Midsommar Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

Downs...

3. The Wildly Overlong Runtime

Midsommar clocks in at a beefy 147 minutes, an extremely uncommon run-time for the horror genre, and one that Aster's film doesn't fully justify.

While there's not a single scene in the movie one could deem "boring", there are definitely flabby moments in the middle that drag on longer than they need to.

You can argue that Aster uses his slow crawl to establish tone and atmosphere, and he certainly does that in great abundance, but there's also a point where some might wish he'd just get to the heart of the matter a little more hastily.

Though Aster makes mostly canny decisions throughout, it's tough to escape the feeling he got a tad self-indulgent with his second film.

While it's largely a pleasure to follow him down this demented rabbit-hole, 2.5 hours is ultimately a bit long for what he's offering.