on whether I want to see this again - it's so strange and beautiful I almost want to witness that again, but at the same time it's so fucking gross like no thanks lmao. I'm almost enjoying the mental image of Ari Aster quietly sitting somewhere, maybe in his office or something, and actively trying to think of shit that would be way more disturbing that what Hereditary was. In a lot of ways, success!
My thoughts are a bit incoherent because I need sleep. I might add on later. Also, the single scariest bit from the film:
edit: oh fuck, this was longer than i intended.
I didn't love it like I loved Hereditary, but I think it's still pretty damn good. I just have to agree the pacing is a bit of a bitch to get through - I didn't expect that, but I actually felt the length of this. There's a lot of repetition of certain stuff (like I almost cannot remember how many dinners they all had) and it put me into this interesting mindset, as if I was getting excited for the final culmination of the film, but also, with each dinner, increasingly annoyed. Those are just my superficial thoughts really, how I felt watching this, without giving it any further thought.
If the general audiences had some chance with Hereditary, I honestly can't imagine people liking this, at all. Like, off the top of my head, I can't really name anyone to whom I'd confidently recommend this lol. I'm not really using this to indicate the quality of the film. But it's an incredibly bizarre, disturbing and freaky film. The horror of it doesn't hit you as deep as Hereditary, but it's unsettling enough to send you into a perpetual "WTF" mood for the entirety of its runtime. The whole movie just has that off feeling about it, it's almost tangible. On the flip side, it's also pretty hilarious often times.
My thoughts are a bit incoherent because I need sleep. I might add on later. Also, the single scariest bit from the film:
