Hereditary (2018) a retrospective
Ari Aster's debut film is (almost) very good indeed
Continuing my series of debut filmmakers and their cinematic creations, I dusted down my DVD copy of Ari Aster’s Hereditary (gifted to me long ago by a disappointed son and his mother who were less than impressed) and after turning off the lights (horror films simply have to be watched in the dark) I was mightily impressed for an hour before coming to the same conclusions my son and his mother reached se7en (sic) years ago. For there is great, great promise here and a spectacular first hour of horribly building dread, a main character bites the cinematic dust, Gabriel Byrne does charmingly helpful if distanced brooding like no other and Toni Collette is of course, superb as always. You also have a stoner son in the guise of a wonderful supporting role from Alex Wolff and a troubled teen daughter lost in individualistic if grisly pursuits brilliantly realised by Milly Shapiro. Then we have seances and the supernatural, the disintegration of the family unit and the Satanic crowning of a King of Hell and whilst this is signposted it was also all rather confusing and the culmination of an hour of film that let down the brilliant hour that came before it.
But this is getting ahead of ourselves as always, so let’s return to the beginning of Ari Aster’s debut film before catapulting to the climax and seeing what we find in between?
Aster’s debut feature commences with a solemn obituary notice for a taciturn and misunderstood “secretive” grandmother and mother of “Annie Graham” (Toni Collette), a miniature artist already lost in the mists of the past she recreates via her art, and long before the expected death of her mother. A well attended if strangely muted funeral passes with Annie questioning whether she should be more upset and whilst comforted by husband “Steve Graham” (Gabriel Byrne), her lack of emotion is mirrored by that of her renegade stoner for a son “Peter Graham” (Alex Wolff) and “Charlie Graham” (Milly Shapiro). Charlie was doted upon by her grandmother, her “favourite” according to Annie, and yet she spends the service doodling in her notebook, much to the consternation of her father. Post funeral, life appears to continue in the same vein as before: Steve a smiling support for a wife surrounded in her workroom by post-it notes encouraging her to “keep working” and two teenage children returning to school. But Annie lies to her husband about her late night trips to the cinema as her son wishes the days away in school just to get stoned in the breaks with his friends and Charlie worries who will look after her when Annie dies?
Two hours later, “Both Sides Now” by Judy Collins signals both the end of the film and indeed the closing credits and the wrapping up of an almost very good film that rather falls over in the second half. Interestingly, this beautifully cheery song from the mid 60’s is so out of keeping with the film that precedes it and in fact provides a brilliant juxtaposition to the one real stand out feature of the film, that of the sound design which from beginning to end I noted in my trusty journal as sounding akin to the “opening of the Gates of Hell”. Kudos should also fall the way of Grace Yun for her production design and both Richard Olson and Brian Lives for their art and set decoration respectively, as the house in which the Graham’s live is somewhat a mirror of the miniatures and dolls houses meticulously worked on by Annie. Ari Aster should be lauded for a good but not great debut feature that I loved for an hour but with the commencement of “Both Sides Now” I was pleased it had ended.
In the six years since release, Aster has helmed two further highly recommended films with Midsommar in 2019 higher in my affections than 2023’s Beau is Afraid despite the inclusion of a typically strange and beguiling performance from Joaquin Phoenix. The Graham family children have taken different paths since 2018 with Milly Shapiro working as both a stuntwoman and forming a music group with Spencer Arjang entitled “AFTERxCLASS” whilst her screen brother here Alex Wolff secured roles in M Night Shyamalan’s Old, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer as well as 2024’s A Quiet Place: Day One. The wonderfully dependable Gabriel Byrne starred as Enzo Ferrari in the 2022 film Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend and this year will be “The Chancellor” in the John Wick spin-off franchise Ballerina and the last but by no means least word falls to the always beautiful Toni Collette who followed up her starring role here in Hereditary with notable performances in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out in 2019, the brilliant Charlie Kaufman directed I’m Thinking of Ending Things a year later, Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley a year later still before greatly impressing in the underwhelming Juror #2 last year.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my two recently self-published books. Both are free to read if you subscribe to Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” or reasonably priced in both paperback and hardback. Go on, treat yourself or a loved one and help out an Indie Author! Buy the books if you’re financially able to. They also look far, far better in print!
We HAVE to keep the spirit of reading books alive and well.
Thanks.
"still life, with gooseberry" - link to Amazon
"Rasputin and Raspberry Jam" - link to Amazon
Thank you for alerting me to these interesting films. Sometimes I feel like time stopped with the release of La La Land, and cinema no longer fascinated. I have tried five times to watch Inland Empire, maybe I should try again. Your critique of Aster's film reminded me of my reaction to Lost Highway. The first half of that film is absolutely frightening but the last half fails.