Don’t worry! The movies are back! Released earlier this month, “Don’t Worry Darling” urges avid movie lovers to return once more to big movie theater screens. Featuring popular stars such as Harry Styles, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pine and Florence Pugh, “Don’t Worry Darling” brings entertainment, tension and thriller once again to the theaters. The movie, directed by Olivia Wilde, presents striking feminist themes intertwined in a disturbing yet amusing story.
In “Don’t Worry Darling,” Wilde places Alice, played by Florence Pugh, and Jack, Harry Styles, in a 1950s dystopian society. The lovely couple lives in an idealized company community called Victory. While the men of the society work top-secret jobs concerning what is known as the Victory Project, the women get to enjoy unburdened lives of luxury and beauty.
The day-to-day lives of the women in the community include cleaning the home, making food, sipping wine and shopping. The movie shows women in an ideal setting, until the watcher, along with Alice, realizes that these restrictive feminine roles are not as picturesque as they seem.
When unusual signs begin to appear in the seemingly perfect Victory town, Alice begins to question her belonging and purpose in the Victory Project. Chaos ensues as Alice’s neighbor Margaret begins to act strange and raises questions against the society and the Victory Project’s fearless leader, Frank, who is played by Chris Pine.
The story allows the audience to follow along as Alice attempts to understand and escape the now hauntingly perfect Victory Project.
“Don’t Worry Darling” introduces yet again another psychological thriller to the cinematic sphere. The movie itself includes a few horrific or haunting images since its primary focus is to present more striking themes than images. These themes prompt the watcher to consider fear and its role in the human person’s psychological thinking.
Pugh, as she had done before in Ari Aster’s recent film “Midsommar,” delivers an applaudably disturbing performance. Her authenticity in portraying Alice’s curiosity and increasingly extreme desperation throughout the film develops the eerie concern that captures the essence of thrill. Pugh has the talent to entice her watcher, but the same cannot be said about Styles.
While a talented musician, Styles simply cannot measure up to Pugh’s impressive camera presence. The movie has not been getting amazing reviews, and I think that is because of the lack of talent in Styles’ performance.
Behind the scenes, Wilde continues to prove, alongside other female directors, that the directing world is not only restricted to men. Her directing efforts take giant steps in opening up greater opportunities for women in the film industry. This women empowerment outside of the film also bleeds into the themes presented in “Don’t Worry Darling.” Therefore, it is only appropriate that Wilde would direct this film since the aim of “Don’t Worry Darling” is to present feminist themes interpreted by a woman herself.
