DON'T WORRY DARLING : Tuesday 18th October 2022

I saw the M Rated 'DON'T WORRY DARLING' at my local multiplex this week, and this American psychological thriller film is Directed, Co-Produced and starring Olivia Wilde in only her second Directorial outing following the highly acclaimed 'Booksmart' in 2019. This film saw its World Premiere screening at the Venice International Film Festival in early September, was released in the US in late September and here in Australia on 6th October having generated mixed Reviews from Critics and costing US$35M to produce and so far returning US$79M in Box Office receipts.  

Set in the sun drenched company town of Victory, California, believed to be sometime in the 1950's Alice and Jack Chambers (Florence Pugh and Harry Styles respectively) seem to lead a near perfect life. Everyday the men leave their neat homes, smartly suited and booted, and reverse their cars out of their driveways and make the journey in convoy across the desert to Victory Headquarters, leaving their ever dutiful wives to clean the house, prepare dinner, relax by the pool with a cocktail with the other wives and ensure they are waiting at the front door with their husbands favourite cocktail in hand when he comes home from a hard day at the office. 

All of the town's womenfolk, including Alice's good friends Bunny (Olivia Wilde), Margaret (KiKi Layne) and Peg (Kate Berlant) are discouraged from asking questions about their husbands' work and told not to venture out to the Headquarters. Other than the fact that the husbands are permitted to state that they are collectively working on 'the development of progressive materials' this is just about all the wives are allowed to know about their dear husband's tireless work. Margaret has subsequently become an outcast after taking her young son out into the desert, resulting in her son's apparent death, although she claims that Victory took him from her as punishment for venturing out into the desert. While attending a party hosted by Frank (Chris Pine), Victory's enigmatic founder and leader, and his wife Shelley (Gemma Chan), Alice sees Margaret's husband trying to administer her medication.

One morning while taking the bus across town, Alice observes a light aircraft crash out in the desert. She rushes to help out across the desert and eventually comes to the Headquarters, a small building perched high up on a rocky outcrop covered in mirror-like windows. After touching one, she experiences surreal hallucinations and blacks out. She wakes up back home later that night with no idea how she got there. Jack is in the kitchen doing his best to prepare dinner for them both. In the following days, she experiences increasingly strange occurrences. She receives a phone call from Margaret, who claims to have seen the same thing Alice did, and rushing over to her house she sees Margaret stood on the roof who then proceeds to slit her own throat and falls backwards from the roof onto the grass below. Before she can reach Margaret, Alice is dragged away by two men in red jumpsuits, while two others quickly bundle up Margaret's body. 

Later that evening Jack counters Alice's claims and says Margaret simply fell while cleaning the windows and is recovering. This story is further verified by town physician and co-founder of the Victory Project Dr. Collins (Timothy Simons), who attempts to give Alice prescription drugs, but Jack intervenes saying that she doesn't need them. Alice becomes increasingly paranoid, anxious and confused, and during a special Victory event where Frank gives Jack a special promotion, Alice breaks down in the ladies rest room and is comforted by Bunny. Alice attempts to explain everything to her, but Bunny reacts angrily, accusing Alice of being selfish.

Some time later, Alice and Jack invite their immediate neighbours (except Bunny and her husband Dean) to dinner, with Frank and Shelley as special guests, and newbies in town Violet and Bill Johnson (Sydney Chandler and Douglas Smith respectively). Frank speaks privately with Alice in the kitchen as she is putting the finishing touches to dinner, implying that she is correct in her suspicions. Encouraged by his near confession, she attempts to expose him over dinner, but instead, Frank manipulates her accusations, making her look delusional to the other guests. After the guests have all left abruptly and before the meal had even started Alice begs Jack to take them both away from Victory and to do so tonight, straight away. Jack initially agrees, but when Alice gets in the car, he allows for her be taken away by Frank's men in red jumpsuits. Dr. Collins oversees Alice's electroshock therapy. During the procedure, she sees visions of herself in another life, as a present-day overworked and stressed out surgeon named Alice Warren who lives with the unemployed Jack and struggles to make ends meet. Jack spends his time listening to the voice of Frank selling his project over a website called 'Organised Chaos'. 

After her bout of therapy Alice returns to Victory and is welcomed home by Jack, but she continues to experience hallucinations and flash-backs. She later remembers the whole truth, that Victory is a simulated world created by Frank, and that Jack forced her into the simulation in the hope that they can lead an idyllic life together. When Jack realises she knows the truth, he claims he did this for her as she was miserable in her real life, but Alice is angered that Jack took away her autonomy and the life she loved. Jack gets down on his knees and hugs Alice, begging her to forgive him, then attempts to squeeze the life out of her forcing Alice to smash a heavy glass Whisky tumbler down on his head, killing him outright. 

Frank is called with news of Jack's death and sends his men in red jumpsuits to apprehend Alice. Bunny finds Alice and explains that she has always known Victory was a simulated world, but chooses to stay so she can be with her two young children, who died in reality. She tells Alice to escape in Jack's car and go to the Headquarters, which is an exit portal from the simulation. The other wives come to realise the truth as their husbands begin to panic, and join in the car chase. Alice drives Jack's car out across the desert towards the Headquarters, chased by Dr. Collins and Frank's men, who crash into each other sending their three cars exploding in a ball of flame. 

At their house, Shelley, wanting to regain her own control of the Victory Project, stabs Frank to death with a kitchen knife in the chest and then twists it for good measure. Alice makes it to Headquarters, where she has a vision of Jack asking her to stay. Alice ignores the vision and rushes to the window just before Frank's men reach her, and wakes up in the present day real world.

For me 'Don't Worry Darling' is all style over substance. The impeccable set design to the cinematography are top rate, and the performances of Florence Pugh and Chris Pine in particular more than carry the film, supported by an average performance from Harry Styles but one in which he shows he's got the acting chops to go the distance. After a promising first third, the films meanders and gets all too repetitive in the middle section before limping home to an underwhelming ending that felt rushed, half baked and left me scratching my head with all those unanswered questions. The film is a mash up of 'The Truman Show', 'Pleasantville' and 'The Stepford Wives' and whilst Olivia Wilde's intentions may have been admirable she has hardly reinvented the genre here, and instead has merely dusted it off, polished it up and given it a dose of 2022 glitz.

'Don't Worry Darling' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 6th October 2022.

The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than three hundred films, documentaries and shorts from approximately fifty countries, this year runs from Wednesday 5th October through until Sunday 16th October and is now in its 66th year. 

The Opening Night Gala film presentation is 'Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical' Directed by Matthew Warchus and starring Emma Thompson, Alisha Weir, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough. The Closing Night Gala film is 'Glass Onion : A Knives Out Mystery' Directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jnr., Jessica Henwick and Dave Bautista. 

The BFI London Film Festival Awards are a celebration of the most exciting, innovative new films and cinematic storytelling. Creative, beautiful and often provocative, the nominees showcase an incredible range of talent from across the world.

The Official Competition comprises eight feature films, which briefly are :-

* 'Argentina, 1985' - from Argentina and Directed by Santiago Mitre and starring Ricardo Darin. This uncompromising political drama, thrillingly recreates one of Argentina’s most legendary trials, which sought to bring the country’s military dictatorship to justice.

* 'Brother' - from Canada and Directed by Clement Virgo and is a bold and breathtaking story of brotherly love, set over three separate time periods, in Toronto’s West Indian community.

* 'Corsage' - from Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and France and Directed by Marie Kreutzer and starring Vicky Krieps. Faced with a future of strict ceremonies and royal duties, Empress Elisabeth of Austria rebels against her public image and comes up with a plan to protect her legacy.

* 'The Damned Don't Cry' - from France, Belgium and Morocco and Directed by Fyzal Boulifa. Fatima-Zahra and her teenage son Selim move from place to place, forever trying to outrun the latest scandal she's caught up in. When Selim discovers the truth about their past, Fatima-Zahra vows to make a fresh start.

* 'Enys Men' - from the UK and Directed by Mark Jenkin and starring Mary Woodvine, Edward Rowe and Flo Crowe. Set in 1973 on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast, a wildlife volunteer's daily observations of a rare flower turn into a metaphysical journey that forces her to question what is real and what is nightmare.

* 'Godland' - from Denmark, Iceland, France and Sweden and Directed by Hlynur Palmason. In the late 19th century, a young Danish priest travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, his mission and morality.
* 'Nezouh' - from the UK, Syria and France and Directed by Soudade Kaadan. Even as bombs fall on Damascus, Mutaz refuses to flee to the uncertain life of a refugee. His wife, Hala, and daughter, Zeina, must make the choice whether to stay or leave.

* 'Saint Omer' - from France and Directed by Alice Diop. The film follows Rama, a novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly at the Saint-Omer Criminal Court to use her story to write a modern-day adaptation of the ancient myth of Medea, but things don't go as expected.

Other award strands include the First Feature Competition with The Sutherland Award recognising the most original and imaginative directorial debut. Here the eight films are '1976', 'Blue Jean', 'Jeong-sun', 'Joyland', 'Medusa Delux', 'Our Lady of the Chinese Shop', 'Robe of Gems' and 'Rodeo'. 

In the Documentary Competition, The Grierson Award recognises feature-length documentaries with integrity, originality and social or cultural significance. The eight films are 'All That Breathes', 'All the Beauty and the Bloodshed', 'Casa Susanna', 'The Future Tense', 'Kanaval : A People's History of Haiti in Six Chapters', 'Lynch/Oz', 'Name Me Lawand' and 'What About China?'

In addition there is also the Short Film Competition, the Immersive Art and XR Competition and the Audience Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Short Film. 

For the full details of all the films being showcased at the years 66th BFI London Film Festival, plus a whole lot more besides, you can go to the official website at : https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/default.asp

This week, to tease you out to your local Odeon, we have three new movies kicking off with three friends, a doctor, a nurse, and a lawyer, who become the prime suspects in a murder in the 1930's. This is followed with a 1950's housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community who begins to worry that his glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets. And closing out the week we have an Aussie offering about two men who meet on a plane and strike up a conversation that turns into friendship, and for one, worn down by a lifetime of crime and hard labour, this is his dream come true.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the three latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the coming week.

'AMSTERDAM' (Rated MA15+) - this mystery comedy film is Written, Directed and Co-Produced by David O. Russell whose previous feature film making credits include 'Three Kings' in 1999, 'I Heart Huckabees' in 2004, 'The Fighter' in 2010, 'Silver Linings Playbook' in 2012, 'American Hustle' in 2013 and 'Joy' in 2015. This film saw its World Premier showcasing in New York City on 18th September and is released in the US and here in Australia from this week, having cost US$55M to produce.

Set in the 1930's, the film follows three friends - Burt Berensden (Christian Bale), Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie) and Harold Woodman (John David Washington) who witness a murder, become suspects themselves, and uncover one of the most outrageous plots in American history. Also starring an ensemble cast that takes in Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Andrea Riseborough, Taylor Swift, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Rami Malek, and Robert De Niro.

'DON'T WORRY DARLING' (Rated M) - is an American psychological thriller film Directed, Co-Produced and starring Olivia Wilde in only her second Directorial outing following the highly acclaimed 'Booksmart' in 2019. This film saw its World Premiere screening at the Venice International Film Festival in early September and was released in the US in late September, having generated mixed Reviews from Critics and costing in the region of US$30M to produce. Here then, Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack Chambers (Harry Styles) are a young, happy couple in the 1950's, living in the seemingly perfect company town of Victory, California, which has been created and paid for by the mysterious company for which Jack works. Curiosity about the nature of her husband's work on the secret 'Victory Project' begins to consume Alice. Cracks then begin to form in their utopian life as her investigation into the project raises tensions within the community. Also starring Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll and Olivia Wilde. 

'THE STRANGER' (Rated MA15+) - this Australian crime thriller film is Written and Directed by Thomas M. Wright in only his second feature film following 2018's 'Acute Misfortune'. The film saw its World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-May of this year before its cinema release here in Australia this week, and then streaming worldwide on Netflix from 19th October. After a friendship forms between two strangers who first meet on a plane, for Henry Teague (Sean Harris), worn down by a lifetime of physical labour and crime, this is a dream come true. His new friend Mark (Joel Edgerton) becomes his saviour and ally. However, neither is who they appear to be, each harbour secrets that threaten to ruin them, and in the background, one of the nation's largest police operations is closing in.

With three new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-