{"id":2700,"date":"2024-08-24T02:17:56","date_gmt":"2024-08-24T02:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2700"},"modified":"2024-10-19T21:52:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T01:52:54","slug":"strange-darling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/24\/strange-darling\/","title":{"rendered":"Strange Darling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Strange Darling<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Magenta Light\/Suspense-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody\/violent content, sexual material, drug use, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: JT Mollner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: JT Mollner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Craig DeLeon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Giovanni Ribisi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 23, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey, Ed Begley Jr., Madisen Beaty, Bianca Santos, Steven Michael Quezada, Jason Patric, Giovanni Ribisi.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0So far, it hasn\u2019t been a good weekend for movies. I sat through both The Crow and Blink Twice last night; neither one was any damn good. To be honest, I expected that. It\u2019s that time of year. It doesn\u2019t mean I felt any less dejected. Oh well, no point in crying over spilt milk. What\u2019s done is done.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Today I went to see the thriller Strange Darling<\/strong>. I didn\u2019t even know it was opening this weekend until my local multiplex published their schedule a few days ago. They snuck it in on me. I knew nothing about it going in which is the way I like it sometimes. Trailers give away way too much info nowadays. I wanted to go in cold. As it turns out, I was the only one who wanted to see it all. I was the only one in the theater. Nobody else showed up. The manager I chatted with beforehand didn\u2019t even know they were showing it until I mentioned it. Clearly, the studio spent no money promoting this thing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Strange Darling<\/strong> is the second movie this weekend to open with an unusual title card. In this case, it\u2019s to inform audiences that the film they\u2019re about to see was shot entirely on 35mm film. Then we get a shot of a terrified woman in red hospital scrubs running from something or somebody as a cover of \u201cLove Hurts\u201d plays on the soundtrack. It ends with a close-up freeze frame. That\u2019s when the movie itself starts, but not at the beginning of the story. Writer-director JT Mollner (Outlaws and Angels) employs non-linear structure to tell his six-chapter tale the last days of a serial killer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mollner starts with Chapter 3 which drops us right into the middle of a car chase. The aforementioned woman, known only as \u201cThe Woman\u201d (Fitzgerald, Reacher), is being chased by a crazed man, known as \u201cThe Demon\u201d (Gallner, Smile), with a shotgun. He shoots out her back windshield causing her crash. She flees into the woods and right to the home of an older couple (Begley and Hershey) who describe themselves as \u201cold hippies\u201d. He\u2019s not far behind her. He catches up with her in the next chapter, number 5.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That\u2019s all I\u2019m going to tell you about the plot of Strange Darling<\/strong>. It\u2019s best if you go in not knowing too much. What I\u2019ve already told you should suffice. I will add there\u2019s a nifty little twist that\u2019s the very definition of a game changer. I will say no more.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Strange Darling<\/strong> has a good deal going for it. Obviously, I love that it was shot on 35mm film. It\u2019s a great stylistic choice on the part of cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi (yes, the actor!). Also, Mollner opts for practical gore effects rather than CGI. That\u2019s always a plus. I just wish he went all the way with the whole retro thing with more of a 70s grindhouse aesthetic. It still looks cool though.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting is surprisingly good. I can\u2019t go into too much detail lest I reveal something I shouldn\u2019t. I will say that Fitzgerald handles her role deftly. She does far more than play the intended victim. Gallner, who\u2019s really making a name for himself in Hollywood, is also good as a fellow who\u2019s definitely unhinged. It\u2019s nice seeing old pros like Begley and Hershey back in action, even if only for a short time. BTW, that\u2019s Jason Patric (The Lost Boys) narrating the opening titles telling us about the serial killer. That\u2019s right out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The biggest problem with Strange Darling<\/strong> is the pacing in some scenes, Chapters 1 & 2 in particular. These scenes, which show the Woman and the Demon\u2019s initial encounter in a motel room, slow the film to a crawl. Yes, they\u2019re absolutely crucial to the story, but Mollner could have tightened things up a bit. In addition, while I like the non-linear narrative, it comes off as self-conscious rather than edgy. It\u2019s clever merely for the sake of being clever. It never fully commits itself to transcending the thriller genre, not like Longlegs did earlier this summer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I really wanted Strange Darling<\/strong> to be one of those freaky horror-thrillers that strike enough of a nerve with audiences that they talk about it for a long time. What we get is a pretty good movie that will get us through one of the last weekends of summer. It\u2019s better than the crap that usually comes out this time of year, but not by very much.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strange Darling (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Magenta Light\/Suspense-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody\/violent content, sexual material, drug use, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: JT Mollner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: JT Mollner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Craig DeLeon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Giovanni Ribisi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 23, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey, Ed Begley Jr., Madisen Beaty, Bianca Santos, Steven Michael Quezada, Jason Patric, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suspense-thrillers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Strange-Darling-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2700"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3643,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700\/revisions\/3643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}