Director: JT Mollner
Screenplay: JT Mollner
Starring: Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald
Country: United States
Running Time: 97 min
Year: 2024
When it comes to actors who get me excited to check out any film they’re in, there’s one name that comes to mind for me, at least in recent years. That’s Kyle Gallner, who broke into the mainstream with supporting character roles in a range of horror projects in the late 2000s and early 2010s, such as Red Eye, Jennifer’s Body, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Red State. In the past few years, he’s had quite the resurgence as a character actor in titles like Dinner in America, The Passenger, Smile and most recently, Strange Darling, a film that I was beyond excited to check out as soon as it hit my radar. Given that its UK theatrical release is right around the corner, let’s talk about Strange Darling. This review will be as spoiler-free as possible, given the nature of the film, so if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t worry!
Strange Darling is the second feature film from director JT Mollner and opens proudly with a warning about how it was shot on 35mm by first-time cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi (yes, star of Ted, Avatar and My Name is Earl). It follows two characters, Willa Fitzgerald’s ‘The Lady’ and Kyle Gallner’s ‘The Demon’, who are on a cat-and-mouse chase after a steamy night together. I won’t give away anything else, as the film’s presented in a non-linear fashion and seeing the events unravel for yourself is part of the fun with the film. Fitzgerald and Gallner are absolutely phenomenal in their roles, constantly keeping on your toes as to what’s going on underneath the surface and they’re chewing the scenery to an absurd degree, which I found delightful.
To say the film is only reliant on its twists, turns and performances would be to understate the other excellent technical elements on display. Mollner’s confidence as a director bleeds through every frame, paired with the excellently flawed Ribisi cinematography. There’s a level of charm that comes with a first time DoP’s experimentation that you wouldn’t get with someone without his level of passion and the ambition in the shot composition, with long, thoughtful takes and some killer split diopters had me almost foaming at the mouth. It’s a fantastic looking film, and genre fans will be thrilled by how fresh the film feels.
There’s obvious inspirations from filmmakers like Tobe Hooper and Quentin Tarantino, but Mollner brings an original flair and it’s wonderfully creative, which makes Strange Darling an extremely enjoyable watch. Again, it’s difficult to really dive into why so much of the film works without spoiling the fun, but there’s few films this year that offer viewers something as equally unique and exciting as Strange Darling does, which blew me away.
At the end of the year, I can see Strange Darling cracking most genre fans best of the year lists for offering something wholly original in a year already packed with films like Longlegs, The Substance, Love Lies Bleeding, Lisa Frankenstein, Immaculate and I Saw the TV Glow. It’s a delightfully fun ride that keeps you on your toes during every second, with great performances from Gallner and Fitzgerald, excellent direction and cinematography from Mollner and Ribisi respectively and I can’t recommend it enough. See this one immediately if it’s playing near you!
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