There's not much about the plot of "Don't Worry Darling" that a genre savvy viewer won't be able to figure out by sitting through five minutes of this movie or simply watching the trailer. It's a familiar story addressing very familiar themes about female paranoia, the patriarchy, and the traps of domestic life. However, the execution is good enough that I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway.
Alice (Florence Pugh) is a young 1950s housewife who lives with her husband Jack (Harry Styles) in a luxurious planned community called Victory, reserved exclusively for the employees of the Victory Project, led by a charismatic man named Frank (Chris Pine). Alice spends her day keeping house and socializing with the other wives, including her best friend Bunny (Wilde), and a woman named Margaret (Kiki Layne), who is behaving in increasingly erratic ways. Margaret keeps seeing things that aren't there, and soon Alice is drawn into the same pursuit of conspiracy theories and possible delusions.
I suspect that the behind-the-scenes drama around "Don't Worry Darling" is more entertaining than the finished product. The well-worn "Mad Men" milieu and thin plotting don't do the film any favors. On the other hand, Florence Pugh does a great job as the lead, and frankly the visuals are breathtaking. Writer/director Olivia Wilde successfully puts together a tempting vision of what the American Dream is supposed to be from a certain point of view, and lets us enjoy it for a while, before taking it apart. The use of the desert landscapes, the lavish parties, the dance sequences, and the music are all very obvious, but very effective. And that's how I feel about the whole film. It's shallow and familiar, but far more entertaining than similar films like "Under the Silver Lake." Oh, and I thought Harry Styles was fine. Not on the same level as Pugh at all, but for the purposes of this film, just fine.
Zach Cregger's "Barbarian" is a far more interesting and inventive genre film. It's likewise a very socially relevant film about women stuck with the consequences of men behaving badly. "Barbarian" is a horror movie though, with some ghastly surprises that I expect no viewer will see coming. As with most good horror movies, the less you know going in the better. However, it starts with a young woman named Tess (Georgina Campbell) who comes to Detroit for a job interview and finds that her AirBNB rental has been double booked. Without any good options, she agrees to share the space with the other renter, Keith (Bill Skarsgaard). Eventually the plot also involves the owner of the house, AJ (Justin Long), a previous owner named Frank (Richard Brake), and an old woman (Matthew Patrick Davis) who is not what she seems.
A lot of this movie is about subverting expectations, and the ability of Justin Long to play an absolute scumbag while somehow still being endearing enough to keep you guessing about his intentions. There are a lot of pretty rote horror scenarios to work through, like people going where they shouldn't, getting convinced to do stupid things, and not leaving a bad situation when they should know better. However, these are handled well, by someone clearly familiar with all the genre conventions, and who is good at engineering fun twists. The tone keeps shifting too, from tense to funny to creepy. And when you think you've figured out what the movie is doing, it throws you for another loop.
I'm really impressed with "Barbarian" because the filmmakers clearly know how to do a lot with very little. The budget here was under $5 million, but the director's command of visual language and all the performances never feel compromised at all. Also, kudos for tying together a lot of different thematic threads and commentary on social issues without beating the audience over the head with it. Justin Long getting out the tape measurer was the best laugh I've had at the movies this year. And while nobody ever explains why the title of the movie is "Barbarian," I think we all know exactly who it's referring to by the end.
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