Strange Darling Reviews (original) (raw)

Horror aficionados will find much to admire, but everything about this wild project defies generic expectations. It’s a thriller; it’s a cat-and-mouse game; it’s a truly messed-up love story.

Playing out in six, ingeniously scrambled chapters, this headlong thriller transforms a simple cat-and-mouse premise — and maybe even a toxic love story — into an impertinent rebuke to genre clichés and our own preprogrammed assumptions.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The thing that makes Strange Darling such an incredibly exceptional film is that it is as chaotic as it is surgical and focused with its direction. Its script is so methodical in how it's delivered and never reveals its true hand too early. It toys with the audience in a way that no other film has this year, last year or 3 years before it. It is as close to perfect a movie has been this year if only it didn't follow the cardinal sin of plotting which is "characters making dumb decisions so the rest of the plot can happen", fortunately this is more than halfway through the movie when this occurs so it doesn't completely ruin the movie, but it does keep a great movie from being a bonafide classic.

Although “Strange Darling” dutifully delivers white-knuckle tension and cinematic panache, Mollner’s savvy script also speaks to the unbalanced power dynamic a woman typically accepts when inviting the advances of an unfamiliar man.

It’s in uncompromising bad taste but made with lethal precision and discipline.

Not everything works — for example, there are multiple moments where characters are firing up cigs with Zippo lighters that seem painfully choreographed to look "cool" — but the film is so energetic and intense that it's hard to not go along for the ride.

Ultimately, Strange Darling left me with a little “Emperor’s New Clothing” feeling, with all the excitement coming not from the actual story but from the manner in which it is presented.

Fitzgerald gives a strong performance, especially considering the lack of depth her character is afforded, but her impact is drowned out by the film’s truly rancid attempt at upending the gendered inferences that Mollner has staged her character within.

Old school fun in a smart, contemporary package, including cinematography that nods to the ’70s without going all Instagram-filter. Violence is abundant, but always in service of the unending twists and turns.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

All of the advice on this one was “go in blind”. So I did. Good for the producers, because if someone had tipped the twist I probably wouldn’t have purchased a ticket. Extreme unpleasantness & a too-clever film school script. Willa Fitzgerald fully commits & the 35mm cinematography is fine, though. The indie folk chick mewling on the soundtrack was the perfect accompaniment to wanting to bolt for the exit, but stuck it out-

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Imagine a student film with long takes, placed out of order a la Tarantino, except with a script written by an AI app with the prompt "subvert some genre conventions to get the moronic critics giddy." And doing reverse tracking shots with ominous music does not make a good film. Kyle Gallner is the only good thing about this absurdly overrated self-indulgent poor excuse of a film. Are there good parts? Sure. About 2 minutes worth.

Production Company Miramax, No Remake Pictures, Spooky Pictures

Release Date Aug 23, 2024

Duration 1 h 36 m

Rating R

Tagline Love hurts.

Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival

• 1 Win & 2 Nominations

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival

• 1 Win & 1 Nomination