Olivia Wilde, Harry Kinds, Florence Pugh – Deadline

I by no means begin a evaluation commenting on regardless of the so-called Movie Twitter Mafia need to say about it, sight unseen. Beginning again at CinemaCon in April when its directo/co-star Olivia Wilde was served legal papers onstage relating to her custody hearings with ex Jason Sudeikis, there was continuous gossip about her film Don’t Fear Darling. There was a lot of it, proper as much as today’s Venice Film Festival press conference (coated by my colleague Nancy Tartaglione) that you just nearly have to deal with the elephant within the room. Others can try this, however allow us to not neglect there may be additionally a film right here, one I used to be capable of preview as simply that just a few weeks in the past in Burbank. As a reviewer, to cite Being There’s Chauncey Gardner, “I like to observe,” and meaning solely what’s on the display screen.

That stated, by itself phrases Don’t Fear Darling is definitely fairly entertaining in case you’re within the temper, even when Wilde’s candy-coated psychological thriller doesn’t rewrite the principles of the style in any vital means. It’s kind of a cross between Get Out, The Stepford Wives and Rosemary’s Child with a ’50s swinging Rat Pack vibe thrown in for good measure. And possibly even by luck of timing, the shutdown of Roe v Wade by the Supreme Court docket supplies gravitas for an underlying message right here of the phobia imposed by males controlling girls’s our bodies on this in any other case enjoyable, if acquainted, movie. Regardless of having a prestigious Out of Competitors slot for its world premiere at present at Venice, this can be a business film greater than anything and the New Line Cinema manufacturing might do nicely with audiences.

‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Venice Film Festival Premiere Photo Gallery

As a director, Wilde gained vital popularity of her 2019 teen comedy Booksmart, which even rated some awards consideration. Right here she reveals she has the chops to create a ’50s fantasia of the seemingly good life in an organization city inside Palm Springs known as Victory. With dazzling manufacturing design from Katie Byron,  vibrant technicolored cinematography from Matthew Libatique (A Star Is Born, Black Swan) and funky costume design from Arianne Phillips, the scene is about for what is meant to be the American dream. We see an enclosed utopia of homes wanting all the identical, the place the wives appear to spend a lot of their time preserving their houses spotless when they aren’t lounging across the pool with the opposite girls after sending their husbands off to work (all in completely chosen totally different mannequin vehicles of the interval) to a mysterious desert location the place they’re creating what appears to be some kind of top-secret enterprise within the vein of the Manhattan Challenge — or not, as a result of it by no means actually is spelled out, solely that every one the boys work there and the world is verboten for anybody else.

Within the heart of all this are Alice Chambers (Florence Pugh) and her loving husband Jack (Harry Styles), a pair with a steamy intercourse life who appear genuinely in love and have landed this idealized way of life supplied by Victory. May it’s any higher than this? Nicely, sure. There are early indications of bother when one of many girls in the neighborhood, Margaret (Kiki Layne), is performing surprisingly. She is aware of greater than she ought to, truly having ventured out into the off-limits desert headquarters, her newfound and regarding discovery having put her husband Ted’s (Ari’El Stachel) job in jeopardy.

That is when Alice begins to suspect there may be extra to Victory than meets the attention, even because the charismatic however creepily controlling CEO and motivational coach Frank (Chris Pine) promotes firm man Jack to a key place of management. Her rising suspicions create battle, even coming to a boil when she confronts Frank at a dinner. The opposite girls stay dutiful spouses although together with Frank’s spouse Shelley (Gemma Chan), who acts in live performance with him, cheerleading the dream of  the Victory way of life. Equally the vivacious Bunny (Wilde takes on the position), who’s Alice’s finest pal, loves what Victory presents, and retains making an attempt to maintain her within the membership. The stress ratchets as much as a boil as Alice ditches a vacationer tram experience to go examine herself. You realize this simply will not be going to finish nicely for her.

Working from a screenplay by her Booksmart author Katie Silberman (joined on story credit score by Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke), Wilde turns this fantasy world of an idyllic household life right into a feminist nightmare of males, significantly Frank, with full management over their girls, even when on the floor it looks like these might be our neighbors, albeit within the 50’s mindset. The supporting forged simply reinforces that and contains Nick Kroll, Sydney Chandler, Kate Berlant, Asif Ali, and Douglas Smith. Timothy Simons has some very creepy moments as the corporate Dr. Collins. However ultimately it’s Wilde and her group of artisans who create the visible look that makes the story which we’ve got seen in varied kinds many time earlier than, work in addition to it does right here. Even using some  Busby Berkeley-stylized overhead photographs that add to the wow issue, Wilde reveals she has a great eye for this type of factor proper right down to the soundtrack with songs from the interval providing a little bit of irony, “life might be a dream Sh-boom”.

Pugh, in a polar reverse position to the understated lady she performs in one other new movie The Surprise that additionally had its World Premiere this weekend (at Telluride) continues to point out her vary even when the character ventures into some fairly ludicrous conditions, setting out into the forbidden secret desert location alone being one in all them. Kinds, as he did in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and within the upcoming TIFF premiere of My Policeman, reveals he’s the actual deal as an actor and has nice promise.  Pine makes a slick, nearly cult-like determine right into a chilling however truly believable villain.

Producers are Wilde, Silberman, Miri Yoon, and Roy Lee. Warner Bros opens the movie huge in theaters September 23.