I’m just guessing that Leonardo DiCaprio has Ari Aster in his sights. The ‘Killers of the Flower moon’ actor loves to make movies with highly-regarded filmmakers and Aster is most definitely turning into one.
While interviewed by Josh Horowitz, “Midsommar” star Florence Pugh mentioned how she bumped into DiCaprio at a premiere, but all he wanted to talk about was her Aster cult classic:
“I met [Leo] at the “Don’t Look Up” premiere last year, but all he wanted to talk about was “Midsommar” and Ari Aster. He was very complimentary and it was very weird to be at his premiere and all he wanted to talk about was “Midsommar.” It was amazing.”
I did a re-evaluation of Aster’s “Midsommar” back in 2020 after having watched the 3-hour director’s cut — a fuller, more depth-filled and coherent version than the theatrically released one.
Aster added around 30 minutes to the original cut, and it felt much more concise than the version I had seen in the summer of 2019 at the New York premiere. The theatrical version was all over the place and has some very strange pacing issues.
What I had originally dismissed as an ‘unsubtle” and “messy” movie turned out to be a sheer delight with Aster’s 3-hour director’s cut. The relationship between Dani and Christian was more fully fleshed-out, with further scenes added between the two to make the viewer more aware of their tumultuously shared history together.
In the three-hour cut, the transformation that happens to Dani is more precisely drawn “Midsommar,” much like Aster’s debut, “Hereditary,” is a story about grief, Dani’s grief, but done within the horror genre. It mixes horror, drama, and farce to the point where this odd amalgam of genres starts to feel like a surreal nightmare.
“Midsommar” is about the pursuit of happiness, freeing yourself from hopelessness, even if it means joining dark forces. In a way, this is a film that tackles the ideas of religion, believing in something greater than just yourself, and how a community can be a saving grace even if what’s being preached is incredibly immoral.