Don't Worry, Wonks
by Marissa Sasso
A very small, independent, underground film that had almost zero marketing or drama surrounding it was released this weekend. I couldn’t tell you what it was, though, because I was in theaters watching Don't Worry Darling. In case you missed it, there has been a plethora of controversy and drama surrounding this film since the start of its production, to the point where people don’t even know what the film is about– they only know the (alleged) beef between lead actress Florence Pugh and director Olivia Wilde (and supporting actor Harry Styles).
Luckily for all you worried wonks who didn’t know if they should spend their money on tickets, I bit the bullet and saw it in theaters purely for research purposes (definitely not because my roommate and I have been obsessively following this drama for months). If you want a spoiler-free review, here’s what I’ll say: you’re better off just imagining your own white feminist mashup of The Stepford Wives, The Truman Show, and Get Out.
If you’re ready for some spoilers, keep reading.
Florence Pugh is a ‘50s housewife in an isolated desert town called Victory, where all the husbands (Harry Styles & co.) go to work for some mysterious “Victory Project” (lead by Chris Pine) that they can’t tell their wives anything about. The wives are forbidden from leaving town. Kiki Layne is acting weird because she tried to leave Victory with her son and “they took him,” but everybody just thinks she’s crazy. As it turns out, Pugh and her fellow housewives were all unwillingly put in a simulation by Harry Styles and co. that they now must try to escape.
Some thoughts:
Whatever drugs Olivia Wilde was on when she said the sex scenes in this movie were about “female pleasure” need to be scrubbed from the Earth like Wonk Cat was by Sylvia (rest in peace). Sex focused on “female pleasure” is impossible to have while the woman being “pleasured” is unknowingly being held hostage against her will. Olivia Wilde said that “the impractical nature of their sex speaks to their ferocious desire for one another.” I would definitely agree that they did have an impractical nature, since Harry Styles’s character specifically captured Florence Pugh’s character and put her in this simulated reality because she did not want to have sex with him in real life. What part of a man tricking a woman into having sex while being held hostage is supposed to be empowering or focused on female pleasure? There’s a term for that, and I’m sure even our comically dysfunctional Office of Title IX could even agree with you on that (or maybe not, they have been sued for things like this).
As expected, Florence Pugh’s performance carried the film. I will give it to Harry Styles, though, his horrible American accent in one scene caused the entire theater to burst into laughter (myself included). Everyone else is great, they actually know how to act– they were given a cool concept with a shitty script.
This script felt like it was a high school project where the students kept trying to reiterate the metaphors so the teacher hopefully gives them a passing grade. Unfortunately, in repeating the same three motifs that all symbolized generalized patriarchal madness, Olivia Wilde and screenwriter Kaite Silberman forgot to actually explain any of the other symbols they threw into the script. Seriously, what was that plane crash about? Why did Kiki Layne’s son have a toy plane that looked exactly like it? Why are there earthquakes in a simulated reality? Why were the eggs empty when Florence Pugh was trying to make deviled eggs?
This is only a fraction of the many questions that the movie doesn’t even care about answering. It feels like they stopped writing the film once Pugh’s and Styles’s story arcs were almost finished.I can’t even say Pugh’s character arc was actually finished because we don’t even see her wake up in reality once she escapes the simulation.
Everyone else’s arcs seemed messy and unfinished. Olivia Wilde’s surprisingly important character was more written than the rest of the supporting cast, and there were still basic questions about her that were left unanswered: does her husband also know that Victory isn’t real, or is he dead like their kids? Why didn’t she say anything sooner if she knew the other women were there against their will? Chris Pine was your typical Jordan Peterson-esque leader with nothing else to him, Gemma Chan’s character does a 180 in the last 10 minutes (vehemently defending Chris Pine in one scene and then immediately stabbing him next time we see her), and Kiki Layne was stuck playing the sacrificial suffering Black woman that inspires Florence Pugh’s rebellion.
I think the most disappointing part of the movie was that it had the potential to be good. The general concept wasn’t brand new, but this film could’ve put a new perspective on it if everybody in the creative hadn’t gone to the Taylor Swift Academy of Feminism. In the end, it was a perfectly mediocre film with a lot of dirt under its surface. If you’re a Harry Styles fan, or if you want to see Florence Pugh’s iconic frown on the big screen, you will not be disappointed. If you’re looking for a well-written story with a strong, thought-out message, go watch anything else in theaters and you won’t be let down as much.