Julianna Mariani ‘24

Editor-in-Chief

As many of you might know, the film Don’t Worry Darling, starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, came out last Friday, September 23rd. Being the avid Harry fans that my friends and I are, we went to see it Saturday night. As a side note, the cinema in Blackstone Valley is such a fancy theater. It has escalators and so many snacking options. Coming from someone who has only ever been to sub-par AMC theaters in her tiny hometown, this was an experience in itself.

Speaking of experiences, the lead-up to Don’t Worry Darling was something in itself. I’m not someone who tends to keep up with the details of celebrity drama, but the gossip surrounding the cast was hard to ignore. Depending on how big of a Harry fan you are, you may or may not know that he has been dating Olivia Wilde, the director of Don’t Worry Darling, since 2021, when the shooting of this film commenced. Before that, Wilde had been engaged to Jason Sudeikis. Although it has been unconfirmed, Wilde is rumored to have cheated on Sudeikis with Harry. A very upsetting scandal for many Styles fans that hold him on a pedestal (including me). 

The most recent gossip, though, took place surrounding the premiere of Don’t Worry Darling. If your TikTok “For You Page” is at all similar to mine, I was exposed to a slew of videos where Harry looked like he was spitting in cast member Chris Pine’s lap. During one of Harry’s many performances in Madison Square Garden, he debunked the rumor with a joke saying, “Just popped very quickly to Venice [for the premiere] to spit on Chris Pine.” There were also rumors surrounding a Wilde and Styles breakup as they seemed to refuse to stand next to each other during the duration of the premiere. This rumor was quickly shut down though as they were spotted together in New York City this past week. 

All of this gossip doesn’t even touch on the beef between Olivia Wilde, Florence Pugh, and Shia LaBeouf. To briefly recap: before Styles and Pugh were cast as co-stars, Pugh was set to work alongside Shia LaBeouf. Pugh, though, is said to have felt extremely uncomfortable working with LaBeouf and Wilde did nothing to help her. In fact, when LaBeouf quit, a video surfaced where Wilde can be heard begging him to come back and insinuating that Pugh’s uneasiness wasn’t a part of the equation. While all of this information is labeled as rumors, the tea doesn’t take away from the fact that Don’t Worry Darling was the talk of the town before being released in theaters. 

Saturday night’s cinema was packed with fellow Pugh/Styles fans, thriller lovers, and film fanatics alike. My two friends and I snuggled into the seats, set with our blankets from home and purses stuffed with snacks. I have to preface my review by saying that I hate thrillers and horror movies. The only two films that can remotely equate to those genres are Coraline and Get Out. Both of which scare the living daylights out of me. Even though I was slightly terrified walking into the theater, there had been so much build-up to the movie, plus Harry himself, that I needed to put my fears aside.

My initial statement should be that it was a very low level of frightening. Trust me, if I can handle it, so can you. There weren’t any jump scares and I only cried once (which is below average for me watching any movie). It also wasn’t because I was scared, just sad. I know there has been some controversy surrounding Harry’s acting abilities and I am extremely biased because I’m debatably in love with the man, but I thought he did a great job. He’s never claimed to be a good actor, his passion is singing (for good reason), but with the role he was given as Jack Chambers, he certainly put his all into it. It is also extremely difficult to star alongside the icon that is Florence Pugh. She outshines almost anyone. The queen herself did a phenomenal job playing the role of Alice Chambers. I have been a huge Pugh fan since Little Women and Black Widow, both of which she was fantastic in. In Don’t Worry Darling, the way that she embodied the role of a woman trapped in a world that breeds “perfection,” is wildly impressive. Her emotions are so real and half the time I wanted to jump through the screen to hug her and tell her she isn’t crazy and to keep going. Pugh and Styles’ chemistry was also masterfully executed. As someone who largely watches rom-coms and is a sucker for a fixer-upper, I rooted for them throughout the film. As for the rest of the cast, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, and Nick Kroll, they all did a beautiful job in their supporting roles. Chris Pine especially played “the villain” in a fascinatingly frightening way. 

As a psychological thriller, the movie did mess with my head, and I found myself working down a rabbit hole of possibilities and weird ideas. I must say though, there were a lot of questions that went unanswered. Hollywood these days is big on leaving viewers with cliffhangers, but I still felt that some of the logistics of the setting, Victory, California, needed to be explained. There were a few loopholes that should have been clarified further. All in all though, I would highly recommend Don’t Worry Darling to anyone. Psychologically complex, frighteningly real, visually satisfying, and with a stacked cast, this film speaks to a wide variety of audiences. 

My initial statement should be that it was a very low level of frightening. Trust me, if I can handle it, so can you. There weren’t any jump scares and I only cried once (which is below average for me watching any movie). It also wasn’t because I was scared, just sad. I know there has been some controversy surrounding Harry’s acting abilities and I am extremely biased because I’m debatably in love with the man, but I thought he did a great job. He’s never claimed to be a good actor, his passion is singing (for good reason), but with the role he was given as Jack Chambers, he certainly put his all into it. It is also extremely difficult to star alongside the icon that is Florence Pugh. She outshines almost anyone. The queen herself did a phenomenal job playing the role of Alice Chambers. I have been a huge Pugh fan since Little Women and Black Widow, both of which she was fantastic in. In Don’t Worry Darling, the way that she embodied the role of a woman trapped in a world that breeds “perfection,” is wildly impressive. Her emotions are so real and half the time I wanted to jump through the screen to hug her and tell her she isn’t crazy and to keep going. Pugh and Styles’ chemistry was also masterfully executed. As someone who largely watches rom-coms and is a sucker for a fixer-upper, I rooted for them throughout the film. As for the rest of the cast, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, and Nick Kroll, they all did a beautiful job in their supporting roles. Chris Pine especially played “the villain” in a fascinatingly frightening way. 

As a psychological thriller, the movie did mess with my head, and I found myself working down a rabbit hole of possibilities and weird ideas. I must say though, there were a lot of questions that went unanswered. Hollywood these days is big on leaving viewers with cliffhangers, but I still felt that some of the logistics of the setting, Victory, California, needed to be explained. There were a few loopholes that should have been clarified further. All in all though, I would highly recommend Don’t Worry Darling to anyone. Psychologically complex, frighteningly real, visually satisfying, and with a stacked cast, this film speaks to a wide variety of audiences.