The cult “folk horror” ‘Midsommar’ is getting early rave reviews. In the picture, directed by ‘Hereditary’s Ari Aster, Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor) are struggling through a breakup, when they wind up tagging along with their friends Mark (Will Poulter), Josh (William Jackson Harper), and Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), to visit Pelle’s remote Swedish village, where things don’t go well.
In the case of Poulter’s Mark, audiences may be looking forward to something terrible befalling him, as he is “regressive and out of touch,” according to Poulter. Or just a jerk, to everyone else.
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As the actor stated:
“It was fun to play the poster child for how not to be, as a man, in the modern day, and I think unapologetically expose someone for being regressive and out of touch. That was interesting, particularly, when I also think, internally, he’s not the confident party boy that he projects himself as. He’s actually this deeply insecure, self-loathing person. He survives on a kind of emotional currency of laughs. He’s not a gifted anthropology student, he doesn’t have the emotional intelligence that Dani (Pugh) has, he isn’t successful in any of his relationships. He’s there kind of as the fool. I hope that the commentary on relationships, platonic or romantic, in the film encourages a conversation of how we treat each other, and how we serve our relationships.”
‘Midsommer’ has earned excellent reviews, but Poulter– last seen in ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch‘– almost didn’t agree to do the film, because he wasn’t sure any director could pull off the script. But after signing on, there appear to have been some moments when Poulter wished that he hadn’t.
“There’s this rumor, I suppose, that the best films are a nightmare to shoot and, yeah, I kind of feel that’s probably true. I think it’s a great film, but it was really really difficult to shoot. But it was also a real pleasure, when you’re part of something that you feel has so much potential to be special, something that I think could separate itself from the rest of the pack, just with how unique and different it is. I really feel like I’m part of the second Ari Aster classic, in what I imagine will be a long long list of accomplished films. So I feel very grateful.”
‘Midsommer’ opens this weekend.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
