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With: Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey, Ed Begley Jr., Steven Michael Quezada, Madisen Beaty, Bianca A. Santos, Denise Grayson, Sheri Foster
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Written by: JT Mollner
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Directed by: JT Mollner
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MPAA Rating: R for strong/bloody violent content, sexual material, drug use and language
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Running Time: 97
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Date: 08/23/2024
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Six Tricks
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Certainly inspired by time-twisting movies that came before it, JT Mollner's action thriller Strange Darling also feels fresh; it has the power to electrify and blindside, even if it's ultimately not really about very much.
A woman (Willa Fitzgerald) and a man (Kyle Gallner) meet in a bar and head to a hotel room. The woman explains that she has some fairly violent fantasies and gives the man a safe word. Little do they each know that the other has a secret. Unfortunately, things go south quickly and the night escalates into a long day of chasing, shooting, and general carnage.
Written and directed by Mollner, Strange Darling starts by subverting expectations, showing us two out-of-context shots that imply that one character is a serial killer. We are then given the information that this is a "thriller in six chapters," and then we promptly start with Chapter 3, and jump around to various other chapters in seemingly random order. While somewhat disorienting, this is also a gift for clever audiences who are rewarded for noticing certain details, and then recognizing them when they come up again in a different context.
It's also a controlled reveal of the characters and their personality traits and secrets; the characters are sometimes ahead of the audience, and sometimes the audience is ahead of the characters, and it's a fascinating game of push-pull. The movie even has a constantly intriguing look and feel, ranging from jokey (a red 1978 Pinto, a Scott Baio jigsaw puzzle), to sinister (a bathroom lit by a red light, an innocent freezer turned into a death device).
The movie also happens to be the feature debut as cinematographer for noted actor Giovanni Ribisi; he shot on 35mm film, which definitely lends a vivid texture to the work. (Viewers who stick around for the entire closing credits will also hear Ribisi in a brief voice role.) In the end, Strange Darling doesn't have much to say about violence or time — it's very much a matter of form over substance — but when the form is this good, it's still worth celebrating.
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