Film review: ‘STRANGE DARLING’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
Strange Darling is guaranteed to be a favourite of those who enjoy blood-soaked cinema. While it’s certainly violent and confronting, it’s also inventive in the way it gleefully plays with the conventions of the serial killer film and with audience expectations. Written and directed by JT Mollner, the film cleverly goads us into thinking in a certain way about the events depicted before twisting the situation and making us queasily unsure about what may happen next.
A prologue informs us that a serial killer has been terrorising the US from 2018 to 2020 and that this film is a dramatisation of those events; it’s probably as much a true story as ‘Fargo’ claims to be. The film then cuts to a scene of a bruised young woman simply known as the Lady (Willa Fitzgerald) running for her life before fragmented flashbacks show a moustachioed man known as The Demon (Kyle Gallner) appearing to choke a woman whom we presume is the one now fleeing him in terror. To reveal much more would be a major spoiler but suffice to say, this dark thriller has a few surprises in store for us.
The plot here is in fact a little thin, there’s only as much story as we’d normally find in an hour-long episode of an edgy TV crime thriller. That’s only a minor issue, though, as this film is more about the characters and ruthless actions of the devious and remarkably resourceful killer. Kyle Gallner as ‘the Demon’ has an intense brooding presence but his character feels limited, especially in comparison to Willa Fitzgerald’s ‘Lady’ who proves to be a mysterious, unsettling and unforgettable figure. Some of the name actors in supporting roles, however, aren’t given enough screen time. Ed Begley Jr and Barbara Hershey, who play a hippy couple who take in The Lady and Steven Michael Quezada (Steve Gomez from Breaking Bad) who plays a cop, are only allowed fleeting appearances.
This film will have a slight tinge of familiarity those who enjoyed the stylishly violent and perverse films of the 1990s including Henry Portrait Of A Serial Killer and dark, misanthropic comedies like Very Bad Things and even Tarantino films. Like Pulp Fiction, Strange Darling is composed of different chapters shown out of chronological order. This is particularly effective in playing with our expectations about what’s happened.
As much as a serial killer film this is a chase movie and Mollner makes impressive use of the Oregon locations cleverly bringing a slice of violent perversity to these verdant locales. Giovanni Rabisi in his debut as a cinematographer does a superb job of capturing these vistas on wonderful 35mm film.
While the narrative feels a little limited, Strange Darling is an impressive shirtfront of a movie and one that seems destined for cult status.
Nick’s rating: ***1/2
Genre: Drama/ Thriller.
Classification: MA15+.
Director(s): JT Mollner.
Release date: 27thAug 2024.
Running time: 96 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.