Yeah okay, you tell a cat and mouse story in a fractured and non-chronological enough way so that there's continual uncertainty over who's the cat and who's the mouse. It's intriguing at first to see people in a crazy situation, then go back a bunch of chapters, and then sort of get context later, but not in the way you might expect, but that's kind of all Strange Darling has got. I wish there was a bit more to it than that, because this would've blown people's minds 30 years ago, but I don't feel it's enough to sustain a great movie.
It is enough to sustain a decent movie, though, and Strange Darling is a decent movie. I'm not sure it plays all its cards too early, but once you figure out what it's been going for, I just don't feel there's much else done to escalate things or blow minds once more.
And other people have clowned on the message at the start about "eyy we shot on film" being a bit lame, and I think they're right. Just shoot on film and hope the people who actually care will notice. I don't think I cared enough that a movie with this aesthetic and limited visual spectacle was shot on film, because it didn't really make anything look better. Just pandering, and I guess it gets things off on an awkward note.
Anyway, the concept and structure are interesting, but not great enough to sustain the whole runtime. A bit more humor, a bit more action, a bit more by way of exciting visuals... I dunno, this film was just power-walking at a decent speed throughout, but I wanted it to break into a proper run every now and then, especially near the race's end.
