As I always mention when I do my “most overrated” film of the year, just because the film is overrated, doesn't mean that the film is bad. It just means that it didn't fully live up to the hype (or hyperbole) surrounding it, or that I was expecting something more due to all of the positive press. This year is the perfect example of this as “Strange Darling” is a good little thriller, but thanks to a quote from Stephen King, the film's reputation snowballed into something that it was always going to struggle to live up to. King's quote was that the film was “a clever masterpiece”, and that he couldn't say more because it is “too clever to spoil”. From here, positive word-of-mouth took over with people claiming it to be the “movie of the year”, “best thriller in a decade”, etc etc. It is always a joy when you find an independent genre film that takes you by surprise and just blows your socks off, so I must admit that I bought into the hype and was looking forward to finally checking out “Strange Darling”. However when I finally got around to doing so, I was disappointed that my reaction to it was essentially “was that it?!?”. It is certainly entertaining, it looks amazing, and it has been pretty well acted, but personally, I didn't think it had that extra special kick that its reputation promised it to have.
I know why people love the film, which is two-fold, but for me, these elements just didn't seem that special or brilliant as people have made out. Firstly, the film holds a massive twist within it and plays its story in a way to protect that twist as long as possible. To do this, “Strange Darling” is told in a non-linear fashion. The film is told in six chapters, but they are not told from chapter one to six, but rather it jumps around so we get different parts of the story without any context, which ends up making sense once we get the completed puzzle. Like Stephen King, I have no intention of spoiling the film for people, especially because the film exists in service of said twist, but I will say that the way the chapter's are organised in the film are as follows: it begins with chapter 3, followed by chapter 5, 1, 4, 2, 6, before ending on an epilogue. So what is the story about? Obviously I cannot go into any detail of this without ruining it so I will use what imdb uses as it's synopsis (which is short and spoiler free): “Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer's vicious murder spree.” My biggest issue with the film is that the twist is not that hard to work out, and once it is revealed, the film is rather generic. Yes, its still a good thriller that is entertaining to watch, but it is not extra special.
There was one other thing that really put me off “Strange Darling” and that was a screen that comes up before the film begins that states in big, bold letters “THIS FILM WAS ENTIRELY SHOT ON 35MM FILM”. Okay, so I make it well known that I love when movies are shot these days on actual film rather than digital, so “Strange Darling” gets two big thumbs up for that, but I've never seen anyone make a big note of it before their film plays. It comes across as both arrogant, and desperate, like they want extra credit for their decision to shoot on celluloid. Film just feels different so there is no need for such a statement to be made, because it should be obvious to the viewer, and especially because the cinematography of “Strange Darling” is one of it's strongest elements, with colour just bursting through the screen. Interestingly, Giovanni Ribisi (yes, the actor) is the film's cinematographer and he does an amazing job here. “Strange Darling” looks fantastic!
The film's two leads, Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner, are both pretty good in their roles, where they are not named, but referred to in the credits as “The Lady” and “The Demon” respectively. Personally I think Gallner is the stronger of the two, but I believe I may be in the minority with this opinion. One other thing of note in the film that I loved was the music, which was loud and anything-but-subtle, but which works so well for the film as a whole, particularly in helping create it's atmosphere.
Again, “Strange Darling” is a good thriller, and one that I know I will revisit regularly in the future, but I still believe that it is not as clever as it thinks it is, nor is it as special as it's reputation suggests. My advice is to go into the film with expectations tempered and you will get more out of this very good genre film
No comments:
Post a Comment