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Film Review — Strange Darling
JT Mollner’s twist-laden thriller features a tour-de-force performance from Willa Fitzgerald that papers over a nagging superficiality
Strange Darling opens with a caption informing us the film was shot entirely on 35mm. Twenty years ago, that would have been greeted with snorts of “well-duh”, given that 35mm was the standard format. However, because so many films are shot digitally today, it’s a mark of prestige. It’s doubly a mark of prestige for a low-budget independent filmmaker like writer-director JT Mollner, considering these days 35mm tends to be reserved for directorial royalty like Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, and Quentin Tarantino.
Speaking of Tarantino, there’s much in Strange Darling that reminded me of his work. For one thing, the non-linear narrative (cheekily pretending to be based on fact). For another, the various twists and turns. This is a film best approached with no prior knowledge. Having been told as much, I studiously avoided reading any US reviews before its release here in the UK. Now I’ve seen it, I must confess I mostly predicted what would happen, but that’s mainly due to an inevitable familiarity with cinematic sleight of hand that comes after decades of cinemagoing. Familiarity with the films it references — not just Tarantino but vast…
