Strange Darling: Movie Review

Cast: Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey, Ed Begley Jr.

Director: J.T. Mollner

Writer/ director J.T.Mollner's electric Strange Darling is a difficult film to review. 

Mainly because the film's taut and lean production works best as a film that you know least about - and whose surprises rely more on ignorance rather than prior knowledge.

Loosely, the film begins with Fitzgerald's The Lady being pursued by Gallner's The Demon - and that's as much as you need to know.

With a blast of freshness and and a penchant for twists, the non-linear tale is divided up into a tangled narrative that slowly unwinds as the tension increases. But with searingly focussed performances from both Gallner and Fitzgerald, the movie becomes increasingly suspenseful as it plays out.

A booming OST and crisp visuals make this an experience that messes with perceptions of what a film like this would be setting out to do. And while a second viewing may not necessarily provide the thrills a clean-watch offers, Strange Darling's aesthetic and unnerving adherence to the perversion of genre tropes proves to be frighteningly fresh.

There's much in the dialogue which proffers insight into societal expectations of both men and women and some of the discussions of dating prove to be intriguing insights into how the film messes with the ideas on show.

Not everything works - a sequence with police later on feels awkwardly out of place and goes against the ideas espoused and seems to be an unusual commentary.

But that single moment is the only one that stands out in a singularly-executed vision that's thrilling and unnverving.