By Julz Levesque | Arts & Culture Editor
Hello and welcome to the first MovieTalk of the semester! 
As a film lover I am always watching new and old films when I can, logging them into letterboxd, and getting excited for upcoming films. I’m going to be honest with you. I’ve been slacking this summer. When I wasn’t working, I was enjoying television shows that follow offbeat FBI agents pursuing their unorthodox investigations… Fox Mulder (X-Files) and Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks) you both have my heart. I guess because of my current interest it would make sense that when my friend brought up the film Strange Darling (2023) I was pretty much sold, despite knowing anything about it. I mean other than the fact that it’s a mysterious thriller about a serial killer’s murder spree. How can I pass that up? So off we went to catch an evening showing at my favorite theater, the Nickelodeon Cinema.
Strange Darling was released in the United States on August 31, 2023 by Miramax production company. The film made $3 million in box office profits and has received a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.7/10 on IMDb, and a 3.7 star rating on Letterboxd. Despite these high statistics I’m unfortunately here to tell you that I actually wasn’t a big fan of this film but I’ll get into that after I go through my very brief synopsis.
Strange Darling is a vivid watch with neon and bright primary colors jumping at you from the screen. It follows a murder-spree story that takes place after a one-night stand in a dizzying but clever out-of-chronological series of 6 chapters and then some. The story twists and turns, flips and flops, and falls flat. I mean don’t get me wrong, I had no idea what I was getting myself into before seeing it so some of my opinions may be misconstrued.
The film started out fantastic… other than the fact that it stated in bold red letters that it was filmed on 35mm film (sooo corny). I won’t be too harsh in my critique since I did think it was a semi-fun watch but I definitely rolled my eyes countless times while eating my leftover panini from a café next door.
Between each act of the film is a red title screen that says the chapter and in smaller print, a line said within the segment. The film starts out focused on a man in a car, he’s replying to a woman off-screen who asks him if he’s a serial killer, it cuts violently to a scene with the same man choking what seems to be the same woman who is again off camera. In the midst of a cat and mouse chase between our two main characters “The Demon” (Kyle Gallner) and “The Lady” (Willa Fitzgerald) the film really starts only it didn’t really start there because… you know the whole story is out of order remember?
I won’t give a whole plot away due to the content of the film but let’s just say that not everything was what it seemed to be in this cutthroat thriller which I felt at times was predictable, cringe-worthy, and male-fantasy-trying-too-hard-to-be-Quentin-Tarantino. Honestly I think that the most surprising part of the film was when there was a whole scene dedicated to an overhead shot of an older doomsday prepper couple cooking their breakfast but using a whole stick of butter to cook three eggs. Which I shouldn’t have expected anything less from doomsday preppers in the first place. What I did appreciate was the sound design in this film. Without it, I felt the film would’ve failed in all aspects. The music, sound effects, and atmosphere created a tense enough environment for me to be covering my eyes every 1-5 minutes of this film but then again, I scare easily. I feel that while the writing was a little flat and ridiculous, a lot of the film was propped up through sound design, cinematography, and color palette. Both of the leading talents gave a great show but all in all I felt their performances were forgettable and oftentimes annoying.
Strange Darling tries too hard to be tongue in cheek that it becomes its downfall. A portrayal of a “yass girlboss” hedonistic woman spiraled quickly into a story that left an even worse taste in my mouth. Strange Darling is a film that can be viewed as one that villainizes female victims of sexual assault in ways that paint women out to be narcissistic sadists. It had a solid idea at the beginning but could not hold up because of various questionable writing choices. Its Gone-Girlesque build up could not save it from being entirely insufferable and male centered. Its handling of women’s issues felt forced and condescending. If it was a film that wanted to highlight male sexual assault victims it also failed at that.
This “battle-of-the-sexes” thriller was a no-go for me and while some parts of the film were enjoyable and interesting, I still felt most of the film was forgettable despite its eccentric narrative style. Some may enjoy it and some may say I just didn’t get it but I don’t think I’ll be seeing Strange Darling again, nor do I recommend spending your money on it. I’d wait until it comes to streaming services if it’s something you’d want to subject yourself to.