My Thoughts After Viewing the Trailer for Don’t Worry Darling
On May 20th, 2022, Harry Styles released his third solo studio album titled Harry’s House. As I culminated my listen to the 80s-esque album of the summer I began my deep dive into the world of Harry Styles. This 28-year-old pop sensation rose to fame with his breakout boy band, One Direction: once the band split, Styles continued his musical journey. Commonly found traipsing around England and Los Angeles, Harry is known to freely express himself breaking gender barriers through fashion and exploration.
Nevertheless, Olivia Wilde’s new film Don’t Worry Darling presents Styles in the opposite light––a powerful and dominant businessman contributing to a utopia eerily mimicking the 1950’s cult of domesticity.
This is Wilde’s second directorial feature, her first being the perfection that is Booksmart, a film that follows two high school seniors and their ambition to live out the typical high school experience the day before graduation. To say Don’t Worry Darling is a deep contrast would be an understatement.
The trailer begins with Alice (Florence Pough) dancing among other couples within this community and quickly cuts to an intimate moment with her and Styles, who plays her husband Jack. Off the bat, this reminded me of Wilde’s Vogue profile when she explicitly asked, “Why isn’t there any good sex in film anymore?” Judging from this trailer and the film stills that have been released to the public, Wilde wants to bring back that authenticity to the big screen.
The trailer continues with a droning voice-over which most noticeably states, “We men, we ask a lot. We ask for strength, food at home, a house clean, and discretion above all else.” Hello, traditionalism. Within the first minute of this trailer, a major theme of this film is shown––even though this film is utopian… how does it mimic culture in the 1950s and even today?
The way women are purposely portrayed in this film makes it worth the watch. Wilde and Silverman, the lead screenwriters on this project reinforce gender stereotypes to perpetuate the roles in this utopian society which later spills into today’s society.
However, this can be challenged when looking at the style of the female characters. Traditionally, in the 1950s the typical housewife was expected to wear long skirts and dresses, usually not showing large amounts of skin let alone cleavage. In this trailer, especially at the 1:02 mark, Wildes’ character is wearing a haltered dress, without sleeves, possibly bringing in a modernist contradiction.
About halfway through the trailer, a gaggle of women begin to question the reality of this utopia, better yet, the Victory Project which is created to “change the world.”
A character named Mary states, “The one thing they ask of us [the women] is to stay here.”As the women say goodbye to their husbands every morning they grow more and more curious about their whereabouts. This statement is further reinforced by the reoccurring, red airplane––you may ask what that represents? Only time will tell.
Things ramp up closer to the two-minute mark as Alice, Jack’s wife digs deeper into the reality of the Victory Project and her purpose in this world. This is when we see Jack truly tap into his 1950s-controlling-breadwinner demeanor and gaslight Alice like there is no tomorrow––claiming that there is no danger to be worried about.
Like any good trailer, the last thirty to forty seconds go extremely fast hoping to not give any detail away. At this point, Matthew Libatique, the lead cinematographer steals the show as each shot perfectly combines the feeling of being trapped as well as the need to escape. Through Pough’s character especially, her ambition is clear and the other females indubitably feel the same way. There is an evident foreshadowing of a possible suicide, self-harm, and dangerous acts all to flee the cyclical Victory Project that was once so renowned.
The trailer ends with a striking image of Alice in an abnormal state as her hair is messy, and make-up invisible. Her hands are placed in front of her face almost as if they are touching the glass that is keeping her in this inescapable state. Alice’s final words are spoken in a soft whisper. She says, “...and I don’t want to be here anymore.” Chills.
Don’t Worry Darling is out in theatres on September 23rd, 2022, and is brought to you by a striking cast including the aforementioned Harry Styles, Florence Pugh, and Olivia Wilde. But also supported by Gemma Chan, Kiki Layne, Nick Kroll, and Chris Pine.