{"id":1662683,"date":"2022-09-28T14:47:54","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T18:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1662683"},"modified":"2022-09-28T14:49:47","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T18:49:47","slug":"olivia-wildes-dont-worry-darling-is-a-mid-century-modern-fever-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/olivia-wildes-dont-worry-darling-is-a-mid-century-modern-fever-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivia Wilde\u2019s \u2018Don\u2019t Worry Darling\u2019 Is A Mid-Century Modern Fever Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Folivia-wildes-dont-worry-darling-is-a-mid-century-modern-fever-dream%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1662683&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><em>This review contains spoilers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Olivia Wilde\u2019s latest feminist flick,\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t Worry Darling,\u201d\u00a0is a mid-century modern-themed fever dream \u2014 both for its heroine and audience. In the time-warped town of Victory, California (think \u201850s-era Palm Springs), Alice and Jack, played by Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, drink vodka martinis, have lots of sex, and conform to strict gender roles. <\/p>\n<p>Like all the other couples on their cul-de-sac, Jack brings home the bacon (by working as a \u201ctechnical engineer\u201d for the mysterious Victory Project, the company responsible for their cookie-cutter marital bliss) and Alice plays housewife (by keeping their idyllic homestead spotless, looking pretty, and making sure dinner\u2019s always ready on time).<\/p>\n<h2>Overused Metaphor<\/h2>\n<p>But not everything is what it seems, and Wilde makes sure that point is drilled into her audience\u2019s heads again and again \u2014 as if, as Adam Nayman at The Ringer\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theringer.com\/movies\/2022\/9\/23\/23367313\/dont-worry-darling-movie-review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">notes<\/a>, \u201cthere\u2019s going to be a pop quiz.\u201d Wilde certainly has a penchant for metaphor, and when her heroine starts questioning her seemingly perfect world (thanks to the intervention of another disobedient housewife) she starts feeling suffocated. Cue scene where Alice attempts to asphyxiate herself via Saran wrap. Don\u2019t quite get it yet? Wilde throws in another walls-closing-in realization by literally having the walls close in on Alice in a somewhat dramatic hallucination.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also the recurring circle motif. Whether it\u2019s the Busby Berkeley-esque dance ring that keeps flashing before Alice\u2019s eyes, the pulsing pupil, or the camera\u2019s dizzying panning (more obvious symbolism), Wilde\u2019s over-dependence on circle imagery renders it useless, \u201cbecoming an unintended metaphor for a movie that keeps returning to the same point,\u201d Manohla Dargis\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/09\/21\/movies\/dont-worry-darling-review.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">observes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>What Is \u2018Don\u2019t Worry Darling\u2019 Trying to Do?<\/h2>\n<p>And what is that point exactly? That sexism is bad? That women are more than sex objects? That the pristine, happy 1950s housewife crafted by\u00a0\u201cMad Men\u201d-type advertising execs is an illusion? Well, no duh. And that\u2019s where\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t Worry Darling\u201d\u00a0falls flat. The plot of the film is so painfully obvious and predictable that it leaves viewers bored. And when the big reveal\u00a0<em>finally\u00a0<\/em>occurs \u2014 the Victory Project is a male-power fantasy virtual simulation \u2014 viewers are left with more questions than answers (for starters, how did costume designer Arianne Phillips manage to turn the always-dashing Styles into a greasy-haired, hunchbacked simp?).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even Wilde herself doesn\u2019t get the point of the film, as she keeps changing its official narrative. From feminist thriller to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2022\/film\/features\/olivia-wilde-harry-styles-sex-scenes-dont-worry-darling-1235347929\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">vehicle-for-female-pleasure<\/a>\u00a0(which might\u2019ve been true if Styles and Pugh had even the slightest on-screen chemistry) to\u00a0\u201cTruman Show\u201d\u00a0spinoff to ominous\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2022\/film\/news\/chris-pine-dont-worry-darling-character-jordan-peterson-incel-hero-1235358212\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">warning<\/a>\u00a0of the far-right politics of the incel community (or as she puts it, the \u201cdisenfranchised world of white men on the internet\u201d), Wilde\u2019s disparate explanations of her own film reveal even she doesn\u2019t know what its key takeaway is \u2014 and that\u2019s the problem. As a result,\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t Worry Darling\u201d\u00a0is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/unherd.com\/thepost\/what-olivia-wilde-gets-wrong-about-jordan-peterson-and-incels\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shallow, arrogant, and unoriginal<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Wilde hasn\u2019t thought a lot of things about\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t Worry Darling\u201d\u00a0through. Take, for example, the film\u2019s villain, Frank, Victory\u2019s cult-like leader played by Chris Pine. Wilde <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/films\/news\/olivia-wilde-jordan-peterson-chris-pine-dont-worry-darling-b2158184.html?utm_content=Echobox&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_campaign=Main&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1662106196\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed<\/a>\u00a0that she modeled Frank after clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson, whom she describes as a \u201cpseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community.\u201d Whatever you think of Jordan Peterson, he is neither a \u201cpseudo-intellectual\u201d nor a \u201chero\u201d to incels (whom he\u2019s referred to as \u201cuseless men\u201d). Additionally, Wilde never explains why Jack is moved to brainwash Alice for his own sick sexual pleasure, other than his exposure to the online incel community and losing his job. Is Wilde\u2019s assumption simply that all men have a secret desire to subjugate women, and will act on it if they\u2019re exposed to the right arguments or go through hard times? If so, that is a rather presumptuous (and untrue) assertion to make. Wilde\u2019s only peddling the left\u2019s trite critique of the patriarchy at this point, something Hollywood has done for years (see\u00a0\u201cThe Stepford Wives,\u201d\u00a0\u201cRosemary\u2019s Baby\u201d) quite successfully. But Wilde can\u2019t say the same (and she can\u2019t blame it on the film\u2019s bad\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cosmopolitan.com\/entertainment\/movies\/a41017843\/dont-worry-darling-drama-explained\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press<\/a>).<\/p>\n<h2>Wilde Missed a Chance to Make the Film Profound<\/h2>\n<p>Here the actress-turned-director missed the opportunity to make\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t Worry Darling\u201d somewhat original. By introducing the modern incel community, she could\u2019ve explored its deeper psychological roots. Namely, why is there a growing contingent of young men who feel like society has failed them and turn to misogyny? And why has the sexual revolution\u2019s emphasis on individual autonomy \u2014 instead of responsibility \u2014 led to fractured relationships between men and women, thereby fueling this trend? Wilde\u2019s film could\u2019ve explored all these questions but instead opted for the generic critique of \u201cpatriarchy bad\u201d and called it a day. Because Wilde fails to answer the questions her film raises, she flops.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But there is one redeeming moment of the film \u2014 crisp cinematography and impeccable costume design aside. After Alice finds out the truth behind the Victory Project, she has a choice to make. She can either stay in this seemingly perfect world married to Jack, the love of her life, or she can leave, and take all the consequences that come with that. In essence, Alice faces an Oedipus-like dilemma: choose to accept the harrowing reality of the truth (freedom) and its accompanying misery or choose happiness and live a lie (slavery). Alice chooses freedom, as she realizes love cannot exist without it. Whether Wilde intended to make this scene the central point of her film is yet to be verified. But ironically, by including this moment, Wilde articulates the very message of her supposed villain, Jordan Peterson, who constantly admonishes his fans to choose truth and meaning over happiness and temporary pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>All in all,\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t Worry Darling\u201d\u00a0tries to do too much with an unclear target (is it men, the patriarchy, incels, Jordan Peterson??) leaving the audience with more questions than answers. While the premise of the film has potential, it needed a more talented Wilde to bring said potential to fruition. Ironically, viewers come away from a showing feeling as if they\u2019ve just woken up from a bad fever dream \u2014 just like Alice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Victoria Marshall is a staff writer at The Federalist. Her writing has been featured in the New York Post, National Review, and Townhall. She graduated from Hillsdale College in May 2021 with a major in politics and a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @vemrshll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This review contains spoilers. Olivia Wilde\u2019s latest feminist flick,\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t Worry Darling,\u201d\u00a0is a mid-century modern-themed fever dream \u2014 both for its heroine and audience. In the time-warped town of Victory, California<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1130,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1662683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1662683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1662683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1662683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1662683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}