WARWICK SHOWCASE
* * * *
(Fascinating, Innovative thriller)
If you can take the violence, “Strange Darling” will take you on a fascinating, innovative ride.
Just remember the adage: Things are not always as they seem.
An opening graphic gives us information about serial killers. We are told the movie is filmed in 35mm and has six chapters.
The movie opens with a man in a truck (listed as “The Demon”) chasing a woman in a red car (listed simply as “The Lady”) on an Oregon road.
The car crashes and the lady runs into the woods. The demon chases her with a high-powered rifle.
The chapters are out of sequence, but are related, coming together at the end.
One scene is exclusively shot in a motel room. Another is in the isolated home of an elderly couple.
People are killed. People are chased. People have sex. People fight for their lives.
What do all these incidents have in common? Who is the victim and who is the perpetrator?
Finally, we come to chapter six, followed by the epilogue, and it all comes together.
And you say, “Oh, yeah. That makes sense!”
“Strange Darling” is one of the cleverest scripts ever written for the screen. I guarantee you will be surprised. And all of it is explainable and logical.
And extremely tense.
* * ½
(Revenge Movie)
Much has been written about Zoë Kravitz’s violent, confusing revenge movie, including references to the subjugation of women.
I found the movie disturbing, muddled and filled with unlikeable characters. (Joyce skipped this one.)
Naomi Ackie plays a cocktail waitress who, along with her best friend, is convinced by wealthy billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) to join him and other men and women for a “holiday” on his private island, where the first thing required was giving up their phones.
At first, all is fun and games, sitting around the pool drinking exotic cocktails, dressing alike in expensive clothing, and eating gourmet food.
It doesn’t take long for things to go askew. Slater acts weird. His cohort keeps taking polaroids. And what are those red bags all about?
Strange drinks and perfumes seem to influence memory. Are Slater and his allies misbehaving? Are the women being abused?
After a slew of memory gaps, the women, especially Frida, rebel, eventually seek revenge in a bloody conclusion to this disturbing metaphorical movie about how women are treated.
Kravitz has an important message. How she delivers it is both unsettling and perverse.
And the ending? You figure it out.
NETFLIX
* * * *
(Docudrama)
Want to know the real story about Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral?
Watch this fascinating docudrama, narrated by Ed Harris, that begins with the gunfight, goes back to how it all started and then takes us to Wyatt’s long battle with the Cowboy gang.
The mixture of talking head historians and live action works perfectly to tell the story.
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