This Halloween marks
the fourth annual Lone Peak Horrorfest at Lone Peak Cinema and the third annual
Haunted Peaks Halloween Festival in Big Sky. I can’t think of a better film to tease
the Halloween weekend than Ari Aster’s “Midsommar.”
“Midsommar” is centered
on Dani (played by precocious Florence Pugh), a grieving graduate student who recently
lost her entire family in a murder-suicide. To distract her from her pain,
Dani’s boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor), an anthropology student, and his
boneheaded friends (William Jackson Harper and Will Poulter) decide to visit to
a commune in Sweden for a once-every-90-years festival that their friend Pelle
(Vilhelm Blomgren) has invited them to. Dani was not invited, but Christian,
ever the dutiful boyfriend, brings her anyway.
Before entering the
gates of the commune, the group eats psilocybin (magic) mushrooms with some of
Pelle’s brothers. The ensuing psychedelic and drug-consumption imagery are
among the greatest depiction of the effects of hallucinogens ever put to film,
next to those in “Apocalypse Now,” in this critic’s humble opinion. I have
never seen such realistic use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) before. But
through the eyes of Dani, the CGI paired with the edits, eerie bright lighting
and tonal soundtrack, hits the audience with mounting waves stress and anxiety
through her own palpable experience.
This sense of unease
builds as the film progresses, perhaps more so when the anthropologists are virtually
undisturbed when the first “incident” happens, writing it off as a cultural
norm that no outsider should judge. Cue the stereotypical “DON’T OPEN THAT
DOOR!” type of moment. However, Dani and two other foreign visitors do not regard
the incident, which I’ll leave for your viewing consumption, lightly and
attempt to leave the commune. After all, Dani is still mourning the loss of her
family and not ready for the frightening rituals the remote Swedish community
find meaningful.
Christian and his
friends continue to take for granted these overt warnings, reducing Dani’s well-placed
instincts to stereotypical, girlfriend-provoked annoyances—to their ultimate
doom, of course.
And Aster’s choice
to have “Midsommar” take place entirely in daylight is commendable, and speaks
to the unique and powerful horrors the film conjures.
“Midsommar’s”
weaknesses are its runtime—2 hours and 27 minutes—and its redundancy. We see
far too much ceremony preparation, with Swedes dressed in white, picking
flowers and making pies. Cutting scenes for length would have packed a bigger
punch when the horror ultimately arrived. Still, the truly grotesque imagery that
populates several scenes are bone chilling—despite the bright sun beating down
on the fair-haired participants of the rituals.
Needless to say, “Midsommar,”
which airs at Lone Peak Cinema Oct. 25-27, is not part of the family-friendly
portion of Haunted Peaks, but Horrorfest always promises some fantastic films
for the entire brood. This year’s Horrorfest will (most likely) include the new
Addams Family animated movie for kids, for which costumes are encouraged, and businesses
around Town Center will host the Saturday mini-Monster Mash Trick or Treating
event in conjunction with the Horrorfest.
Haunted Peaks also
has a full weekend schedule of events including, but not limited to, a free block
party with live music, a pumpkin stroll, Geocaching, Halloween happy hours, a costume
contest and more.
While the Haunted
Peaks Halloween Festival takes place a few months after mid-summer, the power
of the sun bringing out the living and the dead featured in “Midsommar” will
not soon be forgotten by this All Hallow’s Eve.
Anna Husted has a
master’s in film studies from New York University. In Big Sky she can be found hiking
a mountain or at the movies at Lone Peak Cinema. When not gazing at the silver
screen or watching her new favorite TV show, she’s reading, fishing or
roughhousing with her cat, Indiana Jones.
We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a
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Event Details
We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a limited palette to create different color combinations? Are you tired of carrying around 15-20 different tubes when you paint plein air? Have you ever wanted to create a certain “mood” in a painting but failed? Do you create a lot of mud? Do you struggle to achieve color harmony? All these problems are addressed in John’s workbook in clear and concise language!
Based on the bestselling “Limited Palatte, Unlimited Color” workbook written by John Pototschnik, the workshop is run by Maggie Shane and Annie McCoy, accomplished landscape (acrylic) and plein air (oil) artists,exhibitors at the Big Sky Artists’ Studio & Gallery and members of the Big Sky Artists Collective.
Each student will receive a copy of “Limited Palette, Unlimited Color” to keep and take home to continue your limited palette journey. We will show you how to use the color wheel and mix your own clean mixtures to successfully create a mood for your paintings.
Each day, we will create a different limited palette color chart and paint a version of a simple landscape using John’s directives. You will then be able to go home and paint more schemes using the book for guidance.
Workshop is open to painters (oil or acrylic) of any level although students must have some basic knowledge of the medium he or she uses. Students will be provided the book ($92 value), color wheel, value scale and canvas papers to complete the daily exercises.