Midsommar: Art Isn’t Valued

Whether or not you liked this film, it is difficult to deny it's artistic prowess. For me, this has been one of the largest Oscar snubs of the last several years and really exemplifies something that bothers me about our culture.

Art isn't valued.

I went through and took stills as this played. I ended up with around 750 that I cut down to around 200 after duplicates and rethinks. With it's near 3-hour runtime, that's over a still per minute. Nearly every scene in this film is (artistically) perfect.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood took home the 2020 Oscar for production design, while this didn't even get a nomination. 1917 took the award for Cinematography and, while that would have been difficult to beat, Midsommar at least deserved a nod.

What does a "horror" movie have to do to get noticed? In the last few years we've had this, Hereditary, It Comes at Night, and Possessor all get completely snubbed from not only the big boys, but mostly ignored at minor awards shows as well. At the same time basic, consumable crap like A Quiet Place and Get Out not only get recognized, but celebrated.

It's upsetting that art gets ignored in place of consumable thrills, that cerebral storytelling is passed off as "weird" simply because it doesn't hold your hand or offer tidy endings, and that cheap, simple, fast food is what takes home the gold.