Strange Darling

by Mike McGranaghan

I vividly remember the first time I saw the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple, Christopher Nolan’s Memento, and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Each of them worked in a familiar genre, yet brought a new, exciting sense of originality to those genres. They were enthralling because they were alive with a type of energy we hadn’t seen before. JT Mollner’s Strange Darling gave me that same feeling. You could safely call the film a horror-thriller, although that in no way prepares you for the inventiveness that unfolds over the course of 96 minutes.

This is one of those movies where it’s vital to go in knowing as little as possible. For that reason, I won’t bother with a plot synopsis. There’s a woman, “the Lady” (Willa Fitzgerald), who is being chased by “the Demon” (Kyle Gallner). The story goes into who they are, how their lives intersected, and what the nature of their situation is. It spoils nothing to reveal that Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley, Jr. have supporting roles as aging hippies who find themselves in the middle of the goings-on.

The reason you shouldn’t know more than that about Strange Darling is that Mollner tells the story out of sequence (not unlike Pulp Fiction). It starts in the middle with a seemingly straightforward scenario – man chases woman. Gradually learning what came before and happened after builds a very distinct sort of suspense. Each of the six “chapters” reveals a piece of information that completely alters your impression of what’s actually taking place. The twists and turns prove exhilarating, since the movie you’re watching at the end is not the movie you thought you were watching at the beginning.

Strong performances add immeasurably to the impact. Gallner imbues the Demon with an offbeat mixture of charm and malice. He’s a mystery to us, which is exactly how it should be. Your feelings toward him shift back and forth. Fitzgerald is the true powerhouse here, delivering a turn that’s rich and filled with different layers. She has to convey a variety of emotions for a variety of reasons, and every single one hits the bullseye. Like the Demon, the Lady has more dimensions than it initially appears. Fitzgerald makes them all convincing. The Oscars never honor performers in this type of picture, but she deserves the consideration.

Strange Darling looks great, thanks to stylish, moody cinematography from actor Giovanni Ribisi, in his feature debut behind the camera. He does an impressive job. An especially gorgeous sequence finds two characters having a lengthy conversation in a car, bathed in the blue light from a neon sign outside. Other times, the visuals are alluringly stark, capturing the inherent danger of the situation driving the plot.

A major part of the fun is in finding out how individual elements fit together – not just the characters themselves but also objects that will clearly have importance as the movie progresses. Strange Darling is ingenious in its construction. You can’t predict where the journey will take you. Darkly funny, regularly thrilling, and intermittently disturbing, this is one of 2024’s biggest do-not-miss-it releases.

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