Filmmaker JT Mollner’s “Strange Darling” wowed audiences when it premiered at Fantastic Fest last year, and critics are in agreement about its virtues — it’s currently sitting comfortably at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes . Believe the hype: with its endlessly inventive plotting, expressive and haunting visual style, and go-for-broke performances, “Strange Darling” is not only the best American film so far this year, it’s one of the best horror movies of all time.
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The tale of a one-night stand that spirals into a vicious murder spree, “Strange Darling” is best entered with limited awareness of its plot. That’s because the biggest pleasure of Mollner’s screenplay, which tells the story out of sequence in a manner that forces the audience to recalibrate its understanding of the characters and events repeatedly throughout the film, is its constant ability to surprise even the most jaded genre fan.
Luckily, while the trailer (above) gives a sense of the movie’s propulsive energy, it doesn’t give away its secrets. Nor can it give more than a glimpse at the range, depth, and power of Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner’s performances, which are, like everything else in Mollner’s film, totally unpredictable but completely honest and plausible. Every twist in both the plot and the behavior is completely earned and holds up to scrutiny on repeat viewing — as does the vivid, richly textured 35mm cinematography, which consistently adds another layer of mood and suspense.
The identity of the director of photography might surprise some, though he’s quietly been honing his craft in shorts and music videos for at least 10 years. It’s actor Giovanni Ribisi, whose work here was impressive enough to earn the film an invitation to the prestigious Camerimage festival devoted to cinematography. From the opening black-and-white shots of a woman fleeing down a rural road to a seedy motel room so deep red it would make Dario Argento and Brian De Palma jealous, Ribisi loads the film up with one striking image after another, making “Strange Darling” as much a feast for the eyes as it is a teaser for the brain and a shredder of the nerves.
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With its exceptional craft on every level, all pulled together by Mollner’s razor-sharp vision, “Strange Darling” is the kind of indie genre movie cinephiles dream of: a film like John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” the Coen brothers’ “Blood Simple,” or Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” that takes the audience in the palm of its hand and squeezes for 90 straight minutes. It’s a confirmation of Mollner’s talent after his debut “Outlaws and Angels,” and the kind of movie that needs to be seen in the darkest possible room on the biggest possible screen.
Here’s hoping audiences are ready and waiting when it arrives in theaters on Friday, August 23.
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