Don't Worry Darling (2022) Spoiler Free Review

 

So it's old news by this point that the film Don't Worry, Darling directed by Olivia Wilde, has been something of a joke for a while now. In fact, people were making fun of this film months before its September release. Gossip about the nightmare production and publicity around this film already seemed to make it a pariah before anyone had even seen it. Between lead actors refusing to go to the premiere - to that photo of Chris Pine dissociating during a press conference - people have been talking about this movie, and not in a good way. But that leads some people to wonder: is the movie itself any good?

I first saw the trailer for Don't Worry, Darling back in August while in the cinema to watch Jordan Peele's latest masterwork (seriously, if you haven't watched "Nope" yet - go and do it) and, while I was intrigued, it wasn't super high on my radar. Mainly I ended up seeing it yesterday because my mom wanted to see it. I was a big fan of Florence Pugh since watching her in Midsomar and had no problem watching her again. Much like in Midsomar - she's very good when she's put in high stress, surreal situations where a bunch of shitty guys are trying to gaslight her. Weird bit of typecasting - but go off, I guess. 

Darling is, in a lot of ways, very much what I was expecting - and at the same time, had another layer or two that surprised me. Much like is shown in the trailer, the film shows classic 50's housewife,  Alice (played wonderfully by Pugh) living an idealized life in a private community known as Victory, run by the mysterious and charismatic businessman, Frank (played by Chris Pine not ripping his shirt off in front of a waterfall). When she, her husband Jack (played by Harry Styles, whose acting was much better than I was led to expect) attend a party at Frank's house with the rest of their community, all seems well until one of the other wives, Margaret (Kiki Layne) calls out demanding to know "Why are we here?" looking absolutely haunted. Later, Alice sees Margaret confronted by her husband as he's trying to force some kind of pill on her while she refuses, staring straight ahead at Alice. 

Part of the controversy of the film was Kiki Layne stating that most of her scenes had been cut from the movie. I personally find that to be a huge disservice - not only to her as an actor - but to the film itself. Her performance, though short, is what kicks the plot into gear and starts to make Alice question everything around her, showing the first sign that all is not well in paradise. 

Many of the mysteries and bizarre scenes are shown in the trailer: Alice wrapping plastic wrap around her face, cleaning the windows only to have the wall behind her slowly move in and crush her, her crumpling an egg to find that it's nothing more than an empty shell - but while these are certainly some of the most memorable imagery in the film, they give nothing away and only serve to make the viewer more eager to know just what is going on.  
More than that, the view is led further and further down this idealized rabbit hole with the sharp, disorienting visuals (constant flashback of black and white swimmers, a close-up of an eye dilating and close up shots of pouring coffee, cutting toast and frying eggs to show the repetition of each day - to name a few) and an utterly haunting soundtrack, composed of  the sounds of gasping and hyperventilating that keeps the audience constantly on edge. 

Overall, between the visuals, soundtrack, costumes (the 50's were a cesspool of an era but they knew how to look good while being scum) and great performances from Pugh and Pine (Styles was alright too - bastard had a couple moments of being absolutely charming and I hated his character even more for it) this movie is nowhere near the garbage fire many clickbait articles would have you believe. Is it the greatest thing ever made? No. But if what you're looking for is a psychological thriller that looks and sounds great, and could be compared to a moderized Stepford Wives, you could do much worse. Give it a watch for yourself once it comes around on streaming. 

Acting: ****/ 5 
Like I said, Florence Pugh is a powerhouse in this type of role, though I do have to wonder how she keeps finding herself in these kinds of situations

Visuals: ****/5 
Surreal, confusing and occasionally breathtaking (though I'm taking off points for that close-up of the raw steak.) This movie made me feel like my brain was in backwards

Score: ***/5 
This one reminded me of the soundtrack to Gone Girl - a lot of low tones and reverberating echoes - plus the aforementioned gasping/breathing melodically into the microphone. It's incredibly effective, but I could also see how it could put some people off after a while. 

Story: **
Without giving much away, I will say this is where some of the movie starts to slip. While I found the ending twist unique and interesting (and there's a lot of implications that I'd love to go into in a more in-depth look) I also feel like some parts of it could have been elaborated on more or tightened up just a bit. All in all though - it said what it wanted to and got its message across

Overall rating: High ** 1/2 to low *** out of five stars. 
As stated above - it's not the most groundbreaking thing I've ever seen, but what it does - it does well. 

MadCap fixes Bad Movies: Maleficent

If there's anything I like more than movies - it's complaining about them.

Alright, I kid, but you'd never know if from talking to me.

Honestly, it's just the opposite: the one thing that really kills me with some bad movies is complete waste of potential.


This is where Maleficent comes in...

So for anyone who knows me, you probably know how hyped I was when that film was first announced, and even more so when they started dropping trailers. It looked - for lack of better words - completely epic.

And don't get me wrong - I WANTED to like this movie - I tried really, REALLY hard to like this movie, but when all it can do is change the story around and make every character aside from it's lead incredibly unlikable (and let's be clear, Sleeping Beauty has some of the best side characters out of any early Disney film) and try and make a character known as the MISTRESS OF ALL EVIL, who's name is literally Maleficent - into a sympathetic, misunderstood whatever...

...it's lazy storytelling.


 Here's how to fix it:



 So the basis of the Maleficent movie was supposed to show her backstory. Cool, I can get behind that. Unfortunately it hits its first snag by trying to have us believe that she was this sweet, kind, gentle fairy girl.... who's name is Maleficent. Disney... what're you doing? You picked that name for her to show how evil she is!

So step one: give her a different name for earlier in her life. This also helps to see her as a different person before and after whatever happens to make her the Mistress of All Evil.

Which brings me to the next step, so to speak. How/Why does she become the Mistress of All Evil?


Content warning: rape/ sexual assault mention.

So in the movie, what makes Maleficent first go to the Dark Side is she befriends/ falls in love with a human (I did kind of like the backstory with her and King Stephan, I'll give it that) who drugs her and burns her wigs off with an iron chain. The actual fuck, sir.

Obviously, and Angelina Jolie herself has confirmed this - Yes - this is supposed to represent sexual assault, and that's where I start to have issues with this narrative. Stay with me here.

So listen, I take that kind of thing very seriously and I'm not trying to make light of a very real, very serious problem that many, many women have experienced, which is why I am getting really sick of the "woman is assaulted for the sake of character development" trope. It's been done to death and thus diminishes real traumas actual women (and men, for that matter) experience every day.

So, what can we possibly do to give some kind of character change to this once kind and gentle fairy woman?

This question can actually be answered by reading the "Curse of Maleficent" novel. ... which I swear I read just because the illustrations are amazing.

 Don't judge me.

Anyway, the novel is told from literally every POV except it's title character's (like y'do) and one other fairy introduced explains that fay aren't supposed to use their magic for selfish reasons (buddy, you don't know real Fae then...)
Either way, that's signified by the change in the color of Maleficent's magic in the movie, supposedly (when she's "good" it's gold - when she's "evil" it's green.)
Keeping that in mind, I think a better narrative - that actually fits the character and what we know about her - is easy enough to put together.

We begin with a fairy woman - call her whatever you like, we know who she's going to become - who is devoted to her home and protecting her people from the invading nearby kingdom (if we want to keep that bit in there. The battle scene with that earth dragon was pretty damn cool) However, in doing this, she begins to enjoy how powerful her magic makes her feel, especially when she's using it against humans with no supernatural abilities of their own. She begins using her magic for herself and is corrupted by it. She starts hanging out with a raven, takes up residents in the nearby castle ruins and enslaves whatever those big things were and forces them to be her minions.
Before long, the once gentle/good fairy is now known by a new name and identity - and there you have Maleficent.
The rest of the story would follow the same path it did in Sleeping Beauty - with her being spiteful at not being invited to the princess's name day (which is actually a huge slap in the face, considering they're royalty and they've clearly chosen a side between faeries that don't like each other. That's a big No.)
She puts a curse on the princess - maybe show more of her hanging out in her castle being pissy about it and giving some reasons why - maybe she's got an old grudge with the kingdom from back during that cool battle scene from earlier. We don't know how long it's been - but I'm sure she can hold a grudge for a long ass time if she really wanted to.
Also - have Maleficent be the one to turn into a Goddamn dragon. Jesus.



I will admit the movie had a few things I liked - Diaval was a fun character (actual raven's name is Diablo, by the way) and the whole thing with Aurora being essentially babysat by Maleficant was interesting, but I don't think those elements should replace the already good characters and story of the original film.


Got a movie for me to fix? Let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Til next time, this has been your Captain