Movie Review: ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ an Unsubtle Film for an Unsubtle Age

There has been a great deal written about the drama surrounding the making and marketing of Don’t Worry Darling, director Olivia Wilde’s follow-up to her nerds-night-out debut, Booksmart. But I’m of the opinion that critics should be concerned with what’s on the screen, not off it. My only nod in that direction will be to say that, purely in terms of what ended up on the screen, it seems a shame that Shia LaBeouf was replaced by Harry Styles as the film’s leading man.

Over the course of his curious career — thinking here of American Honey and Honey Boy in particular — LaBeouf has proven himself capable of putting across the febrile intensity of the frustrated soul. He surely could have managed the desperate devotion, wounded weakness, and submerged fury required of Jack Chambers, husband to Florence Pugh’s Alice. Pugh is very much the star here; she fairly glows with they-had-faces-then glamour, and there’s all sorts of spunk and gumption on display in her willingness to be put through the wringer. But when you’re a woman in a feminist fable that dares to ask the question, What do men want? you need a proper foil. And Harry Styles ain’t it. He may be a popular singer, but as an actor, he doesn’t register. Especially when he’s performing next to Pugh.

ML

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Matthew Lickona

Matthew Lickona is a writer and editor living in Southern California. From 2010 to 2019, he was a film critic for the San Diego Reader.

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There has been a great deal written about the drama surrounding the making and marketing of Don’t Worry Darling, director Olivia Wilde’s follow-up to her nerds-night-out debut, Booksmart. But I’m of the opinion that critics should be concerned with what’s on the screen, not off it. My only nod in that direction will be to say that, purely in terms of what ended up on the screen, it seems a shame that Shia LaBeouf was replaced by Harry Styles as the film’s leading man.

Over the course of his curious career — thinking here of American Honey and Honey Boy in particular — LaBeouf has proven himself capable of putting across the febrile intensity of the frustrated soul. He surely could have managed the desperate devotion, wounded weakness, and submerged fury required of Jack Chambers, husband to Florence Pugh’s Alice. Pugh is very much the star here; she fairly glows with they-had-faces-then glamour, and there’s all sorts of spunk and gumption on display in her willingness to be put through the wringer. But when you’re a woman in a feminist fable that dares to ask the question, What do men want? you need a proper foil. And Harry Styles ain’t it. He may be a popular singer, but as an actor, he doesn’t register. Especially when he’s performing next to Pugh.