More films should be shot in 35mm. And more films should be directed by cinematographers. Even if there's not much to the screenplay or even necessarily the acting, a picture with some great shots is better than most other major motion pictures available in theaters.
But yeah, although this thriller does a good job (more or less) of delivering twist after twist, it doesn't ultimately have anything to say. Instead, it's an exercise in gender-flipping--replete with addressing, only to discard, the associated mores of today vs. The 1970s origin material--that sort of exploitation flick that's not so much a portrait of a serial killer as a supervillian action spree.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
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Frequently proficient photography (of forgettable content)
Very Overrated
It's gone too far. I predicted the twist in the first act. There's nothing all that original going on here and it cribs heavily from Tarantino's style of breaking up the film into (in this case out-of-order) "chapters."
The core premise of this film is so unbelievable and so un-backed by any historical evidence that it's borderline insulting.
Look, this movie was fun to watch for pure entertainment value, but it falls flat as any sort of allegory, "lesson" or statement on the culture it is so clearly trying to be. If anything, it is successful in subverting *most* viewers' expectations, but that's about it.
I'm really not feeling the love for this film and the gushing praise comes down to three things: 1) Recency bias (younger reviewers), 2) Cool filming technique and cinematography, and 3) The great job by whole cast.
5.5/10.
Six Chapters of Slash Horror
I am against all the highly overated, agressively marketed as "new masterpiece" movies because almost ninety nine point ninety nine of them turn out to be big dissapointments.
I started watching Strange Darling with indifference in an empty gritty movie theater all by myself. It has a non linear editing style with a heavy synthetized bass soundtrack accompanying the shaky visuals. After the first chapter's dull horror, I realized this movie is different because of its non linear editing so this mystery kept me going. If not, I wanted to leave the theater because of messy indie movie scenes that I have watched maybe ten thousand times.
Main characters were greatly portrayed and shaky cinematography turned into a neonish drug fueled nightmare when the movie's twist was served. Was it good enough? It obviously was that this low budget indie found its way in various movie theaters all around the world... But is it a horror masterpiece? Absolutely not. It is another non linear film with a twist that you porobably seen in every Shayamalan movies since 2000s.
6/10 for its acting and non linear editing idea of producers.