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Thursday, July 11, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

“Hereditary” director Ari Aster 
has been very open about the fact 
that his latest film venture, “Mid-
sommar,” is at its core a breakup 
movie. This revelation probably 
comes as a surprise to anyone who’s 
heard of the movie, but hasn’t actu-
ally seen it. Its marketing campaign 
has focused on depicting the pagan 
cult ceremony the central charac-
ters find themselves participating 
in, which ultimately becomes a hor-
rifying spectacle of shocking vio-
lence and breathtaking, sun-soaked 
imagery. And while at its surface 
“Midsommar” is exactly that, over 
its 147-minute runtime the film 
reveals itself to be so much more. 
“Midsommar” 
follows 
Dani 
(Florence Pugh, “Lady Macbeth”), a 
young college student struggling to 
cope with the murder-suicide that 
claimed the lives of her sister and 
her parents. Alongside this, Dani 
is also working to salvage her rela-
tionship with her boyfriend Chris-
tian (Jack Reynor, “What Richard 
Did”), a relationship neither of them 
are fully sure they want to save. The 
two find themselves travelling with 
Christian’s academically minded 
friends to Sweden to witness a 
midsummer tradition taking place 
among the fictional Hårga people, 
whose celebration takes place only 
once every 90 years. Their inno-
cent, well meaning anthropological 
investigation results in bloodshed, 
sex and a climax no one could have 
expected. 
It’s nearly impossible to think 

about “Midsommar” without con-
sidering its predecessor, “Heredi-
tary,” a film so admired and beloved 
it’s been given the distinction by 
many of being a “modern horror 
masterpiece.” To be sure, the two 
films share several uncanny simi-
larities. Both examine the depths of 
grief, both find horror in paganistic 
religious rituals, both are carried 
by Oscar-worthy lead performanc-
es from Florence Pugh and Toni 
Collette, respectively. 
That’s just about where the simi-
larities end. “Midsommar” distin-
guishes itself from “Hereditary” 
by embracing an entirely differ-

ent approach to instilling fear in 
its viewers. For one, the two could 
not be more aesthetically opposed. 
In “Hereditary,” a substantial por-
tion of the central action takes 
place in the dark, allowing evil to 
lurk and sneak up on characters 
in unexpected places, whereas the 
vast majority of “Midsommar” 
transpires under an oppressive 
and nearly blinding sun. There’s 
nowhere for anyone to hide, which 
is both comforting and terrifying. 
The film’s literal brightness forc-
es us to take in its horrors with a 
shocking clarity. 
“Midsommar” further separates 
itself by embracing a technique 

that’s wholly absent from the lat-
ter film: comedy. With Will Poul-
ter (“Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”) 
serving as a fairly consistent source 
of comedic relief, “Midsommar” 
deliberately disorients our expec-
tations of what watching a horror 
film should feel like. The thrill-
ingly messy concoction of horror, 
relationship drama and comedy 
that constitutes “Midsommar” cre-
ates an overall tonal inconsistency 
that actually serves to its advan-
tage, generating an uncomfortable 
and unpredictable atmosphere. No 
other movie feels quite like it. 
Perhaps the thing that most dis-
tinguishes “Midsommar” from its 
predecessor is that the star of the 
film is not its protagonist. Its star 
is the world it creates and culture 
that exists within it. In an inter-
view with Slate, Aster remarks, 
“Life is suffering. I agree with that, 
and I think it’s therapeutic to give 
expression to that … there’s also this 
high-minded part of me that wants 
to do it in the most elegant way pos-
sible. That’s where this (Midsom-
mar) comes from.” “Elegant” is 
precisely the adjective that comes 
to mind when I think of how Aster 
presents the Hårga people. Their 
ceremony becomes a hypnotic blur 
of earth and sky and flower crowns 
and immaculate whiteness that’s as 
nauseating as it is beautiful. It lures 
you in and doesn’t let go. 
“Midsommar” is not “Heredi-
tary.” It’s not trying to be. “Mid-
sommar” is a spectacularly shot 
and surprisingly hilarious experi-
ment in immersive filmmaking that 
without question deserves a spot 
alongside “Hereditary” in the art-
house horror canon.

Aster’s latest raises the bar

ELISE GODFRYD 
Daily Arts Writer

FILM REVIEW

A24

When I first opened my copy 
“Stonebreaker” by Peter Wart-
man last week, I pursued it as I 
would any other graphic novel. 
I flipped through to admire the 
artwork, marvel at the color 
scheme, take in the very mid-’10s 
style animation. I read it cover to 
cover, fully engrossed in its dys-
topian sci-fi appeal. Then I took 
to Google to gain more insight 
on what exactly makes Wartman 
and his “Stonebreaker” protago-
nist Anya tick.
A skim at the second link 
brought my attention to the glossy 
black “Book 2” 
label across both 
front and back 
covers and the 
spine. I sighed 
as I immediately 
took to hunting 
down its prede-
cessor “Over the 
Wall,” a graphic 
novel that, con-
veniently for me, was initially 
published serially online on Ship-
wrecked Planet. Although I ini-
tially found the task of going back 
and forth between the two novels 
tedious, this provided me better 
insight into how “Stonebreaker” 
came to be and what it represents, 
independent of its predecessor.
Set four years apart, “Over the 
Wall” and “Stonebreaker” detail 
the adventures of Anya, a heroine 
living in a fictional, post-apoca-
lyptic metropolis called Noridun, 
forbidden to women and separat-
ed from the countryside by a wall. 
Whereas “Over the Wall” warms 
us up to the dystopian backdrop 
and Anya’s aim to find her miss-
ing brother she can’t remember, 
“Stonebreaker” jumps headfirst 
into Anya’s desire to recover both 
his and her missing memories — 
her brother doesn’t even remem-
ber his own name. 
Rather than embarking on this 
adventure out of sheer familial 
commitment, we realize early on 
that she’s older (16, to be exact) 
and more assured of herself 
this time around. The threat of 

deadly demons looms over a care-
less Anya, who aspires to defy 
the concerns and expectations 
of those around her. Despite the 
arduous task of saving her broth-
er in the last novel, everyone 
from her father to the friendly 
demon Toris doubts her ability to 
make it through another adven-
ture. She nonetheless perseveres 
through the doubt cast on her 
and strives to defy the odds. This 
inevitably places her in the same 
dilemmas she faced years ago as 
she wrestles with the tension of 
memories and reality, hoping to 
find answers she suspects and 
believes to be true without any 
formal indicators. 
The magic of “Stonebreak-
er” presents itself in the way it 
evolves 
from 
its 
predecessor. 
Thematically 
speaking, 
Anya 
finds herself in 
the 
same 
pre-
dicaments 
she 
faced in the last 
book, from the 
grand desire to 
help her brother 
to the more abstract question 
of what she’ll move on to in her 
future. Wartman, however, is 
able to wrap these ideas into more 
mature packaging as we follow an 
older Anya in her ever-evolving 
town with some new characters 
— it’s not just Anya’s story this 
time around. Intersecting her 
narrative is the orange-paneled 
adventures of Kohjen and Bara-
dei, two outsiders from Tatchan 
seeking mysterious focus stones.
They too are familiar with the 
“Stonebreaker” myth as told in 
the beginning of the text through 
Anya’s flashbacks to memories of 
her grandmother. The myth itself 
circles around the ancient begin-
nings of Noridun as a civilization 
and its cruel demon leader, Stone-
breaker, and what became of him. 
Intersecting with this plot is the 
backstory of Toris in the form of 
flashbacks from a past life that 
scatter his memories sporadically 
throughout the pages in pale blue 
paneling. 

‘Stonebreaker’ on 
memory’s power

DIANA YASSIN
Daily Arts Writer

BOOK REVIEW

Read more at michigandaily.com

Midsommar

A24

State Theatre

Stonebreaker

Peter Wartman

ODOD Books

July 8, 2019

