3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Don't Worry Darling

2022, Olivia Wilde (Booksmart) -- Netflix

Kent didn't really spoil it for me. I mean, it was obvious from the trailers, that the movie was of the "everything is not as it seems" ilk, so it was just a matter of the how. Was it a simulation? Was it an experiment in control, but very very real? Who are the captors? Are they aliens? Mad Scientists? Is it post-apocalyptic outside the walls of the idyllic Palm Spring-ian community? Are they vault dwellers?!?! There were many possibilities, so the accomplishment comes not from the reveal, but from the depiction. And it was depicted incredibly well.

Alice (Florence Pugh, Black Widow) and Jack (Harry Styles, Dunkirk) live in a perfect pseudo-50s world in a supposed experimental community called the Victory Project. Each day the men drive off if their shiny cars into the desert. The women stay at home, cleaning, shopping, lounging around pools, visiting with friends, cleaning, cooking, making everything perfect for the return of the men. Of note, a lesser movie, one that would have been a straight-to scifi thriller that would end up with car chases & shootouts in the real world, the lives of the women wouldn't have mattered. But, here, we do see they do live happy, albeit rather unfulfilling, lives. Sure, they are cooking & cleaning for their men but they also get a lot of what can be boiled down to spa time. And isn't that the conceit of modern living? That women want nothing more than a nice home, a great husband and time at the spa?

Yeah, makes me cringe too.

The initial happy life is pretty convincing. Its endless sunny days, drinks by the pool, dancing and drinks at night, frolicking and sex at night. Good sex. Great sex. Sex between the prettiest of people. Knock all the dishes off the table kind of sex. Except, very quickly things seem off. Even if Alice hadn't seen a plane flicker in and out of reality, hadn't gone into the desert like she's Not Supposed to Do, things seemed ... strained. Once they do, the perfect life seems a little frazzled, threads coming loose, perfectly coifed hair coming undone.

Fragile Male Egos. The movie is smart to go light on the MRA overtones, the incel aspects that men deserve a perfect cisgender, hetero, sex slave world because they are men. Through Alice, the movie is more about her, instead of them. The movie was lazer focused on the experience by way of Alice. And, while I am biased, Pugh was incredible.

One final comment, on something specific. Alice briefly escapes, but is grabbed and reconditioned and shoved right back into the world. The next morning, Jack says goodbye, and Alice is seen in that ultra male fantasy state, standing on the front doorstep, wearing only his shirt, cuz if anything, the incel mind is so fixated on stereotypical "look, we have sex!" male gaze fantasies. The scene was (insert chef's kiss emoji) perfect. And chilling.

We Agree.