Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: JT Mollner
Starring: Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Ed Begley Jr., Barbara Hershey
I always find it odd how Hollywood continually imports acting talent from
the rest of the English speaking world when there are so many accomplished
American actors with movie star attributes working in TV. Big time movie
stars like Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman can now drop down to TV, but a
stigma persists regarding promoting TV stars to movie roles. Willa Fitzgerald should have gotten attention from Hollywood following her lead role
in the Scream TV series, but a minor role in 2019's The Goldfinch is as close as she's gotten to mainstream cinema. Any doubts over
whether Fitzgerald has what it takes to be a big screen lead are dispelled
within minutes of director JT Mollner's Strange Darling. Fitzgerald grabs our attention from the off and holds us in a vice-like
grip as she delivers one of the most electric performances of recent indie
cinema.
Opening with a Jason Patric-narrated Texas Chain Saw Massacre-like text crawl that explains how the movie you're about to see details
the end of a serial killer's rampage, the movie then tells us to expect
six chapters. Expectations are immediately confounded when we're first
presented with Chapter 3. It opens with a bloodied Fitzgerald, who is
credited as "The Lady," at the wheel of a '70s sportscar, barrelling down
the Oregon backroads as she flees from "The Demon" (indie horror
stalwart Kyle Gallner), who shoots out her tyre, causing her
to crash and resume fleeing on foot.
Mollner instantly forces us to wonder what occurred in the first two
chapters, and we assume that all is probably not what it seems. The Lady
is clad in a red outfit that might either be that of an escaped convict or
a hospital porter, but the choice of colour and the situation she's in
bring to mind Red Riding Hood. The Demon is dressed like Elmer Fudd, and
the film's early out-of-order chapters, which consist of his pursuit of
his prey, play like a violent live-action Looney Tunes cartoon. But wait,
The Demon's plaid jacket is as red as The Lady's outfit. Just who is Red
Riding Hood and who is the big bad wolf in this analogy?
Chopping up the film's chapters keeps us guessing as to who is really the
villain and victim here, but it's never that simple. When we get to the
first chapter we see this scenario began with a rather awkward one-night
stand between the duo. Across a couple of broken up chapters there's
almost a two-handed play within the film as The Lady and The Demon play a
cat and mouse series of sexual power games. These scenes play as though
heavily influenced by Polanski, with The Lady, now clad in a sexy wig
(red, of course), constantly prodding and poking at The Demon's fragile
masculinity.
The eventual twist is so obvious that you'll probably have it figured out
long before the film starts to drop clues. Strange Darling's aesthetic is influenced by '70s American horror (it features gorgeous
35mm lensing by actor Giovanni Ribisi, making his debut as
cinematographer), but the twist is straight out of a British thriller from
that era, which I'm certainly not going to name and spoil it for anyone
who may not have figured it out. I'm not sure the non-linear structure
obscures the truth any more than if the film had played out in
chronological order, but it does add an undeniably thrilling effect of
keeping us guessing as to where the storytelling is next headed.
One diversion introduces Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr as an old hippy couple, and their dynamic is so great you wish they
had been given more screen time. The movie is generally played straight,
but Mollner follows Hitchcock's lead in deflating the tension with the odd
comic interlude, and Fitzgerald and Gallner are as funny as they are
scary. It's difficult to get into just how good the leads are, especially
Fitzgerald, without ruining much of the fun. Suffice to say they're both
gifted roles that allow them to display their range, often on the turn of
a phrase, charming one moment, terrifying the next, charismatic
throughout. I suspect Strange Darling may even prove more rewarding on a second viewing when you're less
focussed on plot details and can soak up the dynamic between its leads.
Mollner, Fitzgerald and Gallner may sound like a legal firm, but they've
combined to make a thriller so distinctive in its delights it should have
Hollywood execs pursuing all three like Elmer Fudd chasing a pesky
wabbit.
Strange Darling is on UK/ROI
VOD now.
