The yearâs best just-shut-up-and-watch-it movie is Strange Darling (now streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video), a wild thriller from writer-director JT Mollner and producer Giovanni Ribisi, who also notches his first feature cinematographer credit. The film has been kicking around for more than a year â it debuted at 2023âs Fantastic Fest â and remained far enough below the radar that its myriad surprises have mostly gone unspoiled. But it was on the radar enough to enjoy significant critical acclaim (95 percent on the Tomatometer), a nearly in-unison chorus that Iâm more than happy to join right here and right now.
STRANGE DARLING: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: âAre you a serial killer?â A doozy of an opening line, delivered by a character only known as The Lady (Willa Fitzgerald), to a man only known as The Demon (Kyle Gallner). This opening scene is actually the middle of the story, so hang on as we jump around: First, to a title card that gives us some lore about a serial killer who slaughtered folks in the Pacific Northwest between 2018 and 2021, a bit framed to make it seem true when it surely isnât true at all. We see The Lady, wearing bright red nurseâs scrubs, running in slo-mo through the woods, then jump to chapter 3, which shows us how she ended up running in slo-mo through the woods, but not how she ended up in bright red nurseâs scrubs, because that happened in chapter two, which weâll get to later. The movie will continue in this busted-up manner, but fear not, youâll understand why soon enough.
Thereâs not a lot of dialogue here. The Lady is bleeding heavily from her ear, which might not be wholly intact. The Demon pursues her with a deer rifle. Sometimes, they chase each other in vehicles, she in a vintage red Pinto and he in a late-model truck. There are scenes at a home deep in the woods where a weirdo couple (Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr.) lives, aging hippies with, per their radio-listening habits, an interest in sasquatches and UFOs and other hooey. They also prepare and eat a breakfast plate thatâs a lot of jelly and butter and eggs and sausages and pancakes and syrup and could be righteously delicious or utterly revolting, who can tell. There isnât much dialogue. Sometimes, score and soundtrack cues overwhelm us. The action is heavy and intense, especially when the old fella drops the eggs in a skillet sizzling with an entire stick of butter. An entire stick.
Earlier chapters set up the scenario. The Lady and The Demon sit in his truck in the parking lot of a skeezy motel called the Blue Angel. First-date vibes abound. They drink beers and smoke cigarettes and flirt. Theyâll make it inside a room eventually, where they get weird. Kinky. No more details, but I will say scenes from earlier in the movie that actually occur later on the timeline set up expectations that we carry into scenes later in the movie that actually occur earlier on the timeline, and then those expectations are upended. Two things I can confirm, though: One, you may never properly contextualize the phrase âMr. Snuffleupagusâ again.â And two, youâre being played like a damn piano.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Between this and Longlegs, the serial killer thriller may be in the midst of a creative renaissance. Mollnerâs precise direction and ability to amp up tension recalls Jeremy Saulnier (Rebel Ridge, Blue Ruin). He chops up a narrative and throws in playful dialogue like a good Tarantinoite. And Strange Darling dishes out the type of morally disruptive force that Emerald Fennell attempted to stoke with Saltburn and Promising Young Woman, but with more transparently calculated provocation.
Performance Worth Watching: For my nickel, Fitzgeraldâs tricky, multilayered characterization is worthy of an Oscar nom. Sheâs coy and wickedly smart, and brings the intensity as needed, like a combination of Jennifer Jason Leigh and Parker Posey.
Memorable Dialogue: âThereâs nothing more than checkmate. It either is or it isnât, you fâing philistine!â â The Lady
Sex and Skin: Some kinky stuff in underwear, but none if it is explicit in a physical manner. Psychologically, though? Totally different story.
Our Take: Mollner embraces a throwback tone and sensibility with Strange Darling, in the pursuit of holding us in his grip and making us profoundly uncomfortable with what weâre witnessing. Again, he drops us into the middle of the story and frequently flashes forward and back, and itâs an ingenious bit of manipulation, forcing us to jump to conclusions and then reconsider those conclusions, prompting us to wonder why we jumped to those conclusions in the first place. You can almost hear Mollner giggling as he toys with sexual and gender dynamics, pushing us in one direction only to yank us back.
Even better is how the director uses his sharply honed technical filmmaking prowess in the service of an intelligent â but never too smart for its own good â and provocative screenplay thatâs a clever genre exercise with Something To Say. Not that itâs a heavy-handed missive about sexual politics; those with a more delicate sensitivity to the tricky intersection of sex and violence may be disturbed by what they see. Itâs also never truly dead-serious, its bits of dark comedy cutting through the intensity with exquisite timing. Strange Darling might just be one of the yearâs most smartly written, directed and acted films.
Our Call: Like I said, just shut up and watch it. STREAM IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Strange Darling’ on VOD, a Bracing, Sexually Charged Thriller Starring a Wily Willa Fitzgerald appeared first on Decider.
