forever we try

Oh, I love that idea--of the pastoral idyll being transformed into something actually dynamic, but also possibly horrific, and the modern ideal becoming static and absolutely horrific. I hadn't thought about it while I was watching, but it makes perfect sense. So does freedom to live vs. freedom from life; one thing that really interested me in the movie was how Christian and Josh's callousness about the sacrifices (focusing on the anthropological parts of them and nothing else), contrasted with the cult's callousness about them--which springs from this completely different place of just accepting it as part of the natural life cycle--and I think you could bring in the living vs. life cycle argument into that in a really interesting way.

It's definitely an inward kind of empowerment, and an empowerment that I didn't see as automatically leading to an interpretation of the ending that makes it a stealth happy ending or something, which is why I'm really skeptical of the whole "smile = she's happy" interpretation. Also, I really don't think happiness and joy are the same thing, really, especially in that context.

But yeah, feel free to come at me with all your Midsommar thoughts! It was one of those movies that I didn't necessarily enjoy, but I just can't stop thinking about it now. (Plus, I'm weak for horror movies with a good aesthetic.)