Don’t Worry Darling is the most talked about movie at the moment. The movie is flooding our social media feeds from drama about the cast, to leaked footage. The movie has been in the works since 2020 and was released September 23rd, 2022. Although that is the release date, the movie premiered in New York City with watch parties at select movie theaters on Monday, September 19th.
Don’t Worry Darling was directed by Olivia Wilde and stars actors such as Florence Pugh, Harry Styles and Chris Pine. The movie is a psychological thriller that follows Pughs’ character, Alice Chambers, and her journey of uncovering top secret projects that her husband, Harry Styles’ character Jack Chambers and the rest of the male community, are hiding.
Harry Styles has only performed in a few movies including Dunkirk (2017), Eternals (2021), and the upcoming My Policeman movie. His few acting roles along with his intense success with singing makes some wonder if he got the role because of his fame, or if he got the role for his talent.
On social media, there were also many people questioning if the movie is as good as it was led up to be because of the drama between the cast, and Styles supposedly dating Wilde. That’s why I saw the movie on Thursday, September 22nd for early viewing to get those answers, and give my honest review.
The movie held a very pleasing aesthetic. It captured the perfect 1950s life through makeup, costume, hair, and set. Each woman had their hair blown out, with curls or a beehive updo. Women were dressed in beautiful, vintage dresses, with men in fancy suits. The men drove around in vintage cars as they lived in 1950s suburban houses. The aesthetic of the movie made it extremely enjoyable to watch. All the things that contributed to the aesthetic made me feel like I was living in the movie with them-and I loved that.
Visuals were also a really big part of the film. Throughout the movie, Alice would have visions of the iris’ of eyes, different colors splatting on the screen, and women dancing. I found these confusing. I didn’t understand what they meant at the time, but as the film progressed, why the visions were happening became clearer. I still don’t know what each one specifically meant, which is frustrating.
Along with the visuals, I found myself confused a lot during the movie. I understood what was happening, but not why. There were so many components to the movie that tied it all together. If it weren’t for people on social media breaking down the movie and explaining their conspiracy theories, I wouldn’t have been able to understand it all in just one watch.
As Styles says, “The movie feels like a movie.”
There was a lot of suspense throughout the movie, leaving my eyes glued to the screen the whole time. I enjoyed the build up of events, and the performance each character put on. As expected, Pugh’s performance was amazing. Her body language and facial expressions allowed for us to know how she was feeling without having to specifically say anything. She expressed all the emotions like she was feeling them personally. Her performance made the movie.
As for Styles, he embodied his character very well and put on the best performance he could. His character had a lot of elements to him. His character was caring, kind, happy, thoughtful, but also angry, aggressive, a liar, and a criminal. I was very impressed by how well he portrayed each emotion because of the large range. With the lack of his acting experience, I think he did a fine job. Sometimes I thought it was weird watching him act, because I only ever see him being himself, and singing.
I am a fan of Styles, so a part of me will be in favor of the movie no matter what. But I brought along my best friend, Darci Dokla, to get her opinion.
“For someone who doesn’t act all the time I think he did a really good job,” said Dokla in regards to styles. “Some of his yelling scenes were a little laughable, but he showed good emotion throughout the movie and I’ve definitely seen worse acting.”
As for the movie itself, Dokla said, “I really enjoyed the creepy and suspenseful aspect of the movie, and how there were little details hinting [what was really going on]. I also really like the twist in the movie – it was like all the pieces fell into place.”
If you like psychological thrillers, Don’t Worry Darling is definitely the movie for you. It will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time and have you asking for more.
