If the Coen Brothers brilliant 1984 debut "Blood Simple" had been informed by the world of Quentin Tarantino, it would likely have looked a lot like STRANGE DARLING.
Writer/Director JT Mollner has created a bloody clever, sexually charged thriller that details the final kills of a prolific serial killer.
QT style, the film has six chapters and an epilogue that do not unfold in chronological order. The film opens with Chapter 3 and then hops all over the place for a taut 90 minutes that never fails to engage, even when it pushes your boundaries "Blue Velvet" style.
Loaded with twists and turns and a relentless style that left me winded, it's got an 80's slasher flick feel but a much better screenplay.
Writer/Director Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass) nailed it when he said "Strange Darling is brilliant, but you MUST GO IN BLIND!"
I agree, Mike, so I'm not giving anything away here about the story.
Willa Fitzgerald (Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher) is billed as "The Lady". Attractive and personable, we find her in the cab of a truck, talking to her date for the night, "The Demon" played by Kyle Gallner (Smile). The talk is one-night-stand awkward, with The Lady detailing the risks that women take meeting and being alone with a man they've never met. The fact that the truck is sitting outside a seedy Bates Motel like spot in the middle of nowhere is the first spark of tension.
A gaudy neon motel sign fills the truck cab with a blue light that feels as low-life as the surroundings.
As the chapters flash forward, backward, forward, forward and backward, its a testament to Mollner's screenplay that the viewer is never lost.
There are so many layers here that it will take multiple viewings for me to unravel everything hidden in those dirty corners.
Watching the film, I saw so much of the Coen Brothers "Blood Simple" unfold. Never a rip-off, just a shared karma, atmosphere and blood lust.
There were moments that instantly took me back to seeing Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill" and "Blow Out" in a packed theater.
The red lighting in the bathroom, the QT like devotion to shooting the film on 35mm stock that gives it an unmistakable grain & texture of a past time, the stark lighting in the fields as The Lady runs for her life, there are countless attributes that set this film apart from the pack.
I loved seeing Barbara Hershey (The Entity, The Stunt Man) and Ed Begley Jr (Cat People) as aging hippies with a cabin deep in the woods. Their outdoor sound system is a fascinating tiny tidbit in a story loaded with unnerving details.
Actor Giovanni Ribisi (The Offer, Saving Private Ryan, Avatar) steps behind the camera to shoot his first feature film as Cinematographer and he knocks it out of the park. His camera moves never felt like he was ripping anyone off, save those De Palma moments that come off as homage. He's got a killer eye that takes STRANGE DARLING to a bloody different level.
Composer Craig DeLeon is new on my radar, but his score is unnerving in all the right ways, quietly crawling under your skin with the same power as the moments it justifiably blasts you in the face.
As if a Coen Brothers comp isn't credibility enough, there were moments during the hotel room dialogue that felt like Hitchcock in a current form. If "Marnie" and all it's 1964 boundary-pushing dialogue around male & female sexuality and power were created today, sixty years later, this would be it's modern form.
The film is built to immerse you in a place you don't want to be, so it wont be for every viewer. Fitzgerald is a powerhouse. Her entire performance is a masterpiece, but its final coda is one of the best moments of the year. Couldn't take my eyes off The Lady, even when I didn't want to watch.
Disturbing on every level, Mollner just dragged the summer movie season into a very dark, musty corner and unwrapped a terrifying present.
Adult, sexual, violent and disturbing, it's one hell of a twisted ride.
STRANGE DARLING gets an A.
Bình luận