Strange Darling – Film Review
Reviewed by Damien Straker on the 22nd of August 2024
VVS Films presents a film by JT Mollner
Screenplay by JT Mollner
Produced by Bill Block, Steve Schneider, Roy Lee, and Giovanni Ribisi
Starring Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey, and Ed Begley Jr.
Cinematography Giovanni Ribisi
Edited by Christopher Robin Bell
Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 96 minutes
Release Date: the 22nd of August 2024
Strange Darling is a highly confronting film that is impossible to ignore. The reason it is engrossing is not because it has deep backstories or particularly warm characters. It is at times a very cold and disturbing film. Rather, it is because it utilises an incredibly clever narrative structure that completely changes our sympathies for its two characters. It also inverts everything we knew about its most critical scenes. The non-linear storytelling is not just a structural gimmick though. It strengthens the thematic aim of perceptions and how people are never who they appear to be on the surface. If one can stomach the violent and sometimes graphic confrontations, then it is easy to recommend this well-constructed thriller. It should also be seen for Willa Fitzgerald’s multilayered performance. She is another reason why our expectations are effortlessly upended.
The film is divided into six different chapters. The twist though is that the film is not told sequentially. It starts with chapter three and then shifts to chapter five before jumping back and forth in time. What is dramatised at the forefront of this time shifting is essentially a one-night stand. A man who is named in the film as the Demon (Kyle Gallner from Scream, 2022) is sitting in his car with a woman called the Lady (Fitzgerald). They are preparing to sleep together for the first time. She asks him playfully, ‘are you a serial killer?’ The film then cuts to a deadly chase sequence on a winding road. The Lady is in tears as she speeds away from the Demon’s vehicle. He then pulls out a rifle and fires on her car. The chase continues on foot. The Lady is wounded but races across an open field before taking shelter in a house belonging to an elderly couple (played by Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr.). That’s all that should be said about the plot. Even horror director Mike Flanagan and filmmaker Francis Lawrence have both praised the film, stressing that people should know as little as possible before seeing it.
It is entirely possible that the coldness of the story is again a deliberate stylistic choice by filmmaker J.T. Mollner. His last film was a Western called Outlaws and Angels (2016). His decision to tell this story through a non-linear trajectory is the most obvious technique for subverting our expectations. His use of colour might also be as deliberate and selective too. He employs a blue colour filter during the conversation outside the motel before the action intensifies. It is possible that this visual choice is used to reflect the lack of emotional attachment between the Lady and the Demon as they feel each other out but also the audience. We are kept at arm’s length about their identity and backstory, which purposely builds some emotional distance. We are not meant to know who deserves our sympathy. The motel room scene underlines this too. It is fascinating how it becomes a microcosm of the whole film. With the Lady crying and handcuffed to the bed, the power dynamics between herself and the Demon unexpectedly turn. The red colour palette then shows the characters’ passion before they sleep together but also the changing perceptions as their motives and identities become clearer. Mollner knows how to control the audience’s feelings not just through the non-linear structure but these stylistic devices that keep us from being too attached to one person.
Outside of the twists and turns in the story, the most compelling facet of the movie is Willa Fitzgerald’s compelling lead performance. She was in several episodes of the thriller series Reacher (2022) and also briefly Billions (2020) and House of Cards (2018). This is a very difficult, demanding role that will certainly put her profile on the map. She must undertake a lot of highly confronting scenes in this story and often perform them with a convincing amount of wounded physicality and distress. She excels because we feel both the humanity and the sense of danger. Without revealing too much, it is also extraordinary the way that our sympathy for her continues to shift as we begin to learn about who she really is. Her performance is also critical to the idea of perceptions and how a surface often gives way to something darker and more sinister. This is not to ignore the quiet intensity of Kyle Gallner’s solid work, but Fitzgerald’s performance is simply that striking and impressive to behold.
It will be interesting to see how long the secrets of this film will be kept under wraps. It feels as though there are few secrets in movies nowadays because of the online commentary. Consequently, it might be a good idea to see this film once it releases so that the story is not spoilt. The whole point of the film’s experiment, using the jumbled, non-linear structure, is to challenge what we think we know about seemingly ordinary people and what they are capable of doing. Yet even if its surprises are revealed prematurely, it is still worth seeing because of Willa Fitzgerald’s highly visceral performance. People who enjoyed the inverted, shifting power dynamics of dark, brutal thrillers such as Freeway (1996), Hard Candy (2005), and Promising Young Woman (2020) will also find this troubling film particularly gripping.
Summary: A highly confronting film that is impossible to ignore. Its worth seeing for Willa Fitzgerald’s visceral performance.
3.5
Gripping
About the Author
Damien Straker is a freelance writer and film critic. He studied at the University of Sydney and graduated with an Arts Honours degree in Film Studies. He is a pop culture aficionado and enjoys talking about all films, 90s TV shows, ninjas and watching Rugby League. His favourite film directors are Alfonso Cuarón, Clint Eastwood and Alexander Payne.
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