Don't Worry Darling

Neither the directorial inventiveness of Olivia Wilde nor the acting brilliance of Florence Pugh can save this one, because apart from the first 30 minutes it's the most arid rip-off of any film you've ever heard in connection with this. Go ahead and plop in any film from the "grapevine" and answer for yourself the question of whether you need to see the ones you've already seen a hundred times again. The retro look, the music, the costumes, and the dolly shots are all fine (the first quarter really provides the biggest highlights, after that it goes downhill hard), but what can you do when the whole thing is horrifyingly sterile and unimaginative. Hopefully Olivia will have better luck choosing the script the third time around, because she's a fine director. [40%] (17/10/2022)

Don’t Worry Darling would have a lot more power as a (shorter, for God's sake) episode of Black Mirror. As it is, it's an overlong and quite easy to see through metaphor, pulled off by the wonderful Florence Pugh. Thanks to her, thanks to Olivia Wilde's direction and thanks to the beautifully kitschy production design, the two hours pass quite briskly, and it doesn't matter so much that the ending doesn't have a great twist. (14/11/2022)

As a mystery thriller one-shot from The Twilight Zone, totally fine. It's beautiful to look at, great craftsmanship, and I have a soft spot for Florence Pugh, she improves the rating of every film by at least one star. On the other hand, if their ambitions were higher, well we can’t speak of a success. The concept is fine and could have been the basis for a more substantial piece of filmmaking, but it would have needed from sharper edges and a more focused script (actually, it's a terribly perverse outcome, but Wilde and the writers failed to fully capitalize on its power). The handling of the reveal of the twist seems a bit shallow, and if you start digging into the individual scenes, you'll find that they may not even make much sense in the end – I really don’t understand what the plane wreck was doing there. 7/10 (03/10/2022)

Don’t Worry Darling has been written about mostly in the context of major and minor on-set scandals lately, which is a bit of a shame that Olivia Wilde's new film doesn't deserve. She changed the genre dramatically after the fairly clever comedy drama Booksmart, and her new film certainly manages to impress. Matthew Libatique knows how to evoke the atmosphere of the 1950s as they may never have been, but as people want to see it through the filter of nostalgia. John Powell, on the other hand, has done one of his best soundtracks ever, and visually and musically there is nothing to fault the film. It manages to be mesmerising and then again a few seconds later very disturbing. Florence Pugh is excellent in the lead role, as is Chris Pine; in fact everyone here tries their best in front and behind the camera. It's just that they are being tripped up by the story, which, while not bad at all, unfortunately, as the runtime progresses, it becomes clear that Wilde doesn't have a new The Truman Show, Dark City, Inception or The Matrix in her hands, but just solid and functional material from which she can squeeze a technically brilliant film, but one that lacks emotion, surprise or any worthwhile message, especially at the end. The result is good, though exceptional, but I will certainly be happy if Olivia Wilde continues her directorial career. (20/09/2022)

A pastel femme matrix. It’s fine that the poster entices viewers to a sweet romance with Harry Styles. Surprised female viewers will get a more sophisticated thriller metaphor for endless inner discontent and the utopian illusion of the “perfect life”. For a second directorial feature of Olivia Wilde, Don’t Worry Darling is a highly ambitious work relying on excellent artists in the filmmaking crew (cinematographer, editor, composer). Florence Pugh heads up the acting, Styles carries the romance, and it’s very nice to watch. Only the point that it makes isn’t in any way original; it’s actually not even appropriate. And in the final build-up, it all somehow falls apart both in the connections and in the emotional experience. (29/09/2022)