Controversy be damned, I actually loved this. I thought it was beautifully made, engaging and suspenseful. This movie is much more of a fun summer popcorn flick than an awards player, so I'm not sure why WB made the choice to push it as such. Florence Pugh is outstanding and is equally matched by a scene-stealing Chris Pine. The dinner party exchange between the two of them is electric and the best part of the movie. It's a tad predictable if you've seen a film like this before but I had a blast with it. It's also very crowd-pleasing. I think this will be a sleeper hit, I was invited to a private screening yesterday and I understand the waitlist had over 500 people on it. Audience demand is definitely there. A-

I really enjoyed it. It does borrow from other things but it feels fresh as it’s own thing enough. Pugh is amazing. Beautiful production values as well

Florence Pugh is so good in this that just her perfomance almost makes me think this was good but overall I thought it didn't work. The "reveal" felt very off.

There's clearly industry aggression being taken out on this film. No way its a 31% what a joke, it should be fresh even if its not award material

Yeah it's pretty nonsensical. I think audience response will be better. People cheered in my screening when the bit happened with Gemma Chan at the end.

I really think this should have been a summer release and positioned as blockbuster counterprogramming, it's so much better and more elegant than shit like Where The Crawdads Sing. But it seems like it will do financially anyway so it's moot.

Agreed

I thought the movie was really good and the Rotten Tomatoes rating is ridiculous. I could understand in the low 60's or even 50's. But 30's? There's no way the press for this didn't have an influence on it. This is a very well-crafted film. The production design is fantastic. The score is great. I thought the twist was good enough. I do think there are holes but it doesn't bother me too much as I find that to be the case with most movies that try to be high concept. This is not surprising at all but Florence Pugh is outstanding. She alone would be worth watching for. I expected Harry Styles to be awful but he really wasn't. I thought his performance felt a bit off but not bad. It would have benefited as a film from having someone whose talent was closer to Pugh's (I vote for Lewis Pullman who is my pick for everything &#128514. But as far as drawing power they were smart to have someone with a rabid fanbase that would turn out for it. Let's be honest he's the main reason tickets are selling.

I will say I was in the B-/B range for the first half but starting with a dinner party scene featuring a riveting back and forth between Florence Pugh and Chris Pine I got really into it.

Don't Worry Darling is an entertaining film and another strong directorial effort from Olivia Wilde after Booksmart. I recommend anyone on the fence due to critic reviews give it a chance for themselves. I feel like it's underrated.

B+

Really enjoyed this one, Florence gives a great performance and Olivia’s directing was great (though I do think she overused the black and white image of the dancers in a circle a bit). The production design is sensational and really does look like a glammed up version of the 1950s. I really hope Florence can get some awards traction for this, she really gives it her all, especially in the scene where she has a breakdown at the party in a separate room while her husband is tap dancing . On that note, Harry Styles wasn’t bad in his role and Olivia Wilde had more screen time to her role and brought more depth to her character than I was expecting. I do hope it breaks even, my screening last night only has like ~10 people besides me. From it’s true Friday I don’t think it’s held too bad but we will see

Only real negative is I wish they delved into the twist and there were some plot holes as well, I would like to see it again to understand a bit more of it

It's neat and contained, but ultimately it is derivative and does not deliver. This is mainly due to the leads; Florence Pugh with her chubby fingers and stumpy legs, will never be a draw or an A-list actress, and Harry Styles who offers nothing - I really do not understand the supposed appeal of this guy. They are both miscast. Pugh still looks like a teenager, not an adult woman playing housewife, and Styles a young twentysomething yuppie. They just weren't believable for me. Now, if it were, say, Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan, that would be so much better and mentally I would be able to invest in the story, which let's face it needs investing in because it's pretty thin - a complete letdown. It's essentially The Matrix, and this is just the latest spin on that idea. The guys in red are agents, Frank is the architect, and you plug into this virtual world. But it's such a cop-out. I wanted the world to at least be real or have more meaning to its existence. However, it is quickly rushed to a close, and we don't even see her awakening. Chris Pine is pretty good, though. The guy just gets better with age.

The film in terms of shot and sequence is made as well as it could be. No complaints there. It's just bog-standard, and is basically a poorly thought-out hodgepodge of living-in-a-simulation ideas - nothing gels well. It feels like it was written by a teenager, and for the hoopla and controversy around it, damn, it is a disappointment.

Is it really necessary to comment on someone’s appearance like that? Florence is beautiful and acted her ass off in this

I once fell for someone with a Florence Pugh type build so i'll always be slightly more into her for that

totally agree with Algren, you have to be able to buy the people in their roles, Pugh looks like a college kid playing house and it def. distracts. She looks way younger than everyone else who is supposed to be her friend in the movie too which makes it even more noticeable.

I'll give this movie for trying something. Olivia obviously wants it to be seen as a beloved Kubrickian-inspired thriller in the same way that Get Out was. Does she reach her goal? No, not really. I found myself drifting a lot and the payoff wasn't enough to win me back. But again, at least it was trying. They could have gone a much simpler route of portraying domestic abuse, gaslighting, etc... And took the hard road instead. Pugh is fantastic, as usual. I thought Olivia would go to director jail after the bad reviews and controversies, but it will be a short stay.

5.5/10

I thought this was pretty great, very engaging and well done. B+ / A- territory. The deluge of bad reviews is silly to me, particularly those that bemoan the film’s lack of originality / repetition of previous movies themes and aesthetics. Have they seen any movie ever in the last ten years? What’s the last truly original movie to come out, honestly? (besides Everything Everywhere All At Once)?

I had doubts about Harry Styles performance but

Creepy, thrilling, well acted, well directed. Would recommend.

I liked the twist and everything after, but it takes too long to get there as Pugh's awakening starts early and goes on for like an hour and a half, and half the time just seems like an excuse for Wilde to have some visual sequences of 50s style. Not sure if the first half of the movie supported the revelation of a what an psycho loser Styles character ended up being, and neither her or Pine are really that competent gaslighting them, nor does the latter really get there as evil Jordan Peterson to me, he just comes off as a fairly standard bad guy and suckering in married people instead of incels hurts the comp a bit. I think the cast saves it as Pugh and Wilde both do great and Styles is acceptable. They could have used a more interesting male neighbour role, perhaps. This could have been better.

Pugh is great and the movie looks fantastic.

That's about it. It's absolute garbage at world building. How does any of this work? What's with the plane? Is that Pugh's conscious trying to break free? Why does Chan (is she human or AI?) kill Pine? Does no one in the real world report any of the women missing? What's with Styles' extended dance sequence? Why does Wilde think that scene of Pugh getting eaten out by Styles is female empowerment? Just because it shows a woman cumming? That makes sense. The men will trap their women in a permanent state of alternate reality, but they're worried about making them cum?

C

I thought this was quite good actually. Pugh and Pine steal the show. Visually beautiful and interesting premise (even if not overly fresh). Perhaps I'm a sucker for the period setting.

My only gripe is that it doesn't really stick the landing because they leave too many threads left open.