Don't Worry Darling (Review) 

This movie is the definition of “vibes are better than the plot”

When Florence Pugh uttered the words "it's darling time" and then proceeded to darl all over everyone, my theater errupted into a cacophonous pandemonic cheer

My favourite part of the movie that it literally feels like a movie. Like there's no other way to describe it. It is literally a movie, the actors acted, the writers wrote it, the producers produced it, the cinematographer shot it, the editors edited it, the director directed it. Like damn, I can't believe this is actually a movie. Hopefully it gets an Oscar nomination for Best Picture because as the great talented Harry Styles said, it feels like a movie. My god this feels like a movie, I'm speechless 😭😭😭

It's very clear Olivia Wilde saw Get Out and was like 'Hey what if that happened to a white woman'

Some criticisms of this film are overblown, and I don't think 35% on RT is justified. However, something that really bothers me is how Wilde promoted the sex scenes in interviews, where she called them empowering. The context of those scenes in the film are much more disturbing, as Alice is revealed to being held there against her will. It's almost like Wilde watched a completely different film.

I watched this in theaters and when Harry yelled everybody started laughing

Ms. Flo loves being in cult movies

Very happy that you pointed out how good this movie looks. Even if I didn’t think it was the best, I kept thinking about how good most of the shots were. I also thought the sound design was wayyyy better than it should have been. Basically, I came away from it thinking more about the technical parts than the actual story.

Chris Pine is quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s best actors. It a shame that as soon as he stepped away from the big budget action/sc-fi blockbusters he had to step into this pile of s**t. But seriously, he’s really good in every role he’s been cast in so far. Even bad films, he always is great. Hopefully we can see him land a juicy role in the future with a great script. Kind of crazy that a director had both Pugh and Pines tearing up the screen and they still managed to screw things up.

Harry Styles: "My favourite part about this movie, is that it feels like a movie" Me: That's a pretty vague way of saying that Don't Worry Darling is one of the movies ever

That Jordan Peele comparison is very apt. I feel like Hollywood is having its moment with thriller/drama films, especially those from comedy actors turned serious directors (Peele, Wilde, Jonah Hill to an extent) Add: Bill Hader, Ben Stiller, Zach Cregger, Donald Glover

The best part of Don't Worry Darling is when Harry Styles said "It's styling time" and styled all over the place.

I watched this in theaters, and at the end of the movie, somebody said WTF out loud, and that encompasses how I felt at the end of the movie 😂

What’s weird was Harry’s character didn’t seem to be in a negative light even after the twist. It felt like “oh he kidnapped her and assaulted her but he loved her sooo much so he deserves some sympathy” that’s the vibe I got

this movie tells you exactly where it is going in the first 10 minutes then spends the rest of the movie retelling you exactly where it is going over and over again. i felt like i was walking in circles for 2 hours.

I've probably seen way too many "Black Mirror" episodes, but I figured out that the perfect 1950's Utopian community was a stimulation from the very first trailer. It also had the vibe of a Twilight Zone episode, or "The Stepford Wives", minus the robots.

The best part of the movie was when a pop star who’s on the record saying he doesn’t know how to act also at one point says “I’m a technical engineer”

Shia Labeouf’s acting in this movie is phenomenal.

Describing Harry Styles' performance as if he had watch a bunch of acting compilations on RU-vid is so accurate

So many questions after watching this film. And the more I ask myself the less I believe she got away. First question is why did the ground shake whenever the men were at "work". Why did Alice see a plane crash? If Alice and Margaret both touched the glass before and that's how one gets out then how were they dragged back in? If the whole thing was just a simulation in a state of sleep then how did pills in that simulation have any affect in them? Why did Frank die so easily? What did his supposed wife mean by "now it's my turn"? Soooooo manyyyyyy questions!😫

It’s honestly shocking that Harry Styles wasn’t all that good in this movie, as his performance in Dunkirk was actually pretty good.

A prime example of a decent concept ruined by a combination of a messy execution and backstage drama. I've heard that Florence, Chris and Gemma all give decent performances, so I might watch merely for them all.

Great review! That’s exactly how I felt about this movie. It was fun and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected, but as soon as I started thinking about the plot more, it all just started falling apart and it was just a mess. One thing I will say is that the sound mixing and editing… superb. The sort of bee buzzing in the tense moment made it 150% tenser

Flo Pugh’s performance was outstanding and the twist was pretty good tbh. Everything else was like Stepdford Wives lite. But I had fun

“Don’t Worry Darling” would have made a phenomenal 10-episode, streamable miniseries!

I'll add that it's pretty "white feminist" in its message which kind of emphasizes the unoriginality of the themes. Like how the only Black character was used as a plot device (Kiki Layne has mentioned how a lot of her scenes were cut from the final edit) and the fact that the aspect of race is completely ignored. Obviously I'm not expecting deep insightful racial commentary from Olivia Wilde but it could have been something interesting to touch upon intersectionality which would make the feminist themes feel less rehashed and tired.

that olivia wilde interview clip you showed was soooooo headass hahaha. also, i was rolling my eyes in the theatre every time they reused those black and white shots of the women doing their dance routine. olivia must have really loved those…so much so that she wanted us to rewatch the same shots over and over. it wasn’t cool after the first time. the reuse just felt lazy to me. like when you’re trying to fluff out an essay to meet the minimum word count…

I read the spec script when this got announced, and when it got to revealing what Da Twist was, I leant back in my chair and thought, “Damn, you really trust Harry Styles to handle what’s required for this ending?”

I agree with the pacing issue. I feel like (spoiler alert) there should have been more time spent on the characters' backgrounds in the real world so that we could better understand their behavior in the simulation. I would have liked to see what Margaret or Peg had been up to prior to being put in the simulation, or what led olivia wilde's character to find out the truth long before any of the other wives. The movie really only picked up in the last half hour which is a shame because I finally felt like I was hooked when the twist came along.

Thank you for giving an unbiased review and not talking ab the drama. My biggest problem with this movie is that this is like a modern take on Stepford Wives

im guessing harry styles is gonna start being in every blockbuster movie and its gonna get so annoying

I liked it. Florence Pugh carried the ENTIRE movie. Let's not talk about Harry's total lack of chemistry. Florence and Chris had way more chemistry lol

This movie definitely isn’t as bad as reviews made it seem. Weird at times yes, entertaining yes, decent story yes. Some plot holes yes, but overall a decently made film. The 35% on rotten tomatoes is ridiculous. It’s in the 60-70% range.

Now I want a movie about the behind the scene drama of this movie. It's gonna be great, way better than the movie that it's depicting and it's guarantee to win a bunch of Oscars more than the actual movie that it's depicting especially writing 😂😂😂

Bruh there are two characters called Alice and Bunny, you know where this should go from the get-go

Olivia’s worse mistake is showcasing that an incel’s DREAM would be to have a wife in the house living the grand rich life while they work an 8-5….. I would LOVE that life 😂

i cannot believe there wasn't even a mention of the score, literally the only thing that kept me awake while watching it

2:42 fun fact, harry actually auditioned for the role of sally in barry so he wanted to stick it to bill hader to show he would’ve been better than sarah goldberg

I found it soooooo repetitive. The movies spends so much time trying to build a mystery, by build a mystery I mean Florence Pugh seeing or experiencing something strange for about 90% of the runtime.

The movie could be boring at times but the egg squishing with no yolk inside was pretty interesting. Wish Olivia kept up that creative weirdness

Chris Pine walked on set and I said “is this Robert California?”

you 100% nailed it when you said that Olivia say Peele's success and wanted to copy it. *chefs kiss*

You can feel even out the cinema how harry did not wanted to be in this movie since the beginning

Something I couldn’t get past while watching was it felt like Olivia Wilde’s character was really pushing and like obviously pushing the story along. It almost felt like with every scene she was in, she was directing in a way with her acting to get the story going etc but idk that’s just me! I did enjoy the movie and the twist but this was just something that was very obvious to me.

Everyone gangsta until Chris Pine talks in reverb voiceover over creepy A24 cutaways for the entire second act

well it was definitely a movie! with a cast, plot and dialogue! props to olivia for making a movie! def a movie that was released in 2022!

Florence carried the film for sure. I think it's a film where you either LOVE it or hate it.

Felt like a black mirror episode more than a epic sci/fi thriller. The more interesting part of the story is how it all works and instead it takes sooooooo much time to get to the “twist” that literally from the commercial you already know something isn’t right and there’s more to it. Any time a movie is like “oh look it’s the 1950s it’s perfect” you’re already thinking naaaaaah something’s up. So it spends time thinking its doing something when we already know it’s gonna be more that once it gets there the movie is almost over and it rushes to the ending. Idk it was overhyped more for the behind the scenes than it being a next level movie. Barbarian is an excellent example of how this movie should have been. From the jump you’re uneasy but the reason why things are happening are more interesting then being led along for two thirds of the movie already knowing there’s more but the movie is like “WhAt CoUlD iT bE?!” 🙄 Also there’s a TON of plot holes. I don’t want to ruin anything bringing them up. But once stuff is revealed a lot of what happens now doesn’t make any sense and it was just to make it weird in that part of the movie but then doesn’t make any sense knowing what you know now.

I never go to the movies, but I finally watched Midsommar (at home) the other night, it was my first Florence Pugh experience, and of course I was enchanted (and horrified) by Pugh's performance, and the film. While watching I realized that Pugh was the girl from the DWD trailer that youtube has been ramming down my throat for the past 2 months, and because Midsommar left me yearning for another film on its level, and I was midly intrigued by the visuals of the DWD trailers, I decided to take advantage of our local theater's $5 Tuesday, and my roomie and I went out to see a movie... and we literally fell asleep! Before seeing it, I thought to myself, even if the plot is weak the aesthetics of the film would make up for that, but my God, it was a real disappointment, a total snooze fest! I tried everything I could to stay awake during DWD, I pinched the skin in between my fingers, I drank a Coke from the concession, I tried holding my eye balls open, all to no avail. My roomie and I literally snored thru a movie, our snores were the only thing that woke us up... I felt like my grandma when she took me and my cousins to see The Lion King for the 15th time, snoring in the movie theater. Lol.

I'm planning to watch this movie only for Florence Pugh. Incredible that you validated that idea so early in this video.

Something that shocked me about the film was the fact that within the context of everything that happens, Chris Pine is basically right. Alice and Jack were both way more happy when traditional gender roles were forced upon Alice without her consent. The only reason The Victory Project isn’t a totally success is because of glitches in the system or whatever it is that allows Alice to get her memory back. And hell, after figuring out that her asshole husband kidnapped her and forced her into a life without agency, she was fine with it because her life was so perfect. The only reason she leaves is because the other women are their against their wills, but “subjugated” to live perfect ideal lives. The movie seems to be saying that enforced, rigid, nonconsensual gender roles actually do make a perfect society if only those damn women would just clean the kitchen and make food. Obviously that is not what Olivia Wilde intended, but it is shocking how poorly someone can communicate what was probably in her head a good message.

as a harry styles fan who has tried to give olivia the benefit of the doubt and even defend her against other harry fans who hate her bc she’s dating him, i feel guilty for saying the movie is a mess. i agree with everything you said and i’ve been trying to decipher whether or not i truly liked the movie. i give it a 5.5-6/10 because it just wanted to be more clever than it actually is. i’m disappointed because olivia is clearly a competent and creative director, there was just too much happening in this and not enough explaining. i’ve seen people trying to defend it saying there are reasons for some of the plot holes or other choices made, but i just feel like a lot of the lines/effects were forgotten about or just done to make it visually appealing. good review!

The villain was one of the most underdeveloped character I've seen in a while

One more thing that I feel like needs to be touched upon in a criticism of DWD is that there’s been other media recently that has just done the “woman is in a high-concept, fantasy situation and she thinks she has a handle of things and everything’s cool BUT OH GOLLY GOSH EVERYTHING’S SUDDENLY NOT COOL” trope better. Take Last Night in Soho or even WandaVision, for example: they show a woman slowly losing more power and control over a situation, but the difference is that they have a unique vision and something solid to say about the human experience (something that DWD is painfully lacking).

As a Gen Zer have to disagree with you on Booksmart. Felt like it tried way too hard to be a female Gen Z Superbad to the point it totally fucked up its portrayal of Gen Z and just ended up as a meh Superbad ripoff. Eighth Grade is a somewhat comedic film that tackles the same themes way better. Not surprised Wilde’s next film failed too.

Finally, I get to see if Karsten thinks this movie feels like a movie 👀

I find it a little hard to believe that everyone understood the twist from the first 20 min. I understood that the big question of what was going on would be revealed, but I was genuinely shocked by the execution of it? Trying to say that without spoiling lol

She tried to recreate “The Stepford Wives” and it just didn’t work cause those actors and actresses and production team where in their BAGS. While with this movie Florence CARRIED THIS MOVIE.

I just finished it and it was incredible. The symbolism....the cinematography...both Florence and Harry's performances....(it was the 60s btw.) Also out of all of the films made based on the book The Stepford Wives, this one was the best. It really impressed me especially after hearing everyone trash it.

This also felt that this was very influenced by Darren Aronofsky films like Black Swan Mother even the quick cutting of the toast reminded me of the quick cutting of the drugs in requiem of a Dream.

I got a free ticket and so I went to see this movie with my friends while ludicrously drunk. I don’t remember a single plot point but it was thoroughly entertaining. 3/10 thriller movie. 10/10 comedy movie. Would see again.

Real ones remember having a crush on Chris pine in princess diaries 2

Karsten I’m not even kidding I have been waiting on the edge of my seat for this video

Don’t Worry Darling is one of the movies ever made.

Seeing our lord and savior Karsten with glasses is something I did not know I needed

Harry was great in Dunkirk, because Nolan is an amazing director... Wilde should have told Harry how to find the right ton and eg. not overreact

THANK YOU I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO POST THIS I LOVE YOU ❤❤

it was like the ending was equally as predictable as it was nonsensical. i don’t think there were enough clues scattered through the film, explicitly hinting at the prospect of the victory project being simulation. but at the same time, when it was revealed i had this feeling of “of course it was. that’s the only logical explanation.” it’s as if wilde came up with the twist prior to filling in the plot. so just kinda shoe horned this whole concept into a dramatic ending.

I’m genuinely confused about the criticism of Harry’s performance. I thought he fit right in alongside everyone else. I’ve seen worse acting from seasoned professionals.

i actually really enjoyed dwd. florence was amazing, but it was obvious it was harry's first big role but i thought he did fine. the worst part of the film is all the plot holes and questions i have. ik some things are to be left a mystery but i have so many questions about the film that def couldve been covered throughout.

Finally, a perfect review. This was so well done. Thank you!!

Just watched it yesterday. I was so excited to see what you would think.

i watched this yesterday and immediately thought, i can’t wait for karsten’s video on this, it was a messss, they had some good ideas and just did not execute them well, or AT ALL lmao

I can't believe I saw this film in theaters

My take on some unanswered questions: What were those earthquakes? They were mostly noticed by women, they must be a sign of danger, an intuition. What was crashing red plane? The crashing red plane was also just an alert signal Alice's mind was trying to give her. Why did first time touching the glass did not work for Alice? It's explained by last line of the movie, "Once we acknowledge that reality... we can let go." Second time it worked for Alice as she acknowledged the reality, and it was possible for her to wake up from the dream. Pills had no effect, there were no pills, pills were equivalent to some kind simulus in simulation in the imaginated world. Why did Shelley kill Frank? She said "now it's her turn" which could mean either she had awakened during dinner party and was waiting for a right moment to take her control back or she was planning to take control of Victory project, maybe this time wives controlling their husbands as a revenge? (Sequel?)

Karsten blink three times if Squarespace is holding your family hostage

Booksmart is a favorite of mine godammit Olivia I was rooting for you

I hate when the whole premise of the movie is the directors 'I can do it better than XYZ can' and this logic can spoil ANY piece of art, which is absolutely sad because I was really looking forward for this movie and only started to check reviews after watching it, because I really couldn't believe I was the only one being dissapointed. Love the sci-fi x 50s combo that is not retrofuturism (which I also adore) and this made me want to watch it even more. Oh how wrong I was for even having an ounce of hope and excitement for it.

There's so unanswered questions in this movie. Like why tf are there even planes in this simulation? Why would the bus driver let Florence Pugh just walk to where she's not supposed to? Also who tf is that bus driver and the guys in the red suits? Are they real people? Are they just some computer program in the simulation? What about Chris Pine's wife? Was she in on it? Did she run the whole thing? Did she kill him to escape or was she mad that he fucked up? There's probably more I'm just forgetting about rn. I didn't hate the movie but it felt like they didn't even really try to make anything in the movie feel real or convincing.

I loved how Harry with Long Hair looked like an average Reddit user.

Seeing it this saturday and strangely excited. I already kinda know how I'm gonna feel about it - seems like a more offensive 'Last Night in SoHo' if you know what i mean.

Chris pine being based on Jordan Peterson is just ridiculous. You can find many interviews where Jordan Peterson disapproves of utopias, is for equality of women and dislikes ideology. It just seems like a subsurface reading of his beliefs. He’s said some terrible things ofc, and him being on Twitter doesn’t help (for anyone rlly) but it’s a bad comparison to make. Also the only reason this movie is popular is because Harry styles is in it, the only reason it’s doing well is also because of that. The best part is there are plenty of recordings in the theater if people LAUGHING at Harry styles’s scenes!

I think you’re right - and I will add: I believe Olivia Wilde screwed this up by taking a very, very complex issue (sexism, oppression, misogyny, control, power, etc.) and presenting it in a very one-dimensional, simple way. It looks at these issues without even remotely acknowledging class, race, or sexual orientation, and failed to think of creative ways to present her lens of social justice, in my opinion. This movie said: women are subjugated to a society created by men and it’s scary. And that’s it.

If ANY director started to date a star in their movie AND have said star be one of main leads of their movie, it would be news. It ain't a sexist thing. It's unprofessional. It's like if your boss started dating one of your co-workers THEN gave them a raise and gave them a higher position. Olivia is in a higher position than Harry and can fire him at any time if shit goes sour. Sounds like Harry got a lot of privilege for dating the director and maker of the film.

*SPOILERS SO SKIP THIS COMMENT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM YET* I completely agree with all the points you mentioned! After watching the film, I was really left with a sense of confusion... So in the first act I guessed that the movie didn't really take place in the 50s, and that they were in some weird secluded place, but I didn't guess it was a virtual simulation. This makes me wonder, what was the red plane? Am I missing something? Because the red plane was in the poster of the movie, it was the toy that Margret's kid was playing with, and it was what led Alice out to the desert, yet the movie just left it at that. I thought there would have been some more symbolism. Also, I wish we got to know Frank and Margret more. Frank was built up as an intimidating cult leader, and at first I thought they were in some cultish society, secluded from the modern world, but they build him up and then we were left with the twist which took almost all the attention away from him. Same with Margret, I thought we should of seen her character break down a bit more so we as an audience would see the slow toll it took on Alice, as she follows suit. I was really excited for this movie for a long time, especially seeing Olivia's scene breakdown video (she seemed so passionate about the film), but unfortunately I really disliked a lot of her scenes. To me, they felt unnecessary, like she wrote herself in for fun (which she can do, it is her movie), but it didn't add much imo. Overall I was still an okay movie, and I hope Olivia makes more interesting projects in the future.

i loved the movie. it just felt really thrilling and it kept me on the edge of my seat. florence pugh made it so much better too.

Me and my friends just rewatched this today and realized that the scenes where Alice was suffocating means that she's basically dying in the real world (the reveal shows she's basically a vegetable), thus there's a voiceover of Jack telling her to breathe.

I think the director created unnecessary drama in an attempt to frame her film within a certain narrative. That decision didn't work out as she expected and when she realized she couldn't control the situation anymore, she tried to save face by pointing out that her male counterparts aren't subject to such public scrutiny. When we use the trope: "men do worse things and nobody says anything" to justify a bad decision, we are missing the point.

Such an accurate review!! You’re amazing

Spoiler alert**** 2:55 I feel when Harry screamed in the car when they took her to the hospital was his realization that it is all lost, his perfect dream, perfect wife, perfect life. He did it all for her (or he thought that) and she ruined it, so maybe it wasn't all that bad of a performance at the on of the day? Idk, just looking at it from a different perspective

I've been waiting for this moment...tell us how hard the tomato splatted karsten

I’m not sure I agree that Harry’s performance being fine, albeit bland, for most of the movie is worse than it being a straight up disaster. I’m pretty content with him just being okay and looking really hot lol. But maybe that’s just me

I think that asking someone “hey, do you have bad blood with so and so?” is kind of invasive and corners celebrities answering this question in a public setting because we can’t help but pigeonhole Hollywood actors and directors in the same black-and-white dichotomy of “good guy” vs “bad guy” just like in the movies. In Hollywood, no one is allowed growth, no one is allowed moral ambiguity, no one is allowed a semblance of complexity. Audiences are ravenous for a scandal, and there cannot be gray-zones when it comes to drama. So I understand perfectly well why Olivia is very pc with her answer regarding her relationship with Pugh because it’s the only way for celebrities to make some space for themselves to deal with nuanced conflicts without being suffocated by tabloids trying to rewrite their personal experiences in the name of spectacle.

After watching this, I missed The Stepford Wives

Steven Knight's Serenity pulled off a similar twist, and that film pushed it so far it was amazing

The movie and it’s message was really good honestly.

This film needs a Fyre Festival documentary

I think this movie is probably still okay overall, and it sounds like there are a lot of positives to it (Florence, Chris Pine, and the story sounds interesting to me). I am sorry they had so many issues with production though

Been waiting on this one 🤗🤗🤗

Your ratio bars are the same colour as the youtube grey, good job m8, i like