Strange Darling - Movie Review

Critics Score - 9 of 10

General Audience Score - 9 of 10

I’ve seen most of the big summer movies for 2024 with the exception of a few. Some have been pretty good, some have been underwhelming and a few just plain duds. Well who’d have thought that in late August the bomb would drop of what has to be without question the best film of the summer, but also undoubtedly one of the best films of the year to boot. A new two hander psychological thriller Strange Darling stumbles its way into theatres this weekend without much fanfare, yet it is the epitome of why I not only love cinema, but began to write film reviews as well. People need to know about amazing pieces of filmmaking such as this one and I want to help spread the word on them. That being said, I will keep my opening remarks vague for the sake of not spoiling anything, but I would encourage anybody to go into this film as blind as possible. It’s a fantastically wild ride that left me breathless. This is a twisted tale of a hunter and its prey. It isn’t a film you’ll want your kids at, there’s a decent amount of blood and gore as well as scenes of sexual assault, drugs and drinking, suffice it to say lots of naughty activity. But I won’t stray any further into the plot details, if you want to read a bit about the movie to know if it’s for you, the first two paragraphs of my SYNOPSIS section should suffice. JT Mollner wrote and directed this film and although he’s done a few other projects I’m unfamiliar with, this script is one hell of a banger. It’s expertly woven to reveal exactly what he wants us to know, when he wants us to know it. Willa Fitzgerald absolutely devours this role and Kyle Gallner does some exceptional work here as well. This movie is a cinephile’s dream, it will no doubt be a critics Darling and although a little Strange nobody has heard of it, Strange Darling will delight general audiences of all shapes and sizes with it’s edge of your seat thrills.

SYNOPSIS - *Soft spoilers ahead, but I’ll do my best to avoid anything that gives away any deeper plot details, other than the basic premise* As the movie begins we get some onscreen text informing us this movie was “shot entirely on 35mm film”. This doesn’t mean much to the average cinema goer but for people within the industry, where most movies are filmed digitally these days, there’s a movement to bring back the old ways of actually shooting movies on film stock. And it’s gorgeous. A black and white scene cuts in, we hear the metallic clink of a lighter and a man (Kyle Gallner), whom the IMDB page refers to as The Demon, lights up a cigarette and exhales. We hear a woman’s voice, who we later discover to be The Lady (Willa Fitzgerald), say, “So I have to ask you a question . . .”, and after a dramatically long pause she asks, “Are you a serial killer?”. He looks over at her and the scene cuts to a shot, the camera to the left of The Demon, he’s shirtless and the camera shot only makes us privy to his upper body. We see his strong arms from about the elbow up, he’s straining and looking down. We can’t see what he’s doing but we hear the sound of The Lady choking as the score intensifies. We then get some onscreen text read to us by a deep male voice, it explains what we’re in for. It claims we’re hearing the tale of a serial killer that went on a murder spree back in 2018-2020 through the states of Colorado, Wyoming and Oregon. Drawing from interviews, eyewitness and police depositions, “This is a dramatization of the true story of the final known killings in that rampage . . .”.

The black and white scene continues as another scene opens up of a field and slowly transitions to color as a woman comes running out of the woods and crosses the field. She’s heading straight towards the camera, the video playing in slow motion, maybe around half speed. As she runs, a rendition of Love Hurts by Z Berg plays over as the character known as The Lady, who we heard from earlier, wearing red scrubs and looking generally terrified, bolts in our direction. The shot freezes right before she gets to us. Then the scene cuts and we’re taken to a back country road, some woods on our right and a wheat field or something to the left. An old red pinto is racing down the middle of the road, it drives right over the camera and we refocus as a new black pickup truck comes around the far corner, in hot pursuit of the pinto. After the truck passes, the camera pans up into the blue sky above us and we see the films title and the words “A Thriller In 6 Chapters”. As the chase continues we watch as The Lady keeps checking her rear view mirror, the new truck steadily gaining ground on the old car as they wind through the back roads. Suddenly the screen goes red with the words Chapter 3 “Can You Help Me? Please?” displayed in black text, and we’re made privy to the fact that we’re starting somewhere towards the middle of this story. Part of the appeal for the film is that it’s non-linear. In actuality, the next Chapter we hit is 5, the film bounces back and forth in the story, expertly weaving it’s tale of surprises and reveals in a way that leaves you gasping for breath at every turn. I won’t give you any more information than I already have, but I believe I’ve explained how utterly gripping, shocking and absolutely nail biting of an experience this film delivers. Go check it out when you can.

Let’s start with what has to be the most technically challenging thing this film has executed to near perfection, this screenplay. JT Mollner must’ve crafted this thing for years to get the precision of it to be so tight. In terms of story construction and plot exposition, every corner is so meticulous crafted that, just as we get a peek around it, we catch a glimpse of something that slips out of sight and we’re running to see what we can get a peek of next. That might sound weird but you just have to see the film to understand it’s plot construction and how it all plays out. If you didn’t read the synopsis, it doesn’t spoil much to say the film is non linear and jumps around in it’s story, leaving us to try and piece things together, as “we think” we know them. The direction from Mollner is also highly impressive, he’s crafted the world we’re entering with painstaking care, you can tell it’s his baby. It’s also paced incredibly well, the editing is tight and there’s little downtime, we’re thrown into the action from the outset and it doesn’t let it’s foot off the gas until the finale. The breakneck speed of the final act will leave you gripping your armrests for dear life. Also highly impressive is the cinematography and lighting effects used in many of the films sequences, the work by Giovanni Ribisi is almost alone worth the price of admission. He has crafted some absolutely stunning imagery in this film. The original score is also a solid piece of tension building work, Z Berg did the music and although it’s not quite as epic as Dune or Furiosa, it’s excellent in it’s usage within the film. For the acting, our two leads are absolutely crushing it, Willa Fitzgerald is incredible as the main character and although Kyle Gallner isn’t quite at her level, he’s still excellent in his own right and the chemistry between the two is riveting. I cannot oversell this film, it’s almost too good to be true. For a random box office drop in late August, this was that last thing I was expecting when I went into the theater tonight, but catch up with this one as soon as you can, it’s going to be the talk of the town soon.

SUMMARY - If you go to the cinema every so often, or maybe for just a few films a year, go watch this movie, I kid you not when I say it’s one of the years best. This movie will blow your hair back more than Twisters, take you on a better ride than Furiosa and thrill you more than Longlegs. For my buck, Strange Darling was a thrill a minute piece of cinema that will knock out audiences everywhere and it surely won’t be Strange to see it appear on my list of Darling favorites of the year.