'Don't Worry Darling' Has Everyone Buzzing, But Not Because It's Good
#195: "Don't Worry Darling," "Confess, Fletch," "Dr. Strangelove," "If Beale Street Could Talk"
Edition 195:
Hey movie lovers!
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In this week’s newsletter: The buzziest movie of the year, Don’t Worry Darling, is certainly not the best. But hey, a new streaming comedy starring Jon Hamm was pretty good! Throw in a couple of really strong streaming recs for good measure. Then in this week’s “Trailer Watch,” that Timothy Chalamet cannibal movie looks really good.
Don’t Worry Darling
It’s finally time to talk about the most talked about movie of the year. Alas, this will not be a story about the behind the scenes drama. You can read about that stuff literally anywhere and everywhere. We’re not here to litigate whether Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh were feuding on set, whether Wilde and Harry Styles’ relationship was distracting, whether Shia LaBeouf got fired or quit, whether Styles spit on Chris Pine at the premiere, whether Pine was high at the press conference, or the zillion other wild controversies which have vastly overshadowed the fact that at some point this was going to be an actual movie that actual people were going to actually watch.
My prediction prior to the movie’s release, confirmed by the strong $35 million in box office receipts so far, was that Wilde had sold her soul - whether she did so intentionally or not. All publicity is good publicity, in the end, and the controversy created a buzz which produced a can’t-miss feeling of urgency amongst potential movie-goers. But Wilde has no doubt soiled her reputation, nullifying her strong directorial debut with Booksmart, and it seems unlikely that high quality talent will want to work with her on her next project.
I can assure you, that palace intrigue is far more interesting than the movie itself. Still, it needs to be said:
Don’t Worry Darling as a film is not a disaster. Technically, it is competent. For one thing, the aesthetic vibes emanating from lush set design and beautiful period costuming make the 1950s Palm Springs-esque utopia a world you want to inhabit. That is, until the cracks of this Pleasantville quickly start showing, and our housewife protagonist (played by the supernova that is Florence Pugh) realizes things aren’t quite what they seem.
The movie has designs on being high art. It’s got shades of Shutter Island, The Truman Show, and M. Night Shyamalan. It desperately wants to be the kind of “The Twilight Zone” style dystopian mind-bender that packs a punch of social commentary, a proverbial “Get Out for millennial white women.”
It’s certainly not that. It is artistic in the way the trash bag VCR clip from American Beauty is, which is to say the creator thinks it’s really profound and the rest of us are left suspecting that person is a sociopath. Highly stylized visual motifs recur throughout the movie as a pointless and annoying distraction. Simple storytelling decisions throughout the narrative were at best baffling and at worst just wrong, leading the members of my screening to laugh during a few of what were supposed to be the most dramatic moments.
For a movie that relies on a big plot twist (which I won’t spoil), I’ve almost never seen a reveal land with such a thud. A collective “wait that’s it, really?” is followed by a tepid and unsatisfying race to some conclusion, until the rip cord is altogether yanked unceremoniously and the movie cut off.
Is the movie supposed to be funny? There are definitely funny people in it, including MVP Kate Berlant, Nick Kroll, Tim Simons, and credit where it’s due, Wilde herself. But when matched up with the ominously one-note villain of Pine, a wildly uneven Styles, and a compelling but humorless Pugh, the tone of the movie is impossible to pin down.
Is it satire? My goodness, I hope not. For a movie that’s meant to be feminist, which Wilde has touted in the press as being “about women’s pleasure,” the most disturbing thing about Don’t Worry Darling is that it’s social messaging is actually fairly reductive. It’s difficult to go into details without spoiling the twist, but suffice it to say that the particular brand of feminism on display is about as modern as Rosie the Riveter.
There really is no substance behind the hollow shell of a plot, which passes the absolute lowest threshold of satisfaction if you restrain yourself from asking a single question or probe even an inch beneath the surface, at which point the whole thing starts to unravel.
Of course, I’m discounting the fact that many viewers are willing to do exactly that. This will inevitably be a movie trashed by critics and liked (but not loved) by audiences — we’re already seeing that in the crude Rotten Tomatoes metrics, 38% approval from critics and 77% from audiences.
Here’s the thing. A bunch of people came to see this movie because Harry Styles is hot. To that end, he does not disappoint. You come for the show, you get the show.
AND YET, if I have to raise my sword against the army of Styles stans (Jon Snow style), I have to say that I don’t think he was right for this role. His character is difficult to understand, his motivations murky, one minute loving and the next angry. And I think it’s kind of his fault? He brings little complexity to the character other than his attractiveness, not charismatic enough to convince us why Pugh would be so loyal to him (other than his hotness), or sinister enough to convince us she’s in trouble.
It will surprise no reader of this newsletter that I think Shia LaBeouf would have been 100x better, because despite the fact that he’s a bit of a psycho off-screen, I am among the most fervent believers in LaBeouf’s ability to be the most electric actor on the planet on-screen. But I’m no dummy, and neither is Wilde. Styles is good for business, and good for make-out sessions in the back of your trailer (which may or may not have happened).
The legacy of this movie will be for the behind-the-scenes drama, not the movie. In some perverse way, that will preserve it as a pop culture flashpoint for years to come, like the Tom Cruise couch jump or Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Only time will tell whether this movie will damage Wilde’s trajectory as a filmmaker as much as I predict, but her next project certainly won’t be required viewing for me personally. Pugh, Styles, Pine, Kroll and the rest of them will be just fine. Don’t waste your time worrying about them, or going out to see this movie.
Something New
Confess, Fletch ($VOD, headed to Showtime): The 1985 Fletch movie starring Chevy Chase doesn’t have much legacy today, but it was one of the 10 highest grossing movies of its release year. Back then, idiot detectives were all the rage (Pink Panther, The Naked Gun, Police Academy), and no one has ever done dumb slapstick quite like Chevy Chase.
Jon Hamm plays the character a bit differently. Goofy, yes…quirky, sure…but no idiot. He’s the sort of lucky dope who seems blessed by serendipity, a bit like Daniel Craig’s character in Knives Out. Here he’s investigating some stolen paintings while also being investigated as a potential murder suspect, bouncing around New York City getting into the types of comedic situations that would qualify as “mischief” or “shenanigans.” Despite their corniness, their charm is irresistible.
The most jarring thing about the movie is simply that it exists — a glossy, broad studio comedy feels almost anachronistic at this point. Unlike those 2010s entries that destroyed the genre, this movie actually “works,” serving it’s purpose as a funny and entertaining and purposely trite piece of popcorn entertainment. Still, the impossibility of such a comedy as a commercial product is underscored by the fact that this movie wasn’t given a super wide release, and was dropped on VOD on the same day. Now, $20 is a steep price for any movie, especially an enjoy-and-forget streamer. But for subscribers to Showtime, this is definitely worth throwing on in a couple of weeks when it hits the platform.
Something Old
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, Tubi): I’d somehow never seen this movie before this week, although I do remember being assigned it as homework for a class in college and reading the Wikipedia page, if that counts. Back then I didn’t yet appreciate the genius of Stanley Kubrick, and even when I did, I associated him with dark, brooding and cerebral thrillers like The Shining, A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut.
This movie is a deeply sardonic comedy, and I laughed out loud on at least a half dozen occasions as it unwinds its satire of government ineptitude. Suffice it to say, that subject matter has aged extremely well in the near-60 years since initial release.
The story is simple. A rogue U.S. general wants to end the atomic standoff with the Russians by sending a preemptive nuclear strike. The safeguards put in place to stop such a situation now prevent the president from stopping it, especially because he’s surrounded by babbling idiots, and on the other side, the Russians can’t prevent their “doomsday device” from countering by blowing up the whole world.
Anchored by fantastic set design and comedic acting performances, the 95-minute runtime flies by and I’d hold this up against any more modern comedy. Highly recommend it, and recommend the streaming service it’s currently on — Tubi, which is a totally free streamer with ads (though surprisingly few) and a decent little collection of older movies. Check it out.
Something to Stream
If Beale Street Could Talk (Netflix): I’ve sung this movie’s praises countless times, and it is in my opinion the best movie that’s been released since I started making this newsletter in mid-2018. It’s been on Hulu for the past year or two, but now it’s on Netflix, so I’m bringing it back to your attention in case you didn’t have a Hulu subscription. No excuses not to watch it!
For my full review and thoughts in early 2019 - read HERE. I revisited the movie last year and found it even more incredible. Here’s what I said then:
“Every aspect of the movie is masterful…this was the type of movie watching experience that just made me happy because I was so overwhelmingly impressed by each passing moment.”
Trailer Watch: Bones and All
Holy moly. Now that’s a trailer. Creepy music? Check. Movie star, other character actors who are fantastic every time they show up on screen, and not giving away any plot details? Check check and check.
Luca Guadagnino is getting way out ahead of any Don’t Worry Darling-style drama — the fact that he made a love story about cannibalism shortly after the star of his last movie gets accused of cannibalism — by proving he’s got the goods. Early reviews place this short of being a masterpiece, but after this trailer becomes one of my most anticipated of the fall.