Got 7 Hours to kill?

May 20, 2024 4:14 PM

Midsommar - The Complete Guide (Everything Explained) from Youtuber Novum. (slyt 7hr vid) Deep dive into Ari Aster's 2019 folk horror film, Midsommar.
posted by 2N2222 (25 comments total)

Surely y'all are just trolling now with these video essays. 7 hours? I'm not hating, I'm down to check this out, but admit it you're a little bit doing this on purpose.
posted by Wretch729 at 5:23 PM on May 20 [24 favorites]

I was sick last week and watched all of this on a day off from work. I love a good deep dive and happily watched the 7 hours like I was at a conference on one of my favorite movies and directors. I took a couple breaks, had lunch, and felt fulfilled at its end. Kudos Novum for doing a lot of research I didn't have in me to do but wanted to know more about. More please... and there will be! The Vvitch is next, as I understand. Bring it.
posted by kybix at 5:27 PM on May 20 [6 favorites]

I'm not hating, I'm down to check this out, but admit it you're a little bit doing this on purpose.

I'm still waiting for the fourth multi-hour analysis/review of LOST to be released by Billiam. I believe we already have 14 hours of LOST content from him. I don't think he'll get that close to 20 hours, but maybe.

I have never seen Midsummer, but I might watch this anyway, just because.
posted by hippybear at 5:54 PM on May 20

This guy has a pretty good voice so maybe I'll play it while I sleep and see if I absorb anything.
posted by Depressed Obese Nightmare Man at 6:02 PM on May 20 [2 favorites]

If you thought the dark was scary...
That's my favourite quip about Midsommar.

I, unfortunately, do not have seven hours for this right now. What I was able to see (yes, on the 2x speed setting) was quite informative. Martin Karlqvist neatly drops Pierre Bourdieu in an interview, which was my inspiration to pause. Now, delving through the interview, I've found an interactive map of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Thanks!
posted by HearHere at 6:18 PM on May 20

If Tim Rogers isn't playing a long con on his patreon backers (2 years since the last review gives at least a little credence to those who claim so), there might be a many-hours long Action Button review of the video game LA Noire coming up before long, and I'm sure another 5-10 hour video will subsequently hit the front page.
posted by tclark at 6:20 PM on May 20 [3 favorites]

Tim Rogers got to induce a major health crisis in himself attempting to do Season One of his wonderful absurdity. Tim Rogers should take his time.

/me nods sagely.
posted by pan at 6:39 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]

Tim Rogers should take his time.

Oh, I absolutely agree, and happily give him my twitch subscription (I've had no end of trouble with Patreon), but I couldn't mention that his likely several-hour LA Noire review might be coming soon without acknowledging that I unfortunately have no basis to believe it's coming soon, and it might be months or it might be years before it comes out.
posted by tclark at 6:53 PM on May 20

you're a little bit doing this on purpose.
posted by Wretch729 at 5:23 PM on May 20

what? what am i missing here?

this was really cool and you can skip around. I like this movie a lot, so I am thankful for these 72 chapters. Is this a Master's equivalent? yow. I am enjoying how he is bringing in sources from the production.

after some of those Twin Peaks 'analysis' videos, this is refreshing.
posted by eustatic at 7:29 PM on May 20

I’ve been unpacking for days from my move and I’ve listened to three theme park documentaries so far, so I’m definitely adding this to the list.
posted by Callisto Prime at 7:55 PM on May 20

This guy could learn some brevity from Jenny Nicholson.
posted by kandinski at 9:29 PM on May 20 [8 favorites]

Is there any discussion of the cultural-appropriation aspects of the movie? It always made me a little peeved that a cute holiday for kids and families is now mostly known in the US for being violent and horrible.
posted by alexei at 10:29 PM on May 20

I thought The Wicker Man (1973) did it better.
posted by Orthodox Humanoid at 10:35 PM on May 20 [4 favorites]

what? what am i missing here?
recent filter
posted by HearHere at 10:37 PM on May 20

I have never seen Midsummer, but I might watch this anyway

Midsommar is absolutely worth your time. I doubt it would be harmed by spoilers but why watch the commentary when you can go to the source? It was my movie of the year in the year that I saw it.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 8:10 AM on May 21 [1 favorite]

Is there any discussion of the cultural-appropriation aspects of the movie? It always made me a little peeved that a cute holiday for kids and families is now mostly known in the US for being violent and horrible.

This is actually a massive goddamn problem with folk horror in general! Like, I was raised Wiccan/Neopagan and my relationship with folk horror could best be described as "very complex". I really enjoyed the aesthetic and gender-commentary parts of Midsommar, but... yeah. Pagan and animistic seasonal festivals are actually pretty normal? Like, worldwide? It's always been real weird to see what are regular practices for me and my family being depicted as sinister.

For an irreverent and definitely shorter take on Midsommar, may I recommend Lindy West's I Will Never Bow To A Swede? (I hope everyone can view that, as I am a subscriber.)

For a deep dive into folk horror, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched is where it's at. It's long at 2.5 hours, but it's absolutely the best survey and totally a fascinating film--plus it interviews Indigenous people and other folks who usually get left out.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 8:54 AM on May 21 [3 favorites]

7 hours? I'm not hating

I'm pretty close to hating. There is no way I have time for a *one* hour video, much less freaking four or, blessed Cthulhu, seven.

The most I can do now is 30 minutes, if the visual content doesn't matter much and I can listen to audio while doing something else.

(Audio is key to my massively overclocked life. There's a good amount of listening available when making food, doing housework, exercising, being stuck in transportation, etc.)
posted by doctornemo at 10:28 AM on May 21 [1 favorite]

Surely y'all are just trolling now with these video essays. 7 hours? I'm not hating, I'm down to check this out, but admit it you're a little bit doing this on purpose.

You can't say I didn't warn you.

The most I can do now is 30 minutes, if the visual content doesn't matter much and I can listen to audio while doing something else.

This video probably isn't for you. One of my pet peeves with some multi hour video essays is that they're mostly some guy in his room sitting in front of a camera. An audio visual medium is overkill. But you can pretend its a podcast. Not so with this video. There's heavy reliance on visual presentation. Clips, stills, etc. I haven't finished the whole thing, but if the narrator made an appearance, I must have missed it.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:15 PM on May 21 [3 favorites]

As far as discussion of cultural appropriation, in a word, yes, it's discussed. You may or may not appreciate where it goes, and if you're looking for a simple, "this is cultural appropriation", you may be disappointed. And if you're coming from a wiccan/neo pagan angle, I'm not sure you can get too finger pointy about appropriation of traditional practices and celebrations.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:36 PM on May 21 [2 favorites]

I'm not gonna say anything
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 10:34 PM on May 21

Ok, I'm gonna say one thing. Can you imagine being on your deathbed and thinking "I'm glad I spent 7 hours on a detailed dive into a pretty but very middling horror film." ?

Bwahaha, because I surely can't.
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 10:39 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]

I admit I haven't watched all 7 hours (probably seen about an hour and a half all told from various sections throughout) but what I have seen feels very conspiracy theory-ish in it's critical approach, like there are clues and if only we can put them togethr we can unlock the real underlying truth of the film.

I admit I'm drawn to this kind of elaborate close reading but on taking a step back I don't think it's not an approach thaty can really gete at how I think art does/should function. If a piece of art can be fully "explained" I don't think I'm interested in it. In the 7 hours I could spend watching this piece of detective work I could watch the film twice and I feel I'd have a richer relationship with it and a better, or atleast more personal, understanding of it for doing so.
posted by tomp at 5:25 AM on May 22 [2 favorites]

You can't say I didn't warn you.

True!
posted by doctornemo at 9:03 AM on May 22

Here's why maybe... half of one? of the aggregated hours are worth the time of the casual Midsommerist:
Everybody knows about the prophetic drawings on the walls of the young-people sleeping quarters, and everybody knows about the prophetic princess-and-bear picture on the heroine's bedroom wall in Brooklyn. However! Besides the very obvious bear picture, there's a bunch of barely discernible Brooklyn art that's also meaningful, and he goes and finds out what it all is and presents the backstory. It's cool.

For more obsessive Midsommerists, the whole thing is probably worth a shot, though I wish he'd been a little less repetitve. I think I may be the perfect audience for this thing being as how I have been unable so far to properly be any kind of Midsommerist because I can't watch the rest of the oeuvre due to sky-high nope levels, but he apparently has already spoilered the dook out of those movies and thus defanged the jump scares, so maybe I can watch his other megavids and watch the other movies and then work out where I agree and disagree with him and do my own little internal Ari Aster dissertation. (And now can somebody please do the same kind of deep read on that Childish Gambino video hippybear posted the other week?)
posted by Don Pepino at 11:15 AM on May 22 [1 favorite]

There's really only one thing I wasn't expecting to be addressed and really appreciate. Mostly because I'd forgotten about the moment in the big scene, the breaking of the fourth wall as it unfolds. Novum mentions the scene being referred to as an "Aster-egg", a call back to a similar shot in Funny Games.

Having never seen that movie, I remember thinking it calling back to Disaster Girl.
posted by 2N2222 at 11:09 AM on May 23