Director: Olivia Wilde
Writers: Katie Silberman(screenplay by), Carey Van Dyke(story by), Shane Van Dyke(story by)
Stars: Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, KiKi Layne, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll
If there’s been one movie this year that’s been engulfed in controversies it has to be Olivia Wilde’s ‘Don’t Worry Darling’. It was a PR executive’s dream, from screaming matches on set, to torrid affairs, to scandalous social media posts, and of course the infamous ‘spit gate’, the media frenzy surrounding this film only poses the question; will this change the way you see the film itself? It was definitely a question that arose before we went into the screening.
Alice (Pugh) and Jack (Styles) are lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950’s societal optimism governed by their CEO, Frank (Pine)—equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach—giving vague promises of “changing the world” to the people of this desert utopia. While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the “development of progressive materials,” their wives, get to spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community.
Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause. But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory, and why.
Throughout this movie I was questioning the same thing, what are they doing in Victory and why? What exactly is Victory? and why aren’t they allowed into the depths of the desert? ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ is bizarrely lacking in any propulsive mystery, instead were just reassured the town is weird.
Olivia Wilde is clearly a good director, we saw her incredible work in her debut project of ‘Booksmart’, she has a natural skill of eliciting a fantastic performance from her lead stars, and we see that again with the gifted Pugh. No matter what happened on that set, bad or good, there’s no doubt that Pugh and Wilde worked fabulously together in ‘Don’t Worry Darling’. Harry Styles shines in the moments of this film when the drama escalates, when his character needs to be more than a doting husband, Styles raises his level and we soon forget he’s not a trained actor.
It goes without saying that Pugh is excellent. She does nervousness and terror well, and she makes Alice’s climbing anxiety as convincing as it can be even if the script fails to give her avenues to take the trauma. It’s quite clear to see that Wilde’s casting of Alice was the perfect choice.
Despite the the controversy surrounding this movie, ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ is a twisted and visually stunning psychological thriller. Director Olivia Wilde boasts intoxicating performances from Florence Pugh, surrounded by the impressive and pitch-perfect cast. The ultimate question still remains though, was this a movie about a society of entrapped people or was it a searing interrogation of modern gender dynamics?
‘Don’t Worry Darling’ is in cinemas now.
Email: neill@outloudculture.com
