| A- | Fantastic Fest 2023 |
This cut of the film started out very cleverly, which you won’t get to see once the movie is released. The first frames were a title card: “TBD Distributor’s Logo.” Funny, and either optimistic or confident. (Having seen the movie, I recommend confidence.)
The credit sequence is also a little clever, setting up this serial killer movie as you might expect. Then the title, “Strange Darling, a story in six chapters ”…
…and we dive right into chapter 4. “Okay,” I thought, “we’re going Pulp Fiction style. Hope they’re good enough to pull it off.”
I had my doubts at first. Some cute things things early on. But some strange things, too, that I rolled my eyes at—“bad writing,” I thought.
But then some little surprises started to happen. Redeeming the writing—I’d been set up! Then some bigger twists. Then the justification of the out-of-sequence storytelling. In the end, the cleverness of the first frame carried on through the entire film. I should have trusted the writer/director (JT Mollner). And I’m sure as heck going to find his earlier films.
Kudos to Mr. Mollner for respecting the WGA strike. Someone during the Q&A asked a question about the script and he declined to answer “in solidarity with the writers.”
Also worth noting: the soundtrack, full of songs written and performed by Z Berg. I’ll be looking up her work as well, and watching for this soundtrack to come out.
