WEBVTT - 73: The Midsommar Monster Spectacular with John Levenstein 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:03.720 This is a Night Call special announcement. We're so happy 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:05.680 to be back from our hiatus and with our new 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:08.480 network I Heart Media. For the next two weeks, we'll 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:11.200 be opening a time portal and releasing the episodes we 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:14.120 recorded during the break with some very special guests and 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.120 excellent night calls from our listeners. We'll also be releasing 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:19.200 an extra episode next week to thank you for your 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:21.439 patients and now that we're back, give us a call 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.439 at two four oh four six night or email us 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.120 at Night Call podcast at gmail. Now back to your 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:38.360 strange days and lonely nights at eight pm in a 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.120 research island in the Long Island Sound and you're listening 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:56.600 to Night Call. Hello and welcome to Night Call, a 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.440 podcast for your strange days and lonely nights. I am 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:02.920 Tess Lynch in Los Angeles, and with me I have 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:05.880 Molly Lambert, and joining us from New York, we have 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.480 Emily Yoshida and we'll be joined in the second half 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.200 of the show today by writer John Levinstein to discuss 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:18.679 his new show, Frankenstein's Monster's Monster Frankenstein. But first an 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:23.840 Area fifty one update. Yeah, so I can't remember when 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.640 I saw this, but this was viral at some point, 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.960 I want to say last Wednesday, so it's old news 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:34.600 by now, but the parents it's night call news. It 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:36.520 was very up our alley, and I felt like I 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.039 had to address it on our like I felt like 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:41.920 I was a spokesperson for a big company and it 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:45.400 was like, yes, we've seen, we we know about the 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:51.240 viral Facebook invite is aware, We've been made awareness. I 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:55.200 felt like I was the US government having I'm sorry, 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.640 but yeah, there was Yeah. It was a Facebook invite 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.240 to storm area fifty one. Yeah, yeah, started by um, 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.080 started by an account called oh wait I had it 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:11.560 um ship posting because I'm in shambles, so you know 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:16.280 it's probably for real and um and yeah at this 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.400 at this point has over one million rstps, which are joking, 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.000 means like five people will actually show up for it. 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:28.640 Um but but the uh, the I think the full 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.040 text of the the invite is just like if we 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:36.040 Naruto run, which is a specific style of anime running 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.120 where your arms are back and you run really first, 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.880 that they can't they won't be able to stop us. Um. 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.640 I guess the goal is to The stated goal was 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.760 to free the aliens. Look, I mean, okay, all of 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:54.400 this is stuff that I am behind in in in theory. Um, 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:56.480 I'm just I'm just saying, like I think I was 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.240 going through the person's account who posted this the ship 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:02.400 posting because I'm in shambles, because I was just like, 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.760 what level of ship posts is this person? Like? Are 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:11.040 they a horrible like for Channer or are they just 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:16.160 like idiot Team? Yeah, and it seems more like idiot 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.680 team having a laugh. Like I went through almost their 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:21.919 entire history and I was like, there's nothing here that's 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.520 like crazily racist or anything like that. As I'll just 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:29.680 it's like stilly you know, ship posts. But um, but still, 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:32.280 I mean, I think that the person was sort of 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:36.840 like overwhelmed by the degree which it went viral and 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:41.360 also how many um, dead serious people. Yeah, I was 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.320 the most interesting thing is that there are the people 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:47.560 who are dead serious, the people who are not at 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.960 all serious, and then the very interesting gray area between 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.080 them where you just can't tell if these people are 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.480 serious or not. Because I was like, I didn't know 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.120 that we were doing still doing things like this as 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.760 a joke anymore, right as far as I can tell, 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.000 in nineteen when people are like re forming a militia 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.280 and going to the pizza place they like do it. 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.120 So this also seems kind of ill advised because it's 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.480 a military base and you're not going to get very far. 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:17.560 It's not like the official statement was like please don't, 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.080 just please don't. But I've seen a lot of interesting 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:22.919 talk around this where people are like, is this a 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:30.520 subconscious reaction to wanting to take people out of ice concentrations? Yeah, 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.840 I mean it does feel like, I mean, why don't 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.240 you just start a petition to do that? Then? Well? 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:41.279 Let yeah, I think four thousand people showed up in 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.320 l a um outside a detention center. I think. I mean, 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.480 in a way, it's like nice to see something that 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.520 is kind of just like a good framing on how 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.839 everybody is so frustrated by, you know, just feeling this 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.479 immediate need to change things and how like everything you 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.560 do is still insufficient because it's like a massive projected fantasy, 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:06.920 right exactly. Yeah, I mean that was like the joke 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.760 that I posted was like, we'll totally join in to 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.440 free the aliens from Area fifty one once we've taken 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.240 care of a couple of more important things right now. 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.200 But I mean, I do feel like it's it's Yeah, 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.040 it could be a joke about it could be a 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:25.359 joke about, you know, that kind of powerless feeling of 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:27.880 not being able to do anything about everybody in these 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:30.800 ice detention facilities. Or it could be a joke on 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:39.120 these like crazy conspiracy things. Yeah yeah, yeah, um and 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.560 and and in that, in that way, you can understand 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:46.719 why it went viral. It just resonates. You know. Sometimes 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:51.640 it's fun to just join a group. Uh, more fun 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:54.600 than being by yourself, no matter what the group is. 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.200 Let's talk about a little movie called Midsummer Oh my god, 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:04.880 you guys made. We still need some are our respective 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:09.040 coastal locations, and then we came together to talk about it. Uh, 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:10.880 we've all been very excited to talk about this movie. 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:12.880 We've had some time to think about it, and I 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:14.960 wonder if you guys have the same experience that I 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.840 was very glad actually to have some time to let 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.800 it breathe in my brain. Uh. When we when Molly 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:22.719 and I came out of the l A screening, we 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:25.280 we were both like, what does it mean? And then 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.120 realize it's gonna take a long time to figure it 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:33.240 out probably, Um, but we all really enjoyed Midsummer Obviously, 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:36.120 if you haven't seen it, you should go see uh, 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:42.680 but don't go with someone you're dating. Probably not. Yeah. Um. 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:44.360 I also want to say that another person told me 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.839 about the Blue Valentine Curse, which tests are spoken about 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:48.919 on the podcast before, that if you watch that movie 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:53.799 with a significant other, you will break up, and that 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.840 uh true true spears from the uh This podcast of 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.560 Self Care podcast said he wants to talk about the 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.400 plot of Blue Valentine with a girlfriend. That'll do it. 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:06.120 They broke up. Yep. You don't have to actually sit 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.840 through the movie. You can have a discussion about what 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.040 you thought about the movie, and that can make you 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.040 break up. It is um. I I did a poll 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.320 a while ago on Twitter and only I think it 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.680 was only like seventy percent of people broke up who 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.760 were surveyed after watching Blue Valentine. But I'm going to 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:26.280 go ahead and say, fake news, a hundred percent of 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:31.120 you will break up. I know, I mean it. I 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.880 was like, what is it going on? Who is messing 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:37.960 with my poll? Um? If you're uh forced a loot 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.880 of self reflection on the part of everybody, Yeah, about 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:47.240 UH bad trips it did trips and bad relationships or 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:49.200 just like stale. They don't even need to be like 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.000 I think the kind of point of the movie or 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.320 why why a lot of it works to me, is 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.040 that the relationship doesn't need to be like operatically bad. 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.000 It could just be kind of dysfunctional and not like 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:04.920 you know, something that people should know both parties should 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:08.320 you get out of and just you know, cut their losses. 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.120 But it doesn't need to be anything, you know. I mean, 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.600 it's like kind of emotionally abusive and manipulative in some ways, 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:19.160 but that's about it. But even still, like that's all 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.000 it takes to go into this sort of heightened environment 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.760 of this Midsummer festival and in Sweden and like have 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:31.360 every single aspect of it exposed and open forum. This 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.920 prompted me to tell to us about the time when 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:37.600 I graduated college and I went to visit my college 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:42.320 boyfriend who was abroad. We were like technically on a break, 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:44.959 but we were like theoretically going to get back together. 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.640 When I went to visit him, um and I've never 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:51.080 been to Europe before, and I got there and he 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.880 had a new girlfriend that he hadn't told me about 0:08:55.800 --> 0:09:00.640 because he was like, she's twenty six, so she knows 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:02.840 that it's not serious. And I told her when my 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:07.480 old girlfriend gets here, we're going on a trip together. Um. 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.560 And then we went on a trip together. And it 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:12.720 made me think about that a lot during this movie, 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:15.640 but we didn't. It wasn't you know. I was mad 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:17.760 at him, and then at a certain point I was like, 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:21.480 but also got to enjoy this trip. Oh my god, 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:23.680 I would not have been able to handle it as well. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.839 I remembered when this happened in college. But when Molly 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.600 told me about it again, I got the chills of 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:31.520 how awful that is. I have a really hard time 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.360 traveling anyway. So I kind of came I don't think 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:37.240 I ever really took a trip. I never took like 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:40.680 an extended trip with anyone I was dating, probably because 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:45.240 I knew that I would lose. It's a litmus test, 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.960 you know instantly whether or not it's gonna work. And 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.360 it's just like this person had already like shown me 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.440 when I showed up that they were no longer. So 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.240 then I was like, we're alone on a trip together. 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.240 How weird is that? Because I don't trust you any more? 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:02.080 But also like going to go on this trip and 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.960 have to like prove my worth in some weird way. 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.080 And then we went to Croatia. Instead of you know, 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.760 horrible things happening, it was fine. We did go to 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:16.319 a weird festival though, um in Austria, the weirdest place 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.000 I've ever been, which this movie also made me think about. 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.600 And we went to like we were in Vienna, and 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:23.800 this waiter was like, go to the festival in the Danube. 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.360 And then it was literally like a state fair, like 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.400 a Viennese state fair. So it was like people cutting 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:34.640 up logs with chainsaws and playing Austrian pop punk and 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:39.520 like eating fried food. Um well, well, in in Midsummer 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.160 we should summarize the plot for those who haven't seen it. Um. 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.439 It is about a young woman named Danny played by 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:52.000 Florence Pew, who is she suffers from some anxiety it 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.160 seems like already, and then a horrible thing happens to 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.840 her family, which we shall not spoil here that kind 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:03.319 of center to a very dark place for a long time. 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:07.400 And meanwhile she's dating this guy whose name I can't 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:11.920 remember because he's just like that's Christian, that's right, yeah, 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:17.360 but played by Jack Grayner, who um, who is not 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.120 the best boyfriend, kind of like a claude. He's in 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:25.439 some kind of graduate school and he's an anthropology student, 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.200 and so him and his buddies have planned this like 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.520 wild summer trip to Sweden because one of his friends 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:34.960 is Swedish, grew up on a colummune and they have 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.720 this wild festival every summer. So all these dudes are 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:44.200 going to go, and uh, these two Danny and Christian 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.920 are still together for some reason, and she decides that 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:50.280 she wants to come along with them, kind of to 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:54.880 their disappointment. So they all go to the festival. They 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:59.320 do a lot of hallucinogens, the sun never goes down, 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.480 and and she has a journey of self discovery among 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:09.319 the flower people. It's part of the movie at the end. Um, 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.640 I have a theory about this movie, Yes, stand by 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:14.560 It's my theory the moment I saw it, and I'm 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.400 gonna stand by it. Weeks later, I think it's movies 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:21.199 about white supremacy, y'all. Okay, I'm gonna back that up 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:23.760 with because so Molly brought that up and I was like, 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.959 he's a little fan. It's not because the first thing 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.520 I thought was. This movie is about like a white 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:33.600 blonde girl and she goes to Sweden and she's accepted. 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.240 It's it's all scary white people doing scary European things. 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:41.280 It's true. If really captures that feeling of being in 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:45.520 Europe and being weirded out by the tradition. There's also 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.360 I think that well go ahead. Oh and I found 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:53.400 a Business Insider article that Um talks about Ari Astor 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.559 uh talking on a podcast, I believe, or in an interview, 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.560 but Ruben so there's a cure her in the movie 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.560 that that kind of is like a commentary on closed 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:08.240 societies and incest Um there is this is a commune 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.760 of people in Sweden and they they go to great 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.720 lengths to not inbreed, except when they intentionally inbreed, to 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.640 to produce an oracle basically, and there's an oracle named 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.520 Reuben Um and it says in the Business Insider they're 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.160 like an aster's words. Reuben embodies the political message of 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.920 the film, which is perhaps partly critiquing the global rise 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.720 of xenophobia and the return of the far right in Sweden. 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.920 As Astor said in an interview, if you consider Swedish history, 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:37.720 it's a very closed society, and what does that really mean. 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:39.920 There are things happening in Sweden right now that are 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.160 echoes of things that happened in the Second World War. 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.720 There you go, there you go, Because again I do 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.120 think there is part of the way that the far 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.800 right pushes their ideology is to be like, we have 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.200 to go back to this older, more innocent time. And 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.080 you know when everybody was the beautiful girls everywhere in 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.960 flower crowns and everything was great, um, and all we 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:03.520 had to do was kill some people for the crops 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:05.880 every once in a while, and I did get super 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.880 And and also the Nazis are very into, uh, you're 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.200 like this kind of esotericism. A lot of the the 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:17.040 Nazi love love that weird occult stuff. And turns out 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:19.840 that the form of Swedish paganism was the same form 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:25.920 of paganism in Germany, so there is a common history there. Um. 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:32.480 You should take our nightcall from Let's have some inside intel. 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:40.200 This is a night email, I believe right, it's a 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:47.080 night email from I'm probably totally mispronouncing as Oscar. Yeah, 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.560 I'm Osgar. You might note me as Bordo Blues on Twitter, 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.400 writing to you from Stockholm, Sweden, to hopefully share something 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.200 of use to your episode about Midsummer as well as 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:59.400 my general bewilderment I felt because of the experience around 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.040 this film. I saw the film and it's European premier 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.600 here with a bunch of producers in the Swedish actors 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.160 present A few days after Midsummer's Eve, which we observe 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.640 as a holiday, always landing on a Friday, making the 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.360 following Saturday, Midsummer's Day, a day off. Hundreds of thousands 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:15.840 of people leave the major cities for their hometowns, unless 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:17.840 you're from Stockholm like I am, to be with their 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.400 extended families and maybe raise a maypole and ring, dance 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.040 around it and definitely eat fermented or pickled herring with 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.760 potatoes and then get very drunk on beer and schnaps. 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.160 You drink up, you sing a song, you fill the glasses, 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.160 you repeat, all of which can lead to messy situations. 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.360 Even the official website for Sweden points out that quote 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:36.720 legend has it that the night before Midsummer's Day is 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:39.240 a magical time for love. It still is in a way. 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.880 During this night many a relationship is put to put 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.640 to the test under the influence of alcohol, the truth 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.080 will come out, which can lead both to marriage and 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:53.120 to divorce. So he Oscar goes on to talk about, Um, 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.960 a group of people like cliff diving while they were 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.760 drunk and that ended very badly. Um, somebody got impaled 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:03.360 on a they did. Uh. People being careless and not 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:06.560 noticing bears sitting in the middle of a desolate for forest. 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:10.240 Road fires that people like burning out of control because 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:12.840 they're too drunk to handle them. The disasters befalling the 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:14.880 poor tourists in the film are at least to me, 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:19.120 just exaggerated and more murderous than this stuff you almost 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:21.960 always here has happened to someone you know every summer. 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.480 The wild disorientation you feel from the constant light isn't 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.000 strange either, despite living with very little light for seven 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:30.600 to eight months, then your constant sunlight during summer is 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:32.960 still jarring, even if you've lived your all your life. 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.160 Your mind doesn't really adjust to it, and you need 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:37.520 black outlinders and sleeping mass to get through the days 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.400 with two hours of twilight not dark for a few months. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.440 And that's just in Stockholm, which isn't in the North. 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:45.440 Florence Pugh looking exactly like someone you'd run into it 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.400 a Midsummer celebration or just wandering around here in general, 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.960 adds to the uneasy feeling of it all being just 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:53.560 a little too close to home, just like a two four. 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.360 Buying the Midsummer hashtag on Twitter did, which added an 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.360 emoji of her whaling, which became truly strange when Swedes 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:05.600 started tagging their Midsummer photos. I want to say, yeah, 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.879 this is really interesting. I learned about Midsummer maybe like 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:11.919 a year ago because a friend of mine went um 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.800 and it was very much like the setup for this movie. 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.199 It was my friend Mike Hernando Stern went with his 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.879 friend Max, who Swedish, back to Max's hometown for Midsummer 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.880 and I said to him, are you sure you want 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.120 to go into the forest with a bunch of like 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.800 white Swedish people. You know you're a Mexican Jewish person. 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.800 Are they going to sacrifice you for the crops um? 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.560 And then there was a movie about it, so well, 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:44.080 I think that's just my personal stereotype of all pagan 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.159 celebrations is that I think I'm going to be the 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:51.480 one who gets killed. Also, you love pagan celebration. I 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.520 feel like we've talked about this so many times, like yeah, 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.800 well I think I mean, obviously, this movie is in 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.040 many ways a remake of The wicker Man, which is 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:05.160 about another place sort of a weird ethno state removed 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.879 from time where they still do the pagan things. So 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:12.399 I did get really into researching uh pre Christianity, uh 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:14.000 and found out that a lot of the stuff in 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:18.959 Midsummer ripped from the headlines. Um. There, we didn't make 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:21.359 up a lot of stuff, just like totally whole cloyeah. 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:25.520 Something called something called a bloat Apparently blo with an 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.879 accent t um was a thing that you had to 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.919 do every summer where they would sacrifice a few people 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:39.240 to ensure that the crops remained, uh going good of course, um, 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:43.639 and that being a widespread phenomenon among every culture and 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.959 pre Christianity. It is really weird and interesting how everybody 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:49.919 like refers back to that as this time of brutalism, 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:54.639 when obviously we live in an extremely brutalist, horrible time 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.280 now that is just sanctioned. And you know, some of 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.560 what they were saying was very seductive of like oh, 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.679 we just acknowledge that, like you killed the old generation 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.600 and that's how you get the new generation. Also, by 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:11.080 the way, friend of Pod Colin Dicky, wrote about Midsummer 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.120 for Mother Jones, and his take on it was that 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:19.440 it was basically a commentary on people criticizing socialism, which 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.200 I was like, also a very interesting read. Right, well, 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.800 so this is more where I fall with this. I 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.920 don't think it's not about white supremacy, and I think 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.480 that that the I mean, well, the reason that it 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:35.480 takes place there's for like very boring industry reasons because 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:38.960 he got an assignment from a British that's true. I 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:41.040 think the fact that it's Sweden is part of what 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:45.000 makes it interesting because of all those things being played 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:47.359 into it. And like, honestly, as somebody who reads a 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.040 lot about like Germany leading up to the Nazis, like 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:51.760 a lot of the stuff that the Nazis used, like 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.960 the Nazi youth came out of stuff that Germans already 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.000 did and loved. That all had to do with like 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.000 scouting around outside and being in groups and living communally, 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:03.639 and the other branch of that is like hippies, you know, 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.600 comes out of that. So obviously it's like, I don't know, 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.400 Tess was just also talking about something she heard about 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:13.359 that was like a tech attempt to update communes, but 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.480 it costs so much money. Yes, it's like eight dollars 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:18.920 a month for just a bedroom, and then you get 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:23.679 to enjoy communal suffers. I was like, well, oh, I 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.040 was just gonna say. I mean, so, I don't think 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:30.000 that it's not about white supremacy, and I think that 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:33.400 that imagery is like being used very intentionally of just 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.920 like the creepiness of a town or a village just 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:39.720 full of white people, like dressed in white Like I 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:42.720 think that that he knows what he's doing with on 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.480 the aesthetic level there. But I think I think the 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:48.160 way that the movie hits deeper for me, and it's 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.320 not not it's not in opposition to that as a theme, 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.119 but I think it's like maybe a little broader is 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:58.640 this idea of like how a community can make your 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:03.280 individual feels feel bigger. So that is like obviously a 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.919 phenomenon that happens with the all right, that happens with 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.280 these sort of how people get radicalized online, but it 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.879 also happens in more mundane ways, and I think like 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.239 this kind of shows it happening through a breakup and 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.000 like I was just thinking about like, you know, sometimes 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.560 you see somebody on Twitter or something who is having 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:25.320 a hard time or is mad about something um and 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:27.520 you know, because it's Twitter, you get the very brief 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:30.280 cliff notes version of it. But then if you do that, 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:32.920 you can get like a chorus of people and your 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.680 mentions like like grieving with you, telling you that you're 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.199 right to feel upset in some cases, like drumming up 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.560 your feeling of being upset, like providing an echo chamber 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:44.879 to make your individual feeling that up until then you 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:48.639 were feeling by yourself a big shared thing that is 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:52.560 even more justified and can be weaponized really easily too. 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.320 And I think, and I think, yeah, I think what 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:57.760 we're all saying is like and then that feeling of 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:01.080 group nous, which is a good thing in some ways, 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.360 can be like manipulated in two directions, and those directions 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.280 and fascism and that is where it feels like everything 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:09.680 is going right now anyway is into one of those 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.720 two directions. So yeah, I think the movie, I mean, 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:16.320 we all really liked it. It obviously provoked a really 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.600 strong reaction and all of us, which I think, well, 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:23.080 I also, yeah, I mean, I I really liked it, 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:26.440 and it's been interesting to see how people have responded 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:29.320 to this also compared to how they responded to Hereditary, 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:33.199 Ariaster's last movie. Because I really like Hereditary, but like 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:35.880 it didn't really get under my skin, which feels weird 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:38.560 because it's like very creepy on a very kind of 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:42.000 profound level and it's very upsetting. You're probably the only 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:44.320 person who got more creeped out by this one than 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:45.840 that one. I didn't, you know, it's not that I 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:48.560 got more creeped out by it. Like in many ways, 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:51.080