Jessai Flores

There comes a time when social media proves how powerful it truly is by stirring up drama —  whether it be making a recipe viral or single-handedly amping up the political landscape.

In recent weeks, the media has had a hold on film festival season — a time for the film industry to highlight its most exciting artwork and daring advances. At the epicenter of this film festival coverage is Olivia Wilde’s tiny $35 million budget film titled “Don’t Worry Darling.”  All eyes from critics and the public were on the film’s scandals including romantic affair rumors (see: Harry’s House), jealousy (see: Ms. Flo), creative disagreement (see: female pleasure-gate) and a press tour for the ages (see: spit-gate). 

The film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival, nevertheless earned it both a five-minute standing ovation and a 38 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Don’t Worry Darling” follows married couple Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) who live in an overwhelmingly nuclear-styled town and are a part of what is known as the Victory Project. What the Victory Project does and how its citizens ended up there is initially unknown to both the audience and Pugh’s character. The plot arc follows Pugh’s reasonable questioning of the Victory Project’s validity and purpose. As the film progresses in a sequence of psychologically vague scenes, Alice is deemed hysterical by everyone around her. In essence, this vagueness does to the audience what the characters do to Alice: misleading and gaslighting them until the very last second. This provides the audience with an objectively amusing and engaging viewing experience until the final act, which, in my opinion, made the rest of the seemingly loose and random moments of the first act worth it.

I’m not calling the film a masterpiece by any means. In terms of quality, it does not match Wilde’s directorial debut and critically-acclaimed classic “Booksmart.” “Don’t Worry Darling” does not wrap itself up as neatly as Booksmart does. You will undoubtedly leave the theater with more questions than you entered with.

Just accept the plot holes and spare yourself from trying to read an insufferable think piece about why Styles’ natural British accent sounded off. In addition to this major lapse in narrative quality, the casting is a disservice to Pugh. Although Styles is by far not the worst actor I’ve seen, he is certainly not yet at the level to achieve the same emotional depth as Pugh does in literally every scene as if it were second nature to her (I still like his music though). “Don’t Worry Darling” could have been much better with a more balanced leading cast. I breathed a sigh of relief anytime a secondary character, such as Gemma Chan’s Shelley, would deliver a monologue that matched the quality of the screenplay.

I would be remiss not to mention that the film does find itself in murky and cliched cinema tropes that almost uphold the society that the film is critiquing. A woman of color was the first on the chopping block of the film’s kill list, which solicited a “why are we always first?” remark from an audience member. In addition, there could’ve been more nuanced considerations of racial and gender dynamics in the 1950s rather than the surface-level separation of a man’s working life and the woman’s home life. Although there were brief moments where this topic was considered, it was a disservice to the story that required more from it.  

All in all, Wilde’s sophomore directorial feature is fine. Is it terrible? No. Is a score of 38 percent on Rotten Tomatoes overkill? Definitely. Could it have been better? Sure. Was the drama worth it? Absolutely.

The virality of the behind-the-scenes scandal almost proved the message of the film: the internet has a dark underbelly that gives way to the psychological torture witnessed on screen. Narratives of what happened on set were driven by the internet, and showed just how much we crave drama. Following all of the accusations and rumors, the film earned $19.2 million at the box office on its opening weekend and was number one at box offices. 

Would the movie have been as successful without all the buzz? Maybe, I know how the 1D loyalists can get. But it would be almost ridiculous to insinuate that the drama did not have anything to do with the film’s success. The internet drama suggests our return to the values of old Hollywood, when a film’s drama was both on the silver screen and behind the scenes. In these times, actors were not merely actors, but also iconized movie stars. If anything, Pugh is on the path to movie stardom (if you don’t consider her to be one already) and brings attention to a psychological thriller that adds dimensions to a fun movie-theater-going experience that the pandemic once threatened.

So don’t worry darling and go to Criterion Bowtie Cinema where the film is currently screening.