Shelby

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From Ari Aster comes an unsettling tale of the breakdown of a relationship amidst a pagan cult background. Twentysomething Dani is clingy and heavily dependent on her boyfriend Christian to help her through the myriad of personal struggles she faces, be it her frequent panic attacks or dysfunctional family dynamic. The more reliant she becomes, the more she realizes she is pushing him away and this awareness only fuels her desperation. Christian has long wanted to break things off but despite his friend group's regular encouragement, he instead makes himself as emotionally distant as possible while fulfilling what he sees as an obligation to his girlfriend. This sense of responsibility only intensifies after Dani is traumatized by a family tragedy. Dani's recovery from this incident coincides with a trip Christian and his friends were planning to take to Sweden and to appease his shattered girlfriend, she is reluctantly invited along. Though their friend Pelle's idyllic native commune seems like a novelty when they first arrive, the group will find themselves in an unimaginably horrifying situation. What I loved most about this film was understanding the events that inspired it. Aster experienced his own breakup at the time of writing and it's interesting to realize that the horrors of the commune were only a catalyst and background noise to what was going on in Dani and Christian's relationship. Midsommar appears to be the director's own tale of wish fulfillment and revenge against an emotionally unavailable partner and it's great to see how that plays out. Though the cinematography was beautiful yet unsettling in what has become Aster's signature way, some shots felt repetitive, indulgent, and were agonizingly LONG. The stillness and lack of dialogue was also gratuitous at times and came across more awkward than eerie. [Mild spoilers] A source of frustration was the naivete of the group. Though jokes were made about Pelle's upbringing and one of the characters even alluded to Waco, Texas upon arriving at the commune, the group seemed too concerned with propriety and not offending their friend to realize that something was majorly off. Every horror movie has that token "Maybe this isn't such a good idea" voice of reason but that was lacking here and replaced by dudes who were too preoccupied with accepting hallucinogens from strangers and fantasizing about the commune's females in those awful Swedish milk maid costumes. Granted, I guess them leaving at the first sign of trouble would have made this film about half an hour long so moot point. I also had more questions about the cult than were answered. Though it was said that this particular version of the Midsommar festival only occurred every 90 years, it was my understanding that the young people of the cult (aged 18-36 or something like that) were in the "pilgrimage" phase of their life and therefore responsible for going out into the world, "recruting" new blood, and returning home every summer. Given that Pelle delivered a group of Americans and his communal brother Ingmar brought along some Londoners, it was obviously an international operation...yet did anyone ever come looking for their missing loved ones? Just a thought. Overall, I definitely recommend this one. It's not a light watch and is ripe with disturbing imagery but the plot is much more straight forward and easier to follow than Hereditary.

I'll preface this by saying that I am INCREDIBLY biased toward the original show. I watched it faithfully from the time it started its run when I was in 2nd grade until it went off the air when I was 15 years old and it's easily one of my top favorite TV series of all time. Like most fans, I died a little inside when a reboot was announced but I vowed to at least give it a shot. The good news is that it's not totally awful if you consider that it's on the CW and completely separate it from the original show. In fact, I watched all 22 episodes of the first season within about a week and was able to enjoy it when I viewed it more as a fanfiction instead of a competition with the original lol. So let's talk about the similarities. There are still 3 sisters who all have names beginning with the same letter (this time it's Macy, Melanie, and Maggie). The style of their home is a homage to the beautiful Victorian manor in the original series. The sisters have the same powers according to their age (telekinesis for the oldest, time manipulation for the middle, and the youngest is an empath but lacks Phoebe's traditional premonitions). They have an absentee father and a deceased mother (though there is NO Grams equivalent and I found that disappointing). The Book of Shadows is still a thing, the triquetra is prevalent, there are still whitelighters and elders and The Source (however this force proves to be much less sinister than in it's original incarnation). There are even many of the same plot points. The youngest sister Maggie's love interest is a half demon/half human like Cole, middle sister Mel is with a detective a la Prue and Andy during the first season, and a budding romance is hinted at between oldest sister Macy and the sisters' whitelighter Harry. I appreciated the diversity of the cast. Anybody who grew up watching Charmed's original run on the WB back in the day remembers that most of the shows on that channel featured very few people of color, so making the sisters Latina and Afro-Latina was a nice touch. Being a queer woman myself, I REALLY wanted to like the detail of Melanie being a lesbian but she is written as such a bitter, man-hating, women's studies major caricature that it's actually a giant turnoff. I read an article saying that this series makes up for the feminist element that was lacking in the original series and I couldn't disagree more. Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige were incredibly strong and independent women and that was consistently shown to us, rather than it needing to be hammered into the viewers' skulls every couple of minutes with preachy dialogue. If you're not put off by the social justice pandering, the poor acting just might do it. The show did lighthearted and fun quite well but the serious moments that required a lot of emotion were hella cringey. The CGI is also somehow a lot worse than the original that aired 20 years ago, though I'm guessing the CW learned its lesson after another of its supernatural shows The Secret Circle was cancelled despite decent ratings due to a high production budget. I ultimately felt like this first season was a bit rushed and everything was tied up a bit quickly and simplistically--perhaps because they didn't expect a greenlight for a second season. Character development has been one dimensional thus far and I feel like the show is lacking its own unique voice to set it apart from its namesake. Once again, it's an ok show for me and I'm not mad at it but I'm hoping that the announcement of a change in the production team for season 2 will mean that we get more substance.

I felt compelled to like over dislike but am still a bit on the fence about this one. Roger Ebert called Her Smell “claustrophobic” and I can’t think of a better descriptor. Becky Something isn’t your typical drug-addled rockstar on a downward spiral, behaving badly but ultimately able to pull it together when needed. When we are introduced to her, years of substance abuse (and possibly underlying mental health issues) have left her in a state of psychosis. She’s out of touch with reality, prone to violent outbursts, has massive delusions of grandeur, speaks in bizarre figurative language (almost what could be described as “word salad” at times), and can’t be depended upon by her bandmates or manager to arrive punctually at venues and put on a show free of police interference. The fear, tension, and absolute chaos in this film is palpable and overwhelming at times. But because of the great performances by the cast (namely Elizabeth Moss as Becky), you find yourself drawn in and unable to stop watching. As an avid fan of Behind the Music or any kind of rockumentary, I was expecting more out of this. We don’t see much of Becky in her prime, the peak of her band Something She, or the things that lead to her downfall. There’s a traumatic childhood hinted at but we’re left to fill in the pieces of the gripping but ultimately incomplete portrait of Becky’s life. We see her fall and attempt to rise again but are left wanting more. It’s not a quick view by any means at just over 2 hours—consisting of some scenes that drag on forever—but it’s a great rainy-day-in-bed film for lovers of rock docs.

If you go into this series with your ultimate goal being to discover “why” the violent incident took place, just know that you’ll be majorly disappointed because no clear cut answer or explanation is provided as to why those involved behaved as they did. As with most real world cases of this nature, we’re given the backstory on our main characters and are left to fill in the blanks for ourselves. Was it mental illness? Poor parenting? Negative influences in the media? All of this is touched upon but the audience is never shown the planning stages or the exact event that set it all in motion. To expand upon the realism, Maja Norberg is not your traditional protagonist. She is shown to be quite insolent, selfish, materialistic, and ungrateful—even in lockup when her counsel and the staff who are sympathetic to her plight attempt to console and pull strings to make her more comfortable. She makes enough poor choices to make you cringe and at times seems to have no sense of self-preservation. Because of this, she’s MORE believable as the kind of teenage girl who would get wrapped up in a whirlwind romance and the subsequent shootings. Some may say there’s no depth but I think it adds to her humanness. While subtitles can be daunting, at 6 episodes of about 45 minutes each, this story is incredibly compelling, well-acted, and plays out rather concisely. There are some scenes that are graphic, including the shooting itself and a depiction of sexual assault, so that’s something to keep in mind. Overall, I 10/10 recommend!