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Don't Worry Darling

While her husband leaves home everyday to work in a top secret facility, a young 1950s housewife begins to question her life when she notices strange behavior from the other wives in the nei... Read all While her husband leaves home everyday to work in a top secret facility, a young 1950s housewife begins to question her life when she notices strange behavior from the other wives in the neighborhood. While her husband leaves home everyday to work in a top secret facility, a young 1950s housewife begins to question her life when she notices strange behavior from the other wives in the neighborhood.

• Olivia Wilde
• Katie Silberman
• Carey Van Dyke
• Shane Van Dyke
• Florence Pugh
• Harry Styles
• 1.1K User reviews
• 286 Critic reviews
• 48 Metascore
• 10 wins & 22 nominations

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• (as Marcello Julian Reyes)

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• Trivia Frank, the Victory Project's leader, is shown living in Kaufmann House, one of the most well-known mid-century homes in the world. Although the Kaufmann House's exterior has been shown at various times over the years in both film and TV, Don't Worry Darling is the first film to feature scenes shot on the property itself, including several peeks at its rarely seen interiors.
• Goofs When Frank is giving a speech in front of the band he holds the microphone like it was a modern mike. It is a Shure 55, which should be tilted back for usage. You speak into the front of that model, not the top.

Bunny : All they ask of us is to stay here. Where it's safe.

• Connections Featured in How Fight Scene Props Are Made for Movies & TV (2022)
• Soundtracks With You All the Time Written by Harry Styles Performed by Florence Pugh and Harry Styles (as Alice and Jack) Produced by Harry Styles Additional Production by Sammy Witte Courtesy of Erskine Records Limited / Columbia Records

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• Sep 19, 2022

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• How long is Don't Worry Darling? Powered by Alexa
• September 23, 2022 (United States)
• United States
• Official Warnerbros
• No te preocupes cariño
• Palm Springs, California, USA (Chris Pine's "Frank" character's house. [In real life: The Kaufmann Desert House by Richard Neutra])
• New Line Cinema
• New Line Productions
• Vertigo Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $20,000,000 (estimated)
• $45,309,403
• $19,353,213
• Sep 25, 2022
• $87,609,403

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 3 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos
• IMAX 6-Track

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Don’t Worry Darling, it’s exactly what you think

Olivia Wilde’s glossy thriller sports Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, but it’s undone by unsubtlety

by Oli Welsh

During the infamous Venice film festival press conference for Don’t Worry Darling , pop dreamboat and aspirant actor Harry Styles described his new star vehicle thus: “My favorite thing about the movie is, like, it feels like a... like a movie. It feels like a real, you know, go-to-the-theater film movie.” A clip of his co-star Chris Pine appearing to lose his grip on reality while Styles said these words went viral, and — not for the first, or last, time in Don’t Worry Darling ’s cursed press tour — Styles found himself the butt of the internet’s jokes.

The thing is, having now seen the film, I know what Harry was saying. Don’t Worry Darling , directed by Olivia Wilde and also starring Florence Pugh, really is a go-to-the-theater film movie. It’s full of hot famous people wearing immaculate clothes. It looks sleek and sounds loud and enveloping. It’s got a little bit of sex, a little bit of mystery, and a little bit of action. It takes a big swing at a big, dumb idea, aiming to smack it all the way up into the cheap seats. It’s not very clever and not wholly successful, but it is the kind of bold, brassy, high-concept studio thriller we don’t get so often these days. (At least, I think that’s what Harry was trying to say.)

In that context, the cyclone of gossip that has preceded its release feels like part of the experience, or at least consistent with it: a decadent, glossy tableau of turn-of-the-millennium celebrity culture. But happily, we can leave all mention of the scandal there. If there were troubles on set or discord among the cast, it doesn’t show in the finished product, which is slick, and conspicuously well made — if not well thought out.

Don’t Worry Darling is set in a 1950s corporate idyll. Alice (Pugh) and Jack (Styles) are a besotted young couple living in a modular, midcentury suburban paradise shaded by tall palm trees. All the women here are homemakers, and all the men work at a mysterious facility out in the desert called the Victory Project. What they do there is a closely guarded secret; the project’s leader is a charismatic devil called Frank (Pine), a cultish figure who speaks only in bland, nonspecific aphorisms about their common cause and utopian lifestyle.

Alice glides through this existence in a contented haze, enjoying Jack’s attentions at home, sipping drinks with her sardonic neighbor Bunny (Wilde), and practicing ballet with the other women under the cool gaze of Frank’s wife, Shelley (Gemma Chan). But she can’t help noticing cracks in the facade of this perfect world — a disturbed wife in the house next door, an empty eggshell, a plane falling out of the sky. She’s drawn to these imperfections, but nobody else seems to notice; her own attention slips, and her reality starts to fracture.

There doesn’t seem to be much linking this glamorous, hyper-real, rather sour psychological thriller with Wilde’s previous film, the likable and conscientiously sweet teen comedy Booksmart . But behind both films you can sense a director with strong, propulsive, crowd-pleasing instincts, who likes to go big and doesn’t have much time for shades of gray. That’s no kind of dis — it’s an all-too-rare pleasure to see a female director working in this populist register, with considerable studio resources behind her. ( Gina Prince-Bythewood ’s muscular The Woman King , also in theaters, hopefully makes it a trend.)

But Wilde’s willingness to go for the audience’s jugular served her better with a ribald comedy than it does in a film working in an ambiguous, mystery-box mode. Right from the start, she loads the film with extremely pointed visual metaphors. Some of these are original and striking: Pugh getting pressed back by the plate glass windows of her perfect home, or suffocating herself with plastic wrap. Some are cliched and painfully on the nose: those empty eggs, a repeating Groundhog Day motif of sizzling bacon and coffee being poured, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike cavorting in a giant cocktail glass. None of them are subtle. Wilde starts deconstructing the world of Victory before she’s finished building it, and she does it armed with a Hitchcock box set taped to a sledgehammer.

There’s no room for surprise or nuance as Alice circles closer to the truth of what’s happening to the wives of Victory. Nothing is as it seems, and yet, to an even mildly movie-literate audience, everything is exactly as it appears to be. Even if you don’t guess the exact nature of the Shyamalan-esque turn in the narrative, you’ll know its contours, and sense where it’s headed, long before it arrives.

Maybe there’s a forthright honesty to this — even a justified anger. After all, if you’re asking what keeps women bound to an unfulfilling fantasy of becalmed domesticity, what force constrains their personhood, then it’s really no mystery at all. Perhaps to pretend otherwise for the sake of a satisfying twist would be its own form of gaslighting. But if that’s the case, then a high-concept mystery thriller was surely the wrong medium for the message.

So it proves. The film’s final act dissolves into a mess of illogic, irresolution, and half-formed ideas. The filmmakers pull back the curtain and point the finger, but can’t quite manage — or can’t quite be bothered — to explain themselves and to work out the consequences. (Wilde hired her Booksmart collaborator Katie Silberman to rework an original script by Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke; Don’t Worry Darling has all the hallmarks of being overdeveloped.)

Oddly enough, the actor who’s stranded by the film’s collapse is not Pugh, but Styles. He’s not the disaster some gleefully predicted. He has no edge to speak of, but he looks very dashing, and his boyish artlessness works better with the film’s themes than you might think; in Victory, the women aren’t the only ones being manipulated. But as the plot unspools, he deflates pathetically; under the Harry Styles of it all, there’s nothing left.

It would be impossible to do that to Pugh. Alice may be just as much of a cipher on the page, but on screen, Pugh’s rooted physicality and radiant, mischievous, stubborn sense of life are realer than real. She will not be denied, and she powers Don’t Worry Darling over the finish line through sheer force of will.

Pugh’s performance is enough of a recommendation to see this shiny, smoothly finished movie-that-feels-like-a-movie. The production design, costuming, and cinematography are ravishing, and wielded with precision. Musically, it’s even richer and a little edgier, pitting crooning doo-wop and civilized jazz against John Powell’s unsettling, nervy score. In the space between these luxurious images and discordant sounds, you can feel a door opening to a thornier, more provocative film. But Wilde, anxious to make sure everyone gets the point, has nailed it shut.

Don’t Worry Darling opens in theaters on Sept. 23.

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'Don't Worry Darling' and the mechanics of a mystery

Linda Holmes

Florence Pugh plays Alice in Don't Worry Darling . Warner Bros. Entertainment hide caption

Florence Pugh plays Alice in Don't Worry Darling .

It wouldn't take you long to list a whole series of occurrences that would persuade you that something was terribly wrong in your world. Say, a giant dog materializes in your living room. You break an egg, and it's full of ketchup. Your spouse fails to come home from a trip, but their suitcase is sitting on your doorstep. Something, obviously, is wrong. What would probably take longer is figuring out what would explain these things and make for a satisfying resolution to a story about them. Where did the giant dog come from? What happened to the egg? Where on earth is your spouse? The creation of a mystery is this two-step process: create the question, then create the answer.

The new film Don't Worry Darling is a drama and a thriller, but it's also a mystery. We meet Alice (Florence Pugh), who lives in an idyllic midcentury-styled neighborhood with her husband Jack (Harry Styles). This planned community is under the control of Jack's boss Frank (Chris Pine), who runs the mysterious Victory Project, which employs all the local men while their wives keep house. Alice begins to see clues that suggest that something is terribly wrong.

Some of these appear in the trailer: A roar sounds overhead — maybe like there's something military in the men's work. A plane falters in the sky. An egg turns out to be nothing but an empty shell that crumbles in Alice's hand. A woman stands on a roof in a nightgown. Alice finds herself crushed between the wall of her house and the window. She wraps plastic wrap around her own head. In the film, all of these visuals are quite effective in creating two of the most important elements of a mystery-thriller: true curiosity and deep unease.

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Finding menace in the conformity of this imagined suburbia of the 1950s and 1960s is hardly new. (The neighborhood reminded me instantly of Edward Scissorhands .) But director Olivia Wilde does find an effective visual language, particularly in the procession of classic cars that make an eerily synchronized exit from Alice and Jack's cul-de-sac every morning. And the use of period music, while sometimes oppressive, works in this context. She also gets a powerful performance from Pugh, who's rapidly becoming one of the most reliable film actresses we have.

As Pugh's Alice becomes more and more unnerved by her surroundings, the script calls on her to become more confrontational, and as the tension in her performance rises, that curiosity and that unease rise with it. The film holds this pose probably too long, playing with its contrast of the ominous and the aesthetically beautiful, including in the increasingly literal score (with its creepy, breathy "ha-ha-ha-ha" vocals). And then, eventually, as it must, it answers the question that lies at its heart, the way "whodunit?" lies at the heart of an Agatha Christie novel. Here, that question is just, "What is going on?"

That's where Don't Worry Darling falters. There's an effort to make the answer to the mystery — which I will not reveal, obviously — feel timely and relevant and even daring. That answer is a perfectly passable, if not terribly interesting, solution to the baffling situation Alice has been in. The problem is that the answer to the mystery's central question doesn't fit terribly well with the particular pieces of evidence it needs to explain.

I can tell you that, having seen the movie, I understand what the answer to Alice's foundational dread was, but I still don't know why the plane falters in the sky. I still don't entirely know why, specifically, that woman is on the roof. I'm not sure why Alice gets squashed between the wall and the window. To the degree the setup of Don't Worry Darling is "Something is terribly wrong," the film will eventually tell you what's wrong. What it doesn't do is explain why that terribly wrong situation is causing these particular terribly wrong details.

The mechanics of a good mystery are usually such that as the story builds tension, it's like the construction of a complicated lock on an ornate door. Every piece of new information creates another complication within the mechanism of the lock. Then, at some point, you are given a key. You put the key in the lock and you turn it, and there is a satisfying click as it disengages the lock and lets you in.

This structure is one of the reasons people praise, for instance, The Sixth Sense . When you learn the truth about what you're watching, the key fits into the lock perfectly. Or, to look at this from another angle entirely, consider Rian Johnson's well-received comic mystery Knives Out . Once you've seen it a few times, lots and lots of little details that were part of the family story and the twisty narrative are explained by all that you know by the time it ends.

The issue with Don't Worry Darling is that it creates a beautiful lock and a perfectly passable key, but when you put the key in the lock, it doesn't quite turn. You don't get that satisfying click. Watching the lock be built was still a pleasure; there's even still some relief of pressure in seeing what the key looks like. But the interplay between them isn't seamless the way it should be.

If this problem of a disconnect between the clues and the solution sounds familiar, it might be because it is the primary complaint of people who hated the (still controversial!) ending of the TV show Lost . Ultimately, there was an answer to what was going on (they were not in purgatory, they were not dead the whole time). But there was not a connection between the answer and many of the delicious crumbs that were dropped over the course of the series.

For me — and I think for some proportion of the rest of the Lost audience — the writers got away with it more than they didn't, because the ending of the series was emotionally true and compelling, even if it wasn't logically intact. As I wrote at the time : "The show, in the end, died as it lived: by offering effective character studies out of murky logistics."

Had Don't Worry Darling paid off in this way, emotionally and with a satisfying conclusion for Alice as a character, it might matter less that the whole thing doesn't make a lot of sense if you sit with it for more than about 60 seconds. But partly because the movie hovers for so long in that very pleasurable and effective liminal space of tension-building and portent, it doesn't have much time to spend with its resolution, which seems rushed and leaves the distinct impression there are pieces missing that perhaps once offered more answers to specific questions about who does what to whom and why.

It's a shame, because there are some good performances here, including both Pugh and Pine (very believable as a dangerous boss), and there are some truly scary shots that work very well. But while too much explanation can doom a mystery as easily as too little, this is a case in which a little more explicit information about the workings of this neighborhood might have gone a long way.

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'Don't Worry Darling' Review: Florence Pugh and Harry Styles Get Weird

Don't worry about the offscreen drama: Olivia Wilde's glossy flick is a messy but stylish B-movie, streaming now and on Blu-ray and DVD in time for Christmas.

Florence Pugh leaves her worries behind in Don't Worry Darling.

In case you were worried, Don't Worry Darling is a perfectly serviceable slice of big-screen weirdness. The slick psychological drama, now on DVD and Blu-ray and streaming on  HBO Max , is a glossy, stylishly surreal thriller with something to say, featuring Harry Styles, an endless array of gorgeous fashions and Florence Pugh in excellent form. What more do you want?

Having premiered in September amid endless bizarre reports from the set and film festivals, Don't Worry Darling is available to rent and buy online now. It's also out on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in time for Christmas gifts for Harry Styles fans. 

Pugh stars as a glamorous 1950s housewife living a picture-perfect suburban life. She even has a trophy husband, played by pop star Styles in a wardrobe of impeccable suits and enviable midcentury shirts. But none of the gossiping wives know where their husbands go each day in their shiny Cadillacs, and Pugh begins to wonder what's really driving the sun-dappled desert town's smoothly sinister leader, played by Chris Pine. No one else seems worried about it, darling, but there's definitely something weird going on in this retro utopia.

Director Olivia Wilde slowly cranks up the unsettling aspects of this odd idyll, tormenting Pugh's increasingly unsettled housewife with teasing visions and mounting paranoia. Wilde also plays one of the other wives, perpetually armed with a cocktail and sharply penciled side-eye. There's a hint of The Stepford Wives about them, and you'll probably also find yourself thinking of any number of midcentury melodramas and domestic chillers that stab at the suburban fantasy, from Rosemary's Baby to Blue Velvet to Get Out.  

So yeah, obviously you know there's a twist coming. I can't get through a short TV episode of Black Mirror or Devs or Tales From the Loop without impatiently wishing someone would just tell me the twist so I can go do something more interesting. It's a real feat to spin a yarn that keeps the viewer engrossed for a whole movie. Don't Worry Darling largely pulls it off: As John Powell's unnerving score meshes with classic 1950s pop cuts soundtracking the deliciously stylish oddness, I found myself half-hoping for no explanation at all. There's only a limited choice of endings for these kind of stories and an over-literal solution rarely lives up to the vibe.

Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in Don't Worry Darling.

As the film premiered at film festivals in recent weeks, the bizarre happenings on screen have been matched by extraordinary events among the film's director and stars. It isn't worth rehashing the drama , but it's grimly ironic that the off-screen drama has boosted a film which could easily have sunk without trace. Don't Worry Darling is a medium-sized movie, and an original story -- the sort of thing you don't see so much in theaters any more. Even with huge stars aboard, Don't Worry Darling could easily have been one of those streaming flicks everyone talks about for two years and gets excited about the trailer and then one day you wonder, hey, whatever happened to that movie, and realize it came out on Netflix Prime Video Hulu Plus three months ago.

But don't relish the messy gossip too much. The frenzied media circus threatens to  overshadow the artistic merit of a film directed by a woman , to an extent that's barely conceivable for male filmmakers. Still, even if you haven't been following the spit and spats, it's simply impossible to go into Don't Worry Darling with no preconceived notions. You're not meant to. Styles is the hottest pop star in the world, Pugh the hottest movie star. The sizzling pairing of personas is the whole point.

At least it should be. Pugh proves her talent with an almost casual effortlessness, embodying a theater-filling anguish while leaving a lingering impression she still has more left in the tank. Pugh delivers a commanding, often mesmeric performance that anchors the film at even its weakest moments.

And Harry Styles is also there.

If we're being charitable, this is one of those blessed occasions when a performer's limitations kinda suit the character. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who can't convince anyone he's a human person but is perfect as an inarticulate barbarian or stiffened robot. In Don't Worry Darling, Styles' pomaded husband is a fantasy figure, so it's OK that he struggles to inject any emotion into his lines. He's less a performer and more of a prop -- another piece of the glossy furniture filling the set, like a stylish rug or lamp: beautiful, blank and perpetually fading into the background.

At some point during the film, I thought of Matt Smith's turn in Last Night in Soho . Like Don't Worry Darling, Last Night in Soho is an ambiguously fantastical drama about a woman trapped by in a whirlwind of retro glamor and male violence. Smith played the silver-tongued, precisely tailored seducer, embodying a seething mix of sexuality, freedom, jealousy and menace. Here, Chris Pine supplies all those things, because Style sure doesn't.

Giving Styles the benefit of the doubt, casting such a magnetic onstage performer and gloriously playful wearer of clothes subverts the retro manliness of Pine, of Jon Hamm in Mad Men, of Sean Connery's James Bond (glimpsed on a poster in the film). One scene, which plays to Styles' performative strengths as it puts him squarely in the spotlight, offers a whiff of critique for the way he's made to caper before us. Which is just one of the many ideas sloshing around Don't Worry Darling like ice cubes spilling from a cocktail glass.

These ideas may not be particularly subtle or original, but at least there's something going on beneath the sharkskin suits and pinup dresses. Whether the film makes sense of these themes is another question, but the whole thing turns out to be rooted in seethingly timely anger.

So the music, the clothes and at least one of the stars are worth your time. While it's far from the sum of its parts, Don't Worry Darling is a perfectly entertaining B-movie.

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‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Review: Florence Pugh and Harry Styles Sizzle in Olivia Wilde’s Neo-’50s Nightmare Thriller, but the Movie Is More Showy Than Convincing

The film's "Stepford Wives"-meets-"Handmaid's Tale" vision of a sunny, creepy retro cult community is better than its overly telegraphed and top-heavy conspiracy plot.

By Owen Gleiberman

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Olivia Wilde ’s “Don’t Worry Darling” is a movie that, in recent weeks, has been besieged and consumed by offscreen dramas, none of which I’ll recount here, except to note that when a film’s lead actress seems actively reluctant to publicize the film in question, that’s a sign of some serious discord. Yet it would be hugely unfair to allow this tempest in a teapot of gossipy turmoil to influence one’s feelings about the movie. If you want to talk about problems related to “Don’t Worry Darling,” you need look no further than at what’s onscreen.

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And the women? They stay home, chatting and backbiting, cleaning house, looking after the kids, hanging out at the pool, preparing tuna salad and deviled eggs, taking ballet classes, and greeting their husbands after work with a drink at the door. You may survey it all and think: What fresh hell is this? But “Don’t Worry Darling” hasn’t even gotten to the sinister part yet. The name of this surreal retro subdivision is Victory, and the main thing everyone talks about is how wonderful it is. How lucky they are to be there, and how happy they are to have escaped the life they had before.

Our entry point into the Victory lifestyle is a childless couple who look singularly sexy, appealing, and in love: Jack, played by Styles with a wholesome cunning that marks him as a natural screen actor, and Alice, played by Florence Pugh, who holds down the center of the movie with a spark of eagerness that melts into a wary detective’s gaze. These two can hardly keep their hands off each other (early on, she clatters her dinner roast onto the floor, so that Harry’s Jack can go down on her — a scene that should sell $5 million worth of opening-weekend tickets right there), and there’s an affection to their interplay. But is it real? Is anything we’re seeing real?        

The prefab community of Victory is run by a man named Frank, who also created it, and as played by Chris Pine he has the personality of a New Age cult leader — not a proto guru from the ’50s but one of those smiling fascists of self-actualization, the kind who can kill you with their sensitive positivity. And, of course, the reason for that is that they’re never sincere. They’re trying to get something out of you. They’re “open” about everything but their own agenda. Pine gives a delectable performance, but as soon as Alice and Jack join the other residents for a party at Frank’s oversize house, it’s clear something deeply troublesome is at play.

The characters in “Don’t Worry Darling” have a cult leader because they are, in essence, a cult: contempo folks who have formed a community in which they pretend to live like middle-class ’50s drones, and agree never to question anything and to do just what they’re told. Asking questions about what’s really going on, the way Alice starts to, is going to get you in trouble. If the film has a resonance, and bits and pieces of it do, it’s that we’re living in a world today that seems increasingly assembled out of cult psychology: the de facto cult leaders (like Trump), the tribal mindsets that dictate a rigid moral absolutism, the retro fetishization of 1950s values as a prime ideal.

Of course, when those other movies came out (even “The Stepford Wives,” which was never more than an amusing piece of claptrap), the world was a little less used to this kind of conspiratorial socio thriller. The early scenes of “Don’t Worry Darling” are the film’s best, but even there it’s hard not to notice the top-heaviness with which the movie telegraphs its own darkness. (It’s not like we watch Chris Pine’s speech and think, “What a good dude!”) To really work, the movie needed to reel us in slowly, to be insidious and creepy and surprising in the way that “Get Out” was. Instead, it’s ominous in an obvious way.

But it does have a big twist, which I will, of course, not reveal. I’ll just say that it’s a blend of “Squid Game” and Shyamalan, that it wants to spin your head but may leave you scratching it, and that it’s hooked to Harry Styles being cast, for one section, as a runty unattractive geek, which (surprise) is not exactly convincing. What is convincing is how easily Styles sheds his pop-star flamboyance, even as he retains his British accent and takes over one party scene by dancing as if he were in a ’40s musical. There’s actually something quite old-fashioned about Styles. With his popping eyes, floppy shock of hair, and saturnine suaveness, he recalls the young Frank Sinatra as an actor. It’s too early to tell where he’s going in movies, but if he wants to he could have a real run in them.

Reviewed at Warner Bros. Screening Room (Venice Film Festival), Aug. 25, 2022. MPA rating: R. Running time: 123 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. release of a New Line Cinema, Vertigo Entertainment production. Producers: Olivia Wilde, Katie Silberman, Miri Yoon, Roy Lee. Executive producers: Richard Brender, Daria Cercek, Catherine Hardwicke, Celia Khong, Alex G. Scott, Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke.
• Crew: Director: Olivia Wilde. Screenplay: Katie Silberman. Camera: Matthew Libatique. Editor: Affonso Gonçalves. Music: John Powell.
• With: Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll.

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This review was originally a part of our Venice 2022 coverage .

Let’s pretend you’re not terminally online. Now let’s also add a setting that you only care about “Oscar movies” after the nominations have already been announced and have no preconception of film festival rollouts or campaigning for six months to win a trophy. Okay, now we can proceed with talking accurately (and not hysterically) about Olivia Wilde ’s Don’t Worry Darling , a new thriller starring Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, and Chris Pine .

Pugh plays Alice, a housewife in an idyllic Palm Springs-looking suburb where everyone drinks all night, and Alice and Jack (Styles) are perpetual honeymooners, always in the throes of passion. The cars and attire are straight from the 1950s and so are the gender roles and etiquette. In this community of 72 residents (and expanding!) the men work top secret jobs in the desert, all driving to work at the same time—straight into the desert on unpaved roads to a landing atop a hill. And if their wife asks what they do, a simple “you wouldn’t understand” or immediate oral sex—after walking in the front door after a hard day of who-knows-what—would suffice as an answer.

Pine is the architect of the community. He also hosts a one-hour radio show that’s broadcast into every home, specifically aimed at the wives who reside in Victory. The women do the housecleaning, cooking, and shop with ease. They simply shout “I’ll take it!” when presented with an object in a showing room, and it gets charged to a company account.

RELATED: Explaining the 'Don't Worry Darling' Drama to Your (Irish) Boomer Parents

Wilde, herself, plays Pugh’s best friend in Victory, whose husband ( Nick Kroll ) just got a promotion that came with a pinky ring blessed by Pine. And Gemma Chan appears as Pine’s supportive wife and dance instructor to the housewives, she teaches them not just to dance but a refrain about staying in line. Of course, nothing is as it seems. Once Alice sees (or maybe hallucinates) a plane crash in the mountains, followed by a suicide atop one of the beautiful homes, she starts to ask questions. And Pine’s personality essentially steps in to say, “debate me.”

Any more info than that will give away too much. Though Don’t Worry Darling isn’t so much a twisty movie as it is a withholding movie. Which is somewhat fair because whatever is happening comes via obvious gaslighting. But it’s also a bit of a cop-out. The third act reveal might have actually better served the movie to come earlier in the second act to explain more of the ins and outs between Alice and Jack. And it would also clear up certain bad faith readings on the film you might find if you Google an explanation.

Pause. Let’s move back to where the audience of this is not terminally online. While most of the interesting discussion of Don’t Worry Darling will concern the reveal of what’s really going on, without spoiling that, let me get to what I think works and doesn’t work. First, none of Darling works at all without such a committed performance from Pugh. She brings it her all like she’s in an old-fashioned Hitchcockian thriller (except with orgasms instead of innuendo!). She’s alluring, panicked, frightened, disillusioned, and yassified. Whether or not you think that the movie works or doesn’t, there’s no world in which this works better without her and any carbon copy movie with another actress probably fares worse. Pine, too, understands the assignment, though he has less to play with. There’s a better version of Darling that includes more backstory for him that really drives home the “Whose time is it? Our time!” refrain he has with Styles. Continuing some wins, the costumes and production design are a mid-century catalog that you’d want to yell “I’d take it!” on cloud credit, too. And Matthew Libatique mixes different types of photography to great effect—from Busby Berkeley legs, to vanity mirrors, to desert-dust kickups.

Simply put, it’s a fun movie to look at and Wilde, Pugh, and Pine are all able to significantly string intrigue. But it is lacking in a complete experience because it holds its cards a little too long, while treading some familiar territory in the lead-up. This is a softer Black Mirror update of The Stepford Wives , but what does make it modern could use a little earlier attention, especially in regards to the men in Victory. For all the press quotes that are out there to help us along, Darling is actually too gun-shy at looking directly at modern toxic masculinity. It’s more comfortable in the 50s mold. Perhaps this is to spare Styles' heartthrob status, but you can tell that Pine would be willing to go anywhere that is required in this world. And it’s too bad he doesn’t get to go deeper. Perhaps this is because the 50s style is so intoxicating, the desire to actually peer into the ugliness was more muted than it should be.

Don’t Worry Darling is best as a surface-level matinée thriller with a few follow-up ahas. But it doesn’t sting like it should in the end. Darling chooses to girlboss when it could’ve sucker punched. But it’s still way more watchable than many terminally online people already believe it to be.

Don't Worry Darling is in theaters now.

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‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Review: Olivia Wilde Delivers The Sexy, Pulpy Goods

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Harry Styles and Florence Pugh in Olivia Wilde's 'Don't Worry Darling'

Don ’ t Worry Darling (2022)

New Line/rated R/123 minutes

Directed by Olivia Wilde and written by Katie Silberman

Starring Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll and Chris Pine

Cinematography by Matthew Libatique

Edited by Affonso Gonçalves

Music by John Powell

Opening in theaters courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery on September 23

In a sane world, before Hollywood got swallowed up by IP fever and every piece of mainstream entertainment became part of the ongoing (primarily online) cultural war, Don’t Worry Darling would be ‘just a movie.’ I don’t know or care if Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde got along onset. Moreover, I’m pretty sure the singer from One Direction didn’t intentionally spit on the star of Hell or High Water and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit . Removed from the backstage melodrama and Venice premiere intrigue, it is indeed just a pretty good movie. Olivia Wilde’s second theatrical feature is, above all, a ‘Look what I can do!” filmmaker flex in service of an all-in movie star performance from Florence Pugh. It won’t win any Oscars, but it’s consistently entertaining, with more than enough cinematic spit-n-polish to justify a babysitter and big-screen theatrical viewing.

The screenplay, courtesy of Booksmart co-writer (and sole screenwriter of Netflix’s delightful rom-com Set It Up ) Katie Silberman, is pretty formulaic. It’s not like we haven’t seen films like this countless times. The film amusingly drops you right into a big party scene, as the men and women living in the company town of Victory, California. It is seemingly modeled on 1950s Americana while also intended to remind you of World War II-era “ secret cities ” (where men went off to build the atomic bomb while their ‘blissfully unaware’ wives played house). Victory is run and overseen by the mysterious Jack (Chris Pine). His company subsidizes every material want and need with the understanding that the wives do their wifely duties and never leave the town. Unfortunately, all that glitters is not gold. One housewife, Alice (Pugh), starts stumbling upon dark secrets that exist just past suburbia.

There are enough homages to other ‘your ideal world isn’t ideal’ films ( The Stepford Wives is an obvious inspiration) and television shows (I’m surprised Warner Bros. hasn’t tried to sell it as “ WandaVision , with sex!”) that it should come with a ‘works cited’ page. Still, in an era of revamps, remakes and reboots, Don’t Worry Darling is at least a “rip-off, don’t remake” original. While the film’s eventual twists, turns and reveals aren’t going to blow your mind, Wilde directs the hell out of this thing. Even if you guess the destination, there is plenty to chew on during the journey. It’s another example of how a film’s worth can be less what it’s about than how it’s about it. We get scrumptious, Hollywood-worthy production values going hand in hand with fluid set pieces, juicy character turns, hot movie stars and unapologetic R-rated female pleasure.

Yes, Florence Pugh gets oral copulation from onscreen spouse Harry Styles in the film’s opening scenes, which might have been par for the course in the early 1990’s erotic thriller boom. Pugh is as good as you’d expect here, as a young woman finding cracks in the façade and constantly getting gaslit about the eventual truth. Pine relishes the chance to play a smarmy villain, and the film uses his devious charms sparingly. Styles is as good as he needs to be, and frankly, I’d argue some of the criticism of his performance thus far has been more about the character than the actor. He’s a wet noodle, seemingly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Styles brings a presumption of innocence or willful naiveté. You question how much he knows in a way you wouldn’t with, say, the originally cast Shia LaBeouf.

Olivia Wilde has a small but crucial supporting role as a kind of den mother of the group, while Gemma Chan has only a few choice moments as Pine’s wife and the town dance teacher. KiKi Layne does a lot with very little. It’s probably not an accident that this dark-skinned Black woman finds herself unable to cope with the conventionally ‘perfect’ post-World War II community. It’s an example of race-conscious, rather than race-blind, casting. The rest of the cast, including Nick Kroll, mostly fades into the background. Most of the melodrama centers around the heroine, her husband and the presumed puppet master. I will concede that the second and third acts are more redundant and thus longer than they need to be. Still, Wilde knows that this could be her only mid-budget, non-franchise, R-rated movie, and she’s leaving it all on the table.

Wilde and Silberman seem less interested in the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ than the ‘why.’ There is a refreshing lack of explanation regarding (potentially) fantastical elements. There’s a refreshing faith in moviegoers to accept elements and plot beats sans hand-holding exposition because they make sense for the characters. I’d expect the perpetually online to claim to be performatively confused while regular (or irregular) moviegoers accept the film on its own terms. For general moviegoers who want to see a fantastical erotic thriller with gorgeous movie stars amid a visually dynamic ‘fantasy’ world, that’s exactly what the film delivers. At least in terms of directorial talent, Olivia Wilde proves that Booksmart was no fluke. Pugh gets an old-school star turn straight out of the early 1990s. Even a decade ago, Don’t Worry Darling would just be a good movie. I hope that’s still enough.

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‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Review: Florence Pugh Shines as Olivia Wilde Provokes

Pugh and Harry Styles star in Wilde’s satiric and somewhat frantic psychological thriller

This review originally ran in conjunction with the film’s world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.

To say that “Don’t Worry Darling” is a mixture of “The Stepford Wives” and “Get Out” is both accurate and deeply misleading. It’s accurate because Olivia Wilde’s satiric and somewhat frantic psychological thriller does borrow from films like “Stepford,” where an idealized community is one in which the women are dolls designed for male satisfaction, and “Get Out,” which uses horror trappings to grapple with timely issues of power and privilege.

But it’s misleading because there’s another film to which “Don’t Worry Darling” owes even more than it does to those two – but to even mention the other film’s name would be to give away a crucial plot twist that happens late in the film and changes everything.

So we won’t mention The Film That Shall Remain Nameless, except to say that Wilde’s embrace of its premise is not exactly handled as smoothly and seamlessly as you might hope. It’s provocative, to be sure, but it might have you walking out of the theater muttering, “now, wait a minute…” as you ponder inconsistencies and things that just don’t add up.

“Don’t Worry Darling” is bigger, bolder and more ambitious than Wilde’s sharp and satisfying directorial debut, 2019’s “Booksmart,” but it’s not nearly as sure-handed in tone as that gem. Her new film gives you plenty to admire, from its look to yet another strong performance from the reliably terrific Florence Pugh, and just as much that is frustrating. If Jordan Peele is the current gold standard when it comes to provocation under the cover of mainstream genre cinema, Wilde still has some catching up to do.

Still, there’s an arresting vision on display for much of “Don’t Worry Darling.” It’s the tale of a young couple, Alice (Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles), who live in the desert community of Victory, a bucolic oasis that feels like the fever dream of “Mad Men” era account exec: snazzy late ’50s convertibles, immaculately manicured lawns, cul de sacs full of spacious ranch houses where perfectly coiffed and clad stay-at-home housewives spend their mornings cooking and cleaning, their afternoons shopping and their evenings meeting their husbands at the door, cocktail in hand, as the men return from work.  

Victory, it turns out, is a company town for a company called the Victory Project, whose exact mission is deliberately vague (“progressive materials”?), though it’s obviously important and has something to do with that hill outside town where all the men head every morning.

If the premise itself doesn’t send up a few red flags, the movie’s visual style will: Victory is outfitted down to the last Egg chair by production designer Katie Byron and shot by cinematographer Matthew Libatique with such a sheen that every frame is deeply suspicious. (Mid-century modern has never looked creepier.)

Alice vaguely knows things aren’t right, but only vaguely; even if she’s not entirely comfortable, she participates in what seem to be nightly revels, wild parties where the liquor flows, the women compete to see who can keep a glass balanced on their head the longest and the men carouse so enthusiastically that they almost seem to be fueled by desperation.

But who could be desperate in Victory? After all, the charismatic head of the Victory Project, Frank (Chris Pine) tells them that they’re changing the world, and who are they to argue?

Jack is all-in on the program, and he’s clearly got a bright future; why, Frank even looks the other way when Jack and Alice sneak into his office for some quick, torrid sex in the middle of an elegant poolside soiree. (Well, he doesn’t exactly look the other way – he watches, but at least he doesn’t stop the happy couple from their happy coupling.)

Alice, though, starts to have her doubts. Why do all the husbands and wives have suspiciously similar stories about how they met? Why won’t Jack ever take a day off work and play hooky with her? Why are people lying to her about the neighbor she saw slit her own throat and fall off the roof? What happened to that airplane she saw crash behind the hill outside town? Is she hallucinating, or are the walls really closing in on her?  

It wouldn’t be fair to answer any of those questions in a review; suffice it to say that the more Alice questions what’s around her, the worse things get. As her reality spins out of control, it feels as if Wilde herself is struggling with the movie’s tonal shifts.

With her finely calibrated mixture of ferocity and doubt, Pugh grounds the film as a woman who won’t be gaslit but may find that the alternatives are even worse. It’s her movie, even if actor Styles gets to turn into pop star Harry Styles (a role in which he seems more comfortable) and dance on a big stage in one particularly boisterous scene.

But as Alice’s life gets messier and more confusing, so does the increasingly uneven movie. Eventually, there’s an explanation for everything that happens, and it’s meant to feel both monstrous and timely. But while that particular explanation has been used to great effect in that movie we can’t mention, the “Don’t Worry Darling” screenplay by Katie Silberman (“Booksmart”) from a story by Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dkye and Silberman leaves way too many loose ends; the revelation doesn’t help the resolution, although it does give Wilde, who plays a supporting role, one of the most unsettling and moving scenes in the movie.

As a director, Wilde does an effective job of provocation, and the movie may stir up its share of worthy conversations if people can move beyond the gossip that threatened to overshadow everything else before the theatrical release. But it feels as if there’s a better movie in here somewhere, lost beneath the wild-eyed freneticism and the unsatisfying exposition.

Warner Bros. and New Line will release “Don’t Worry Darling” theatrically on Friday, Sept. 23.  

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‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Venice Review: Don’t Worry About The Gossip, Olivia Wilde’s 1950s Dream Life-Turned-Nightmare Is Kinda Fun

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I never start a review commenting on whatever the so-called Film Twitter Mafia have to say about it, sight unseen. Starting back at CinemaCon in April when its directo/co-star Olivia Wilde was served legal papers onstage regarding her custody hearings with ex Jason Sudeikis, there has been non-stop gossip about her movie Don’t Worry Darling.  There has been so much of it, right up to today’s Venice Film Festival press conference (covered by my colleague Nancy Tartaglione) that you almost have to address the elephant in the room. Others can do that, but let us not forget there is also a movie  here, one I was able to preview as just  that a few weeks ago in Burbank. As a reviewer, to quote Being There’s  Chauncey Gardner, “I like to watch,” and that means only what is on the screen.

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That said, on its own terms Don’t Worry Darling  is actually quite entertaining if you’re in the mood, even if Wilde’s candy-coated psychological thriller doesn’t rewrite the rules of the genre in any significant way. It is sort of a cross between Get Out, The Stepford Wives and  Rosemary’s Baby  with a ’50s swinging Rat Pack vibe thrown in for good measure. And maybe even by luck of timing, the shutdown of Roe v Wade by the Supreme Court provides gravitas for an underlying message here of the terror imposed by men controlling women’s bodies in this otherwise fun, if familiar, film. Despite having a prestigious Out of Competition slot for its world premiere today at Venice , this is a commercial movie more than anything else and the New Line Cinema production could do well with audiences.

‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Venice Film Festival Premiere Photo Gallery

As a director, Wilde gained critical acclaim for her 2019 teen comedy Booksmart, which even rated some awards attention. Here she shows she has the chops to create a ’50s fantasia of the seemingly perfect life in a company town within Palm Springs called Victory. With dazzling production design from Katie Byron,  bright technicolored cinematography from Matthew Libatique ( A Star Is Born, Black Swan ) and cool costume design from Arianne Phillips, the scene is set for what is supposed to be the American dream. We see an enclosed utopia of houses looking all the same, where the wives seem to spend much of their time keeping their homes spotless when they are not lounging around the pool with the other women after sending their husbands off to work (all in perfectly chosen different model cars of the period) to a mysterious desert location where they are creating what seems to be some sort of top-secret enterprise in the vein of the Manhattan Project — or not, because it never really is spelled out, only that all the men work there and the area is verboten for anyone else.

In the center of all this are Alice Chambers ( Florence Pugh ) and her loving husband Jack ( Harry Styles ), a couple with a steamy sex life who seem genuinely in love and have landed this idealized lifestyle provided by Victory. Could it be any better than this? Well, yes. There are early indications of trouble when one of the women in the community, Margaret (Kiki Layne), is acting strangely. She knows more than she should, actually having ventured out into the off-limits desert headquarters, her newfound and concerning discovery having put her husband Ted’s (Ari’El Stachel) job in jeopardy.

This is when Alice begins to suspect there is more to Victory than meets the eye, even as the charismatic but creepily controlling CEO and motivational coach Frank ( Chris Pine ) promotes company man Jack to a key position of leadership. Her increasing suspicions create conflict, even coming to a boil when she confronts Frank at a dinner. The other women remain dutiful spouses though including Frank’s wife Shelley (Gemma Chan), who acts in concert with him, cheerleading the dream of  the Victory lifestyle. Similarly the vivacious Bunny (Wilde takes on the role), who is Alice’s best friend, loves what Victory offers, and keeps trying to keep her in the club. The tension ratchets up to a boil as Alice ditches a tourist tram ride to go investigate herself. You know this just is not going to end well for her.

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Working from a screenplay by her  Booksmart  writer Katie Silberman (joined on story credit by Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke), Wilde turns this fantasy world of an idyllic family life into a feminist nightmare of men, particularly Frank, with complete control over their women, even if on the surface it seems like these could be our  neighbors, albeit in the ’50s mind-set. The supporting cast reinforces that and includes Nick Kroll, Sydney Chandler, Kate Berlant, Asif Ali and Douglas Smith. Timothy Simons has some very creepy moments as the company Dr. Collins. But in the end it is Wilde and her team of artisans who create the visual look that makes the story we have seen in various forms many time before work as well as it does here. Even employing some Busby Berkeley-stylized overhead shots that add to the wow factor, Wilde shows she has a good eye for this kind of thing right down to the soundtrack, with songs from the period offering a bit of irony (“life could be a dream Sh-boom”).

Pugh, in a polar opposite role to the understated woman she plays in another new film  T he Wonder that also had its world premiere this weekend (at Telluride), continues to show her range even when the character ventures into some pretty ludicrous situations, setting out into the forbidden secret desert location alone being one of them. Styles, as he did in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk  and in the upcoming Toronto Film Festival premiere of My Policeman,  shows he is the real deal as an actor and has great promise. Pine makes a slick, almost cult-like figure a chilling but actually plausible villain.

Producers are Wilde, Silberman, Miri Yoon and Roy Lee. Warner Bros opens the film wide in theaters September 23.

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‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Review: Burning Down the Dollhouse

Florence Pugh plays a seemingly happy housewife whose world starts to crack apart in Olivia Wilde’s wobbly feminist gothic.

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By Manohla Dargis

Soon into the candy-colored feminist gothic “Don’t Worry Darling,” the director Olivia Wilde tips her hand. The movie takes place in a desert town, Victory, where everything looks nice and pretty, including the midcentury homes at the end of a cul-de-sac. It’s a friendly neighborhood and, given that the story is set in the 1950s, more diverse than you’d expect. But Wilde lets you know straightaway that there’s something off here: Everything is too tidy, too uniform and too, too perfect, including the women’s smiles.

Shy, bold, coquettish or mocking, a woman’s smile is richly signifying, something that Wilde, an actress turned director, certainly knows. It can be a mystery, an invitation, a deflection; sometimes it’s a reward, although one that comes with a cost. “It is the Sleeping Beauty’s smile that crowns the efforts of Prince Charming,” as Simone de Beauvoir writes in “ The Second Sex ,” the captive princess’ gratitude validating the prince’s heroism. The men in the movie aren’t charming or heroic, yet the women smile constantly, stretching their lipsticked mouths so wide, it’s a wonder their faces don’t crack.

One does, though it takes an interminably long time for the fissures to become seismic. Something starts troubling Alice (Florence Pugh) soon after the movie opens. She lives on the cul-de-sac, and like the other wives, she waves goodbye to her husband, Jack (Harry Styles), as he drives off to work. At night, cocktail in hand, Alice greets him, an impeccably coifed and dressed present that he eagerly unwraps. Much of the rest of the time, she cleans their house, polishing and vacuuming and washing — the cinematography is suitably bright and crisp — to the sound of a mystery man’s droning voice.

It’s a good, intriguing setup. Everything has been buffed to gleam, including Wilde, who plays Bunny, one of Alice’s neighbors. But you quickly notice the lack of mess, and especially the relative absence of those agents of chaos, a.k.a. children. There’s a touch of Stepford to this happy, shiny place, and a dash of comedy in its excesses. But it’s obvious and blunt, and early on when the wives wave bye, all following similar choreography, I flashed on the evil planet in Madeleine L’Engle’s novel “A Wrinkle in Time,” where everything — houses, adults and kids bouncing balls — looks eerily near-identical.

Alice has clearly tumbled down a weird rabbit hole. But one problem with “Don’t Worry Darling” is that Wilde is so taken with the world that she’s meticulously created — with its colorful veneer, martini glasses and James Bond poster — that she can’t let it go. So, as Alice floats through her dream-life, Wilde shows off this dollhouse, taking the character to a country club, onto a trolley and to visit Jack’s charismatic boss, Frank (a silkily menacing Chris Pine), whose home looks like a bachelor’s pad out of an antique issue of Playboy, except that this one comes with a wife, Shelley (Gemma Chan).

Frank and his male employees’ extreme deference to him suggest there’s more to this world than its glossy exterior, as do some period-inappropriate details, like the topless woman walking poolside in public and Alice wearing only a man’s dress shirt outside her front door. But even as the dissonance builds and Alice grasps that something is amiss, the movie stalls. Alice becomes lost in thought, looks puzzled, hallucinates, looks less puzzled and so on as Wilde embraces a visual motif — the circle — that, after the second, third, fourth time she deploys it, loses its punch and usefulness, becoming an unintended metaphor for a movie that keeps returning to the same point.

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Everything We Know

Everything we know about don't worry darling, we dig into all the details of olivia wilde's mysterious sophomore directorial effort starring florence pugh, harry styles, and chris pine..

TAGGED AS: Film , movies , psychological thriller , thriller

What is the Victory Project? If the characters in Olivia Wilde’ s upcoming psychological thriller were to ask about the truth behind this seemingly picture-perfect bit of 1950s American suburbia, the response they would likely get is the title of the film: “ Don’t Worry Darling .”

Luckily, we aren’t about to dismiss your questions about Wilde’s new movie ahead of its theatrical premiere this fall, so here’s everything we know about Don’t Worry Darling .

It’s Olivia Wilde’s Second Feature Film as Director

(Photo by Francois Duhamel/©Annapurna Pictures)

Olivia Wilde got her start as an actress, appearing on TV in the medical drama House and in films like Tron: Legacy , Cowboys & Aliens , and Drinking Buddies , but she’s demonstrated a real talent as a director, too. Her directorial debut, 2019’s female-focused high school buddy comedy Booksmart , was widely acclaimed. Don’t Worry Darling does not appear to be the heartfelt, feel-good romp that Booksmart was, though, and it will be interesting to see how Wilde handles this new genre. She has genre experience in her filmography, and she’s proved that she has the potential to be a great director.

When Wilde announced Don’t Worry Darling as her next project in August 2019, 18 different studios engaged in a bidding war, with New Line Cinema ultimately winning. Warner Bros. is distributing the film.

The Plot Feels Like The Truman Show Meets The Matrix Meets The Manhattan Project

(Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures)

Unlike so many movies these days, Don’t Worry Darling is not a remake, nor is it based on any pre-existing book, comic, or other known property. The script that would eventually become Don’t Worry Darling was written by brothers Carey and Shane Van Dyke , and it earned a spot on 2019’s Black List — an annual round-up of acclaimed and buzzed-about screenplays that haven’t been produced yet. Katie Silberman , who wrote the screenplay for Booksmart , did a rewrite of the script and wrote the final screenplay.

Here is the official synopsis for Don’t Worry Darling :

“Alice and Jack are lucky to be living in Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause. But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning what they’re doing in Victory, and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in paradise?”

(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Speaking at CinemaCon in April 2022, Wilde gave some indication of what sort of vibe people could expect from the film. According to Variety, the story was inspired by movies like Inception , The Matrix , and The Truman Show .

“Imagine a life where you have everything you could want. Not just material, tangible things… like a beautiful house, perfect weather and gorgeous cars. But also the things that really matter, like true love or the perfect partner or real trusted friendships and a purpose that feels meaningful,” Wilde said at CinemaCon. “What would it take for you to give up that life, that perfect life. What are you really willing to sacrifice to do what’s right?” Wilde asked. “Are you willing to dismantle the system that’s designed to serve you?”

The first and, so far, only trailer for the movie premiered in early May. It’s an effective, eerie trailer that offers a good sense of what the vibe of the movie will be without spoiling too much in terms of plot. The swingin’ party at the beginning and the chic ‘50s aesthetics all look quite nice, but they soon give way to ominous threats, a sense of unease, and building action as it becomes clear that this is not just a normal period piece. Something is very, very wrong in Victory.

The Cast Features Big Names and Rising Stars

Florence Pugh ( Black Widow ) stars as Alice, the wife who seems to be asking too many questions about the Victory Project. Opposite her is Harry Styles , who is best known for the band One Direction but who has since made successful forays into acting, appearing in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and the post-credits sequence of Marvel’s Eternals . Styles plays Jack, Alice’s husband and an employee who works on the Victory Project.

In addition to directing, Wilde appears in the movie herself, playing Bunny, another one of the wives who live in Victory. Gemma Chan ( Eternals ), KiKi Layne ( The Old Guard ), and ​​ Kate Berlant , a comedian who has had small roles in movies like Sorry to Bother You and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood , also appear to be playing wives. Sydney Chandler, actress and daughter of Kyle Chandler, stars as well.

Chris Pine ( Wonder Woman ) plays Frank, who seems to be a higher-up at the company behind the Victory Project, and he menaces Alice at one point in the trailer. Nick Kroll ( Big Mouth ), Douglas Smith ( Big Love ), Ari’el Stachel ( The Band’s Visit ), Asif Ali, and Timothy Simons ( Veep ) also star.

Filming Wrapped in February 2021, But Was Delayed Due to COVID

Filming for Don’t Worry Darling began in October 2020 and concluded in February of 2021. It was halted for two weeks in November when somebody on the set tested positive for COVID-19. In an Instagram post celebrating the end of filming, Pugh went to great lengths to praise everybody who worked on the movie for getting it made despite the ongoing pandemic.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLSE6F9F_vv/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=50556787-4d96-46d0-a5cb-20e64db4d3de

This Movie Is Why Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles Are Dating

(Photo by Neil Mockford/Getty Images)

Don’t Worry Darling is a notable movie for fans of celebrity gossip, because Olivia Wilde and leading man Harry Styles started dating after they met while making the movie. According to Us Weekly , the pair hit it off almost immediately and made the relationship public in January of last year. Wilde had previously been engaged to Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis , with whom she has two children, but they broke off their engagement in November 2020. Styles is reportedly not the cause of the split.

During Wilde’s presentation at CinemaCon, somebody got on the stage and handed her an envelope. It was later revealed that she had, in fact, been served child custody papers. Sudeikis said he was unaware the papers would be delivered like that.

Don’t Worry Darling opens in theaters everywhere on September 23, 2022.

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All the behind-the-scenes drama of ‘Don’t Worry Darling,’ explained

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Sometimes the story of a movie’s making is as compelling as the movie itself. Think of the days of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, “Apocalypse Now,” even the recent “Mad Max: Fury Road,” all of which have inspired countless behind-the-scenes tales.

To that list one might now add “Don’t Worry Darling,” which has sparked wild conversation and much controversy even before its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Monday. For director Olivia Wilde and members of the cast, the upcoming news conference is generating nearly as much anticipation as the screening of the film itself.

The casting of the backstage drama is tantalizing: Wilde, an actress in the midst of refashioning herself as a maker of smart, commercial films; Harry Styles, one of the world’s most beloved pop stars; Jason Sudeikis, embodiment of the new nice-guy-ness through his “Ted Lasso” character ; Florence Pugh, a widely respected, Oscar-nominated actress; and Shia LaBeouf, the child star turned bad-boy actor whose personal troubles have repeatedly threatened to upend his career. Put all those personalities in a pot and stir.

In advance of the film’s premiere — and its Sept. 23 theatrical release — here’s what we know about “Don’t Worry Darling” and the saga of its making.

What’s the movie even about?

Before proceeding further, it might be useful to say what is known so far about the film itself. Described as a psychological thriller, the story focuses on a couple (Pugh, Styles) who live in a planned community overseen by the enigmatic Frank (Chris Pine) but find the finely cultivated veneer of their life together cracking apart. The cast also includes Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, Kate Berlant and Wilde in a supporting role.

The film is Wilde’s second feature as director, following 2019’s upmarket teen comedy “Booksmart” and a slew of prominent roles in films and TV series such as “The O.C.,” “House,” “Rush” and “Tron: Legacy.” “Don’t Worry Darling” was filmed from a script rewritten by “Booksmart” screenwriter Katie Silberman.

As for its backdrop — sleek, mid-century Palm Springs — Wilde said in a recent interview with The Times that the juxtaposition between the style of that era and the limitations on women’s rights is purposeful: “That tension between knowing something’s wrong but still being very seduced by it is where the movie sits. I want the audience to be tugged back and forth between those emotions.”

Wait, so how is LaBeouf involved?

It was initially announced that LaBeouf would play the male lead, but the role was subsequently recast with Harry Styles, the worldwide pop star who has taken a few film roles, beginning with “Dunkirk.” (In an added twist, both Styles and LaBoeuf are prominent figures on the fall festival circuit: LaBeouf appears in Abel Ferrara’s “Padre Pio,” premiering at Venice, and Styles in “Don’t Worry Darling” and “My Policeman,” which premieres as part of the Toronto International Film Festival.)

Wilde has said of LaBoeuf’s departure from the project, “His process was not conducive to the ethos that I demand in my productions. He has a process that, in some ways, seems to require a combative energy, and I don’t personally believe that is conducive to the best performances. I believe that creating a safe, trusting environment is the best way to get people to do their best work. Ultimately, my responsibility is to the production and to the cast to protect them. That was my job.”

Within days of the publication of that interview, LaBeouf released a tranche of communications to Variety and a video Wilde sent to LaBeouf also became public. LaBeouf disputed that he had been fired, saying instead that he had quit.

In the video, Wilde, who is driving a car while talking, says, “I feel like I’m not ready to give up on this yet, and I, too, am heartbroken and I want to figure this out. You know, I think this might be a bit of a wake-up call for Miss Flo, and I want to know if you’re open to giving this a shot with me, with us. If she really commits, if she really puts her mind and heart into it at this point and if you guys can make peace — and I respect your point of view, I respect hers — but if you guys can do it, what do you think? Is there hope? Will you let me know?”

Who’s “Miss Flo”?

Presumably Pugh — which brings up yet another piece of the puzzle that has become the backstory of “Don’t Worry Darling.” It’s unclear if any tension arose between Wilde and Pugh, either during production or subsequently.

Pugh, nominated for an Oscar for her role in “Little Women,” has been largely silent regarding the film as she has recently been filming the “Dune” sequel in Hungary. Pugh was previously mostly absent from promotion of her film “Midsommar” while she was shooting “Black Widow.”

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar , Pugh spoke about how allusions to the film’s sex scenes between her and Styles in the trailer and limited early promotional materials have been seized upon by the public: “When it’s reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it’s not why we do it. It’s not why I’m in this industry. Obviously, the nature of hiring the most famous pop star in the world, you’re going to have conversations like that. That’s just not what I’m going to be discussing because [this movie is] bigger and better than that. And the people who made it are bigger and better than that.”

Yet Wilde can’t seem to stop herself from talking about the film’s sex scenes, as when she said to Variety, “It’s all about immediacy and extreme passion for one another. … The impractical nature of their sex speaks to their ferocious desire for one another. I think it’s integral to the story itself and how the audience is meant to connect to them. My early conversations with the cast were all about how the audience has to buy into the fantasy.”

There has also been speculation that Styles was paid substantially more than Pugh for working on the film, though in an emailed response as part of her Variety interview, Wilde said “there is absolutely no validity to those claims.”

And Wilde’s now acrimonious split with Jason Sudeikis happened during roughly the same period?

Yes. Sometime in the midst of all this, in 2020, Wilde split with Sudeikis, her partner of nearly 10 years, with whom she has two children. In January 2021, as the film was still in production, Wilde and Styles were pictured holding hands at a wedding, sparking speculation that they had gotten together during shooting. Though the two have never officially confirmed they are a couple, Wilde has been seen at numerous Styles concerts and they have often been photographed together.

While promoting “Don’t Worry Darling” at CinemaCon in April, Wilde was handed a mysterious envelope marked “personal and confidential” while speaking before an audience of thousands. The envelope contained documents relating to the custody dispute between Sudeikis and Wilde over where their children would be living.

In a recent interview with Variety , Wilde described the incident by saying, “In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack. It was really upsetting.”

She added, “You know, sadly, it was not something that was entirely surprising to me. I mean, there’s a reason I left that relationship.”

Wow. And the movie hasn’t even premiered yet!

Correct. All of this backstory means that the upcoming Venice red carpet premiere and news conference will be fraught with added drama. A troupe of seasoned show business professionals will presumably be doing their best not to let anything show beyond the good-vibes celebration of a more typical festival launch.

Whether all of this controversy and attention ultimately overshadows the movie remains to be seen. Or, as Wilde recently said to the Associated Press , “Every filmmaker longs for people to see their film. That’s all you want is for people to see it. If people are excited about a film, for whatever reason, what you hope is that it gets them in the door.”

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Don't Worry Darling review: Florence Pugh and Harry Styles get lost in Shangri-La

Olivia Wilde's psychological thriller prizes midcentury style over sense.

Behold the plight of the new desperate housewife: She is trapped in something — a sitcom ( Kevin Can F**k Himself ), a metaverse ( WandaVision ), or like Florence Pugh 's Alice in Don't Worry Darling , a sun-baked suburban idyll so dreamy, it's surely too good to be true. Unfortunately, she's also preceded by innumerable other films that have explored this black-mirror territory before: The Stepford Wives , Pleasantville , The Truman Show . That familiarity drains much of the tension and mystery from Darling , a movie high on snazzy midcentury style but considerably less bothered by the mechanics of cohesive storytelling.

In a world that looks like a glossy palm-tree-dotted cross between Norman Rockwell and Mad Men , Alice and Jack (the impish, dimpled pop star Harry Styles ) are the envy of their friends, the kind of couple who can barely make it through a cocktail party or even breakfast without tearing each other's clothes off. They're well-off financially too, though the signifiers of their wealth — the impeccable wardrobe, the showcase home, the finned sedan gleaming in the driveway — match their neighbors' almost exactly; everyone's a winner here. That's because they're all part of some grand experiment called the Victory Project, helmed by a self-styled guru named Frank ( Chris Pine , a wolf in Rat Pack clothing) and predicated on some vague principle few residents seem willing to explain or even examine too closely, except that it involves the "development of progressive materials."

In this retrograde Shangri-La, it's every husband's duty to head off to Victory headquarters in those shiny cars and do whatever is they do, and the wives to be waiting at home when they're done with a highball and a smile. Nobody is allowed to venture outside town limits, but who has time for wandering when there's already so much to do? Prep the pot roast, scrub the bathtub spotless, take remedial ballet lessons or lay by the communal pool. Some, like Olivia Wilde 's imperious Bunny and Frank's glacial, gorgeous wife ( Eternals ' Gemma Chan ) are born for this gilded cage; others — particularly one increasingly desperate outlier ( If Beale Street Could Talk 's KiKi Layne) — can't seem to stop asking questions that no one, except maybe Alice, wants the answers to.

Wilde is also the director, and Darling is her darling: a polished candy-apple take on cracked utopia, encased in blinding Southern California sunlight and bright vintage pop ditties. At least some credit for the movie's distinctive look is due to veteran cinematographer Matthew Libatique ( Black Swan , A Star Is Born ), a frequent collaborator of Darren Aronofsky and Spike Lee who gives the film its fever-dream desert sheen. And spare some blame for the wobbling script, on which three writers share story credit; unlike Wilde's charmingly ramshackle 2019 debut Booksmart , the machinations here are more ambitiously outlined and story-driven, and as Darling goes along, the Edsel wheels, as it were, begin to come off.

The red flags in Victory surface early and often, like voles on a country-club lawn: not just Frank's purring low-grade malevolence or the prop plane that seems to fall out of a clear blue sky, but the jarring, jittery visions that surface like unwelcome late-night transmissions in Alice's mind. Pugh, the 26-year-old British actress whose fierce emotional intelligence belies her doll-like prettiness in films like Midsommar and Little Women (for which she received her first Oscar nod), gives Alice as much inner life as the skittering screenplay allows, and Styles, at least, looks fantastic in a suit. But the movie, whatever its pile of ideas about love, gender constructs, and modern living, never really transcends Stepford mood-board pastiche. It's all nefarious and gorgeous, Darling, and strictly nonsense in the end. Grade: B–

Related content:

• Shia LaBeouf says Olivia Wilde didn't fire him from Don't Worry Darling : 'I quit'
• Florence Pugh wraps her entire head in plastic wrap in sinister new Don't Worry Darling trailer
• Olivia Wilde praises Harry Styles in Don't Worry Darling : He 'blew us away every day'

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‘My Policeman’ Review: Harry Styles Represses Himself

Ryan lattanzio, deputy editor, film.

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Amazon Studios releases the film in select theaters on Friday, October 21 and streaming on Prime Video on Friday, November 4.

Like it or not, fall 2022 appears to be the season of Harry Styles . He’s been discussed ad infinitum in the most overexposed film in memory and also this one, “ My Policeman ,” helmed by English theater director Michael Grandage. On the press trail, Styles informed us that this film about the decades-spanning relationship between Tom, a closeted cop (Styles); art curator Patrick (David Dawson, a revelation, but more on that later); and Emma Corrin as Tom’s long-suffering wife Marion, is not “a gay story about these guys being gay.’ It’s about love and about wasted time to me.”

If you say so, but the way he seems to read his own movie suggests he didn’t understand the assignment. That’s reflected in a performance that registers as a blank beyond inscrutable gazes and sappy breakdowns. To play a repressed gay man involved in a steamy, behind-closed-doors affair requires levels of complexity and conveying inner turmoil that Styles can’t provide. There’s at least one good explanation for that, and all those who accuse the Brit pop star of queer-baiting know exactly what that is.

“My Policeman” is often very good, but the best scenes involve Dawson’s rapier-witted and dandyish Patrick or Corrin’s Marion, whom the actress makes more than a beard. She deeply loves Tom, and in his own way, she is loved by him in return. Together, they make up three points of a wobbly love triangle in which two of the actors run circles around the other.

In 1950s Brighton, England, Tom is a working-class police officer driven by conformity, doing everything that’s required of him by a traditional (read: hetero) world, and so when he meets sincere schoolteacher Marion on a glistening summer beach, he sees a chance to even further disappear into himself. The two share a genuine spark — one that never converts to heat. Frustrated over Tom’s seeming inability to consummate their affair, she asks, “Why can’t we be like a real couple?” (i.e., “Why can’t we fuck ?”) That frustration eventually gives way to some tepid thrusting (“I’ll be better next time,” he says). Marion keeps her clothes on, and Tom’s mind is… elsewhere.

As we learn, he’s got Patrick on the brain. Patrick is an urbane sophisticate bursting with intellectual life, rather the opposite of Tom’s dolt (who admittedly isn’t much of a reader). He heads up the western classics department at the Brighton Art Gallery when not globetrotting, increasing his rare art collection, and indulging in life’s sensuous pleasures — up to and including more explicitly sensual ones at local gay speakeasy The Argyle, where he’s been known to pick up men but also where police are arresting and beating them because homosexuality was then illegal.

Tom introduces Patrick to Marion as his “friend,” hoping they can share their love of great art (especially J.M.W. Turner, clearly an inspiration for cinematographer Ben Davis; the film is obsessed with cuts to waves breaking against rocks). This cements the three’s-company dynamic that dominates the story. The trio chows down on culture, from debates over “Anna Karenina” to violin recitals, with Tom staring on blankly.

Behind the scenes, passions are brewing. The movie steps back in time to show really just how Tom came to know Patrick: It’s because they’ve been having some pretty hot sex this whole time back at Patrick’s place, an emerald green-gilded pad lined with wall-to-wall art and rounded mirrors.

Styles recently said that the sex in “My Policeman” would show a more “tender” side to gay lovemaking because “so much of gay sex in film is two guys going at it.” I am here to tell you that the sex in “My Policeman” is rawer than Styles seems to think, from a close-up on Styles’ face, awash in ecstasy, while Patrick goes down on him for the first time, to an overhead shot of Patrick appearing to be topped by Tom, digging his hands into Patrick’s back. This is no Guadagnino-esque panning to a tree.

Later, Tom coughs up to Patrick that he’s planning to marry Marion because he wants kids. “You can afford to break the rules,” Tom says. “I can’t.” Patrick responds by pushing Tom against an embankment and jerking him off. “Can you share me?” Patrick asks, as if to say, “Can Marion do this ?”

In flash-forwards to the 1990s spliced throughout the movie, we see Tom (Linus Roache) now in old age and still married to Marion (an excellent Gina McKee). They have taken in a very sick Patrick (Rupert Everett), who’s recently suffered a stroke and lost his ability to communicate. There’s a funereal “45 Years” vibe to these scenes, and you can almost smell the must of regret and chill in the air. This timeline further introduces an epistolary structure, unfolding via entries from Patrick’s diary that the elder Marion cracks open and reads into the night.

The diary’s lurid details include a sexy jaunt to Venice in the ’50s, where Patrick had serious art business but brought Tom along under the guise of his assistant. This sumptuous montage looks like a postcard, for all the better and the worse of what that entails. Later, an actual postcard serves to undo Tom and Patrick’s affair. How exactly it reaches that point is clunky and cliched, with a third-act “twist” that’s more of a foregone conclusion. (Ron Nyswaner’s script, working from the novel by Bethan Roberts, often caves to the demands of melodrama over character.)

The alternating double-timeline structure threatens to dilute the potency of those past-tense scenes. Grandage tends to shoot his movie like a play, unfolding the story via shot-reverse shot setups of people talking to each other, with little cinematic interest in the objects and minutiae that govern desire.

Styles’ interpretation of the material as a “universal” story that’s not just about “these guys being gay” aside, this is a very specifically gay story about very real gay pain. That also means, yes, “My Policeman” is another movie about gay suffering that features beatings, homophobia, repression, and brooding in the shadows. Perhaps it’s Styles’ lack of personal relationship to the material (Dawson is gay, and Corrin identifies as queer), but his performance feels only like half of one. Anyone can show twisting consternation or a pensive mood, but it’s another thing entirely to communicate the telepathy that hums between queer people (especially secret ones) and the inner whirling rage of desire left unrealized.

However . The movie is anchored, elevated, and very often knocked completely out of the park by Dawson, who is at turns sexy, mysterious, wise, naive, overflowingly open, vulnerable, and strong. It’s one of the best performances of the year, and one that deserves all exaltations in a movie that often lacks them. A late-breaking moment when Patrick’s museum colleague tells him, “There’s a policeman here to see you,” and Patrick lights up, only to realize that it isn’t  that policeman here to see him, will break you.

Overall, “My Policeman” feels a little out of step with the times, with even a moment that feels like a literal callback to “Brokeback Mountain” — a glowering Marion accidentally catching Tom and Patrick in a moment of tenderness and then rushing back to the kitchen to collect herself. Do we really need another reminder that times were bad (and still are) for gay people, which of course means that love must suffer because of it? Still, “My Policeman” isn’t not arresting, and that’s thanks to the work of David Dawson and Emma Corrin, and not the film’s top biller, who was never the lead at all.

“My Policeman” premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Amazon Studios releases the film in select theaters on Friday, October 21 and streaming on Prime Video on Friday, November 4.

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Don't Worry Darling: We review one of the most talked about films of 2022

23 September 2022, 19:30 | Updated: 24 September 2022, 01:31

Watch the trailer for Don't Worry Darling

By Jenny Mensah

Find out what we thought of the Olivia Wilde-directed film starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh.

Listen to this article

Unless you've been living under a rock the past few years, you'd be hard-pressed to have missed Harry Styles' stratospheric rise from former One Direction heartthrob to fully-fledged global superstar.

Now, if 15 sold-out Madison Square Gardens, a headline set at Coachella and a Mercury Prize nod weren't enough to add to his list of achievements, could Harry Styles be set to successfully pull off a role as Hollywood leading man? Well he's certainly got people talking regardless.

Don't Worry Darling hasn't just garnered a bit of attention. It's been a complete PR wet dream, with rumours of a huge rift between Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh and a rather bizarre press run which took the hype surrounding the film to an all-time high.

Harry Styles might have convinced us he didn't spit on Chris Pine , but has he managed to make a believable transition to Hollywood star?

Find out what we thought of the Olivia Wilde-directed film here.

READ MORE: Harry Styles and Liam Gallagher's albums top vinyl sales of 2022 so far

When is Don't Worry Darling released?

Don't Worry Darling is released in UK cinemas on 23rd September 2022.

READ MORE: Blossoms cover Harry Styles' As It Was

Who's in the cast of Don't Worry Darling?

Don't Worry Darling stars Harry Styles as Jack Chambers, Florence Pugh as Alice Chambers, Olivia Wilde as Bunny, Gemma Chan as Shelley , Kiki Layne as Margaret, Nick Kroll as Dean and Chris Pine as Frank.

Elsewhere in the cast are Sydney Chandler as Violet, Asif Ali as Peter, Kate Berlant as Peg, Douglas Smith as Bill, Timothy Simons as Dr. Collins, Ari'el Stachel as Ted and Daisy Sudeikis as Rosie.

What's it about?

The synopsis for Don't Worry Darling reads: "While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the “development of progressive materials,” their wives—including Frank’s elegant partner, Shelley (Chan)—get to spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause.

"But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory, and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in this paradise?

"An audacious, twisted and visually stunning psychological thriller, Don’t Worry Darling is a powerhouse feature from director Olivia Wilde that boasts intoxicating performances from Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, surrounded by the impressive and pitch-perfect cast."

Is Don't Worry Darling worth watching? Our review:

From the minute the opening credits roll, you know you're in safe hands. Not because you know Don't Worry Darling is going to be really good, but because you know it's going to look really good. Bathed sumptuous colours and good-enough-to eat 50s fashion, there's no denying this is one stylish movie. And by the time The Right Time by Ray Charles kicks in, you know the soundtrack is going to follow suit. Luckily with style does come substance, and the cast all play their part in this well-paced psychological thriller.

You'll breathe a sigh of relief to find out out Harry Styles does indeed play a Brit in the film (a point they mention we assume to avoid any confusion). But, since Harry Styles' Northern English/American drawl sounds like no one else but Harry Styles, it's often hard to suspend your disbelief about the pop-star. Despite this, he does a pretty good job at holding his own amongst a cast of seasoned actors.

Florence Pugh was described by Olivia Wilde as the "darling" of the film, but she is so much more, giving a fierce and believable portrayal as Alice throughout. We wouldn't go as far to say she carries the movie, but she certainly is doing a lot of leg work, showing her incredible range as she goes from picture perfect 50s housewife to a woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Plus, she does plenty of actual running too.

While it's not a particularly new concept (the idyllic mid-century lifestyle draws instant comparisons with The Stepford Wives), Don't Worry Darling does manage to entertain, intrigue and keep audiences on the edge of their seats. And if the story doesn't beguile you, the costume, soundtrack, staging and vintage cars certainly will. Despite all this, reader beware: there are a few moments that will feel a bit naff and out of odds with the general style of the film,, but luckily (for reasons you'll understand when you watch the it) these are very few and far between.

In these times it's hard to justify spending your hard-earned cash on a visit to the cinema, but if you want to be transported to another place and time (and see some beautiful people wear beautiful outfits while you're at it), we'd say this is money well spent.

Don't Worry Darling | Official Trailer

What's on the Don't Worry Darling soundtrack?

See the full list. of songs on Don't Worry Darling here:

• The Right Time – Ray Charles
• Bang Bang – Dizzy Gillespie
• Where or When – Benny Goodman Trio
• Comin’ Home Baby – Mel Tormé
• Oogum Boogum Song – Brenton Wood
• Tears on My Pillow – Little Anthony & The Imperials
• Twilight Time – The Platters
• Sh-Boom – The Chords
• Need Your Love So Bad – Little Willie John
• Sleep Walk – Santo & Johnny
• You Belong To Me – Helen Foster and the Rovers
• Someone To Watch Over Me – Ella Fitzgerald
• With You All the Time – Florence Pugh and Harry Styles

The soundtrack includes an original song by Harry Styles , With You All The Time , which features his co-star Florence Pugh.

Don't Worry Darling | With You All the Time - Alice and Jack | WaterTower

The film also features an original score composed by John Powell, which you can listen to here:

Don't Worry Darling is out in cinemas now

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Florence pugh and harry styles star in thrilling ‘don’t worry darling’ trailer.

Olivia Wilde's film also stars Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll, Douglas Smith, Timothy Simons and KiKi Layne.

By Christy Piña

Christy Piña

Associate Editor

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Florence Pugh asks the important questions in the official trailer for Olivia Wilde ‘s star-studded Don’t Worry Darling.

The nearly three-minute trailer, which premiered at CinemaCon, gives the most thorough look at the psychological thriller so far.

Over shots of Wilde, Pugh, Styles and more of the cast, Chris Pine ‘s character says, “All of you wives, we, men, we ask a lot. We ask for strength, food at home, a house clean — and discretion above all else.”

As the trailer continues, viewers see Pugh’s 1950s housewife and her fellow wives question what their husbands are truly doing in their utopian experimental community and begin to worry that the glamorous company behind it may be hiding disturbing secrets.

Don’t Worry Darling  also stars Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll, Douglas Smith, Timothy Simons and KiKi Layne.

Wilde presented the trailer at CinemaCon on April 26, saying, “What would it take for you to give up your life to do what is right? That is the question of Don’t Worry Darling. ” She also described the film as a “love letter” to movies like The Matrix and Inception , said that in Pugh’s performance “you are seeing the birth of a full-fledged movie star” and called Styles “a revelation.” She joked, “I am also in the movie because I was the only one we could afford when we got to that point.”

Katie Silberman wrote the screenplay, based on a story she wrote alongside Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke.

Don’t Worry Darling  hits theaters on Sept. 23.

Watch the trailer below.

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‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Is Finally Here. Here’s How to Stream the Florence Pugh and Harry Styles Movie Online

By John Lonsdale

John Lonsdale

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

You can stop worrying, darling. After a lengthy and headline-making promotional tour , director Olivia Wilde ‘s Don’t Worry Darling finally made its box-office debut back in September and now, months later, the drama is finally available to stream at home.

Set in the Fifties in a picturesque Palm Springs-like suburban town called Victory, the thriller stars Oscar nominee Florence Pugh and Rolling Stone cover star Harry Styles as husband and wife Alice and Jack, and it’s already become one of the most talked-about films of the year, complete with an action-packed plot and a twist that’ll leave you thinking about the movie for days.

And if you’re still having trouble keeping up with all the Don’t Worry Darling drama, take a few deep breaths and don’t stress too much: Rolling Stone ‘s CT Jones has a complete timeline that you can read before you grab your popcorn and take a seat.

But now, for the the main event, here’s how you can still get tickets to see the new movie in theaters, plus how you can stream it at home online.

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Don’t Worry Darling officially premiered on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, in theaters across the country. You can still buy tickets online and check out showings of the film online at sites like Fandango. Along with premiering on the big screen, the film is also playing in select IMAX theaters.

Buy Don’t Worry Darling Tickets

How to Watch Don’t Worry Darling Online

Stay calm, though the flick that “ feels like a movie, feels like a real, like, you know, go-to-the-theater film movie ,” Don’t Worry Darling is here and streaming on HBO Max as of Nov. 7, 2022. The Wilde-directed film initially played exclusively in select theaters nationwide, but you no longer have to head to a cinema near you to see what Styles’ and Pine’s characters are really working on at the so-called Victory Project. Read on for how to start streaming it online now.

Is Don’t Worry Darling Streaming on HBO Max?

The rollout is similar to Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis , another Warner Bros. title, which initially got a theatrical premiere, and arrived on streaming services months later (though not necessarily the 45-day release window of other Warner Bros. titles before it).

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So what is Don’t Worry Darling about exactly?

According to the movie’s synopsis, “Alice (Pugh) and Jack (Styles) are lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950’s societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank (Pine) — equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach — anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia.”

But soon, Pugh’s character Alice starts to wonder if life in Victory might not be all it’s made out to be, or worse.

“Without saying too much about where Don’t Worry Darling is headed, things are definitely not what they seem, and the feeling that you’re in the middle of Black Mirror episode set in some alternate version of, say, Branson, Missouri, begins to overwhelm you even more than the midcentury mood-board decor porn,” Rolling Stone ‘s David Fear writes in our movie review .

Other Victory residents and visitors include a cast featuring Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, Asif Ali, Douglas Smith, Sydney Chandler, Timothy Simons, and Kate Berlant.

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My Policeman

Sometimes I look at Harry Styles and I feel bad for him. Not because he isn’t getting a fair shake, but because someone told him he could be a leading man without warning him about the time and work needed to become one. Hot on the heels of the world premiere of his upcoming “Don’t Worry Darling,” the Olivia Wilde-directed movie mired in controversy and less than generous reviews for his performance, Styles’ second film of 2022 is an adaptation of Bethan Roberts ’ same-titled novel. Here, Styles’ inexperience as a leading man in a weepy British queer period piece is glaring. As the film’s protagonist PC Tom Burgess, he stands and speaks like a tourist awkwardly stumbling upon a movie set. His co-star, Emma Corrin , is hardly better as his stuffy lover. Corrin tussles with the least developed character of the bunch, but much like Styles, never proves themselves as a lead. How can a movie with this much youthful talent be so breathlessly boring? 

Helmed by an adequate Michael Grandage , “My Policeman” begins in the present day with the older versions of these characters: Tom ( Linus Roache ) and Marion ( Gina McKee ), now retired, live in a seaside town as they go through the motions of their milquetoast marriage. Their steady march toward resignation—which Tom momentarily pauses whenever he visits the sea with their dog—is interrupted with the arrival of their old, now estranged friend Patrick ( Rupert Everett ). A guilt-ridden Marion volunteered to care for him after a debilitating stroke left him nearly bedridden. And while Marion is ready to bury the proverbial hatchet, Tom refuses to see the man his wife says they owe so much to because he “Taught [them] how to see art.” 

The pain that Patrick caused the couple is what “My Policeman” hopes to tell us about. And yet, how it tells us, and what it thinks we hope to gain from this story, comes with little flair and even less self-awareness. 

The past on a sunny beach in 1950s Britain, where Marion (Corrin) sees the dashing Tom (Styles certainly isn’t lacking in the looks department) running across the sand. He teaches her how to swim; the pair soon start dating. Humble and working-class, Tom is the total opposite of the educated, arts-focused Marion. It’s why Tom goes to such lengths to read about paintings. The two eventually meet Patrick ( David Dawson ), a museum curator who knows Tom from being a witness in one of his cases. The trio become inseparable. It even appears that Patrick might be attracted to Marion, and her to him. That is, until we discover that Tom and Patrick are in a closeted sexual relationship. 

The messy triangle that forms from these two competing relationships is meant to suggest tension and sympathy for a hopelessly romantic woman seemingly being a victim of two men, who are also victims of the country’s homophobic laws. We come to find, however, that this trio doesn’t fit into easy boxes: Tom demands law and order; Marion is homophobic; and Patrick is somehow their friend. This conundrum would provide juicy drama if any of these actors possessed a speck of chemistry with the other. It doesn’t help that Grandage, through his blocking and coverage, and the editing by Chris Dickens (“ Slumdog Millionaire ”) try their best to hide Styles’ deficiencies. His physical understanding of the character lacks specificity; his line deliveries are monotone; he doesn’t project allure. There is no interiority or charm in anything he does. Even his sex scenes—where Grandage confuses bare skin and moaning for passion—are without bite.   

Instead, “My Policeman” finds smoother ground in the present-day scenes with a trio of older actors who can elevate a script. Make no mistake, the prime culprit in this soporific film is a terrible screenplay that tells a gay love story through the elderly Marion, a straight cis-woman, adopting Patrick’s memories by reading his diaries. It’s also frustrating how the script’s set-up is initially intriguing, only for a twist to throw all of the built up tension and angst out without a coherent vision for what comes next. And a rushed ending doesn’t instill any further confidence. The fact that the inner lives of these characters are so underwritten you barely understand their psychology—especially with the flawed Marion, who still might be homophobic—makes them unmemorable. 

“My Policeman” is surface-level queer representation lacking in visual imagination and begging for better performances. It’s the kind of glacially paced movie that sticks around for two hours and tells its viewer nothing new; a series of moving images without any sense of emotion or wonder. “My Policeman” commits the gravest of crimes—it’s soulless.  

This review was filed from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12. “My Policeman” arrives in theaters on October 21 and will be available on Prime Video on November 4.

Robert Daniels

Robert Daniels is an Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com. Based in Chicago, he is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) and Critics Choice Association (CCA) and regularly contributes to the  New York Times ,  IndieWire , and  Screen Daily . He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto. He has also written for the Criterion Collection, the  Los Angeles Times , and  Rolling Stone  about Black American pop culture and issues of representation.

• Harry Styles as Tom Burgess
• Emma Corrin as Marion Taylor
• David Dawson as Patrick Hazlewood
• Gina McKee as Older Marion
• Linus Roache as Older Tom
• Rupert Everett as Older Patrick

Cinematographer

Writer (novel).

• Bethan Roberts
• Michael Grandage
• Ron Nyswaner
• Steven Price

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Taylor Swift fans think she's collaborating with Harry Styles on new music

In exciting news for fans who would love to see Taylor Swift collaborate with Harry Styles, Swifties have uncovered a potential 'Easter Egg'

• 20:43, 27 Sep 2024
• Updated 22:01, 27 Sep 2024

Taylor Swift fans think she's planning a collaboration with Harry Styles, and they couldn't be more excited.

According to the theory, the Eras Tour singer dropped a major hint at the MTV VMAs, but Swifties failed to notice. Sharing her suspicions on TikTok as @ audreymartha, one excited fan named Audrey shared her discovery.

"I'm sorry, what? How did we miss this? How did I miss this?" she asks in the clip. Audrey then shares side-by-side comparisons of the stars, comparing Harry Styles ' 2021 Grammys look and Taylor Swift's 2024 VMAs look, which both featured yellow plaid. Analysing Taylor's look, Audrey continues: "We all went crazy over the plaid and the yellow and the connections that we made, but we were missing Mr Styles.

"Also, that lavender boa that he wore is giving Lavender Haze jacket." In the video, she also compares other looks she's spotted the stars wearing, focusing on purple and orange outfits in particular.

"We don't know 100% what this means," Audrey admits. "But we know that Taylor and Harry have both used each other as muses throughout the years. Of course, they had their relationship, and a lot of '1989' has Harry references. I don't think Taylor wore the yellow dress as a direct link to Harry, but what if she did?"

The fan concluded: "If she did that takes us back to '1989' just before 'Karma'", referencing fan theories Taylor has an unreleased album of the same name .

While there's lots of debate over the so-called album 'Karma', Swifties wondered if the plaid could be a sign Harry and Taylor are working on new music together.

"What if they collab in TS 12?" one fan asked. A second questioned: "HS on Rep TV??" Meanwhile, someone else replied: "I’m calling a collab for Taylor Swift and Harry Styles for a REP TV vault track!!"

A different Swiftie said: "Omg I cannot with this!!! I miss Harry! Hope he comes out with new music soon," and another fan commented: "Please don’t do this to me. I would die from delulu excitement."

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‘don’t worry darling’ review: harry styles and florence pugh’s meh sci-fi film is too obvious.

So much behind-the-scenes drama, so little on-screen satisfaction.

DON'T WORRY DARLING

Running time: 122 minutes. Rated R (sexuality, violent content and language). In theaters Sept. 23.

Director Olivia Wilde’s so-so suspense film “Don’t Worry Darling” has been beset by nasty rumors since it premiered in Venice earlier this month. 

Readers devoured news that its terrific star Florence Pugh really hates Wilde and co-star Harry Styles , who are a couple; that Wilde misled the public as to why scandalous actor Shia LaBeouf departed the project; and that Styles maybe hocked a loogie on co-star Chris Pine.

What fun! Shame all of that chaos was way more entertaining than the film that caused it. 

“Darling” is a garbage pizza of other better movies and TV shows: “The Stepford Wives,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Get Out,” “Black Mirror,” “Pleasantville,” “The Truman Show,” “The Village” and on and on. A full-blown sci-fire sale.

What it lacks — and that all of those memorable works have — is a mind-blowing shake-up that puts everything we thought we knew into question. An M. Night Shyamalan twist, if you will. With Wilde’s movie, we’re a mile ahead of the plot by minute one, with 121 still to go.

“Darling” is set in a peaceful desert enclave that looks like Palm Springs (because it was filmed there). There are beautiful mid-century modern homes and swimming pools. All the cars, clothes and record players look straight out of the 1950s. However — and this is problem No. 1 — we can tell straightaway that we are not in the ’50s.

Alice (Pugh) is a doting housewife who lives with husband Jack (Styles). Every morning she looks immaculate as she makes him bacon and eggs and waves goodbye as he drives to his job at the mysterious Victory Project where he and the town’s men make “progressive materials.” No one knows what that really means. They could be manufacturing nukes, paper straws or AOC pamphlets.

Home alone, Alice lives a life of free-flowing cocktails with no hangovers, constant sex, rib-eye steak for lunch, dance class, nightly parties and zero humidity. Please sign me up for this dystopian nightmare.

One fateful day, after venturing beyond where the strict town rules allow, Alice witnesses something at Victory Project’s mountain HQ that we viewers are not privy to, wakes up back home and becomes newly paranoid about her creepy community led by an all-powerful leader named Frank (Pine, fine).

What Wilde and writers Katie Silberman, Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke do — not unwisely — is bring modern social movements into the old formula. That’s great. But there’s not much more to it than men are bad. 

Pugh, a sensational actress, keeps our interest as she grows increasingly suspicious and sees disturbing visions in mirrors and on windows. She brings class and gravitas to a movie that would otherwise be kinda trashy. 

As her seemingly nice husband, Styles is decent. For now, the pop star is better at being a charming romantic lead than broken, erratic and angry. Regardless, he fits in snugly in this idealized world. Surely many people’s dream lives would involve being married to Harry Styles.

And Wilde, who first burst into the director’s chair with “Booksmart,” gives “Darling” appealing visuals and the story is nicely paced — even if we crave more style, camp and extremes to immerse us in this oddball place.

The director also acts very well in the supporting role of Bunny, a fun-loving neighbor with a secret.

The aim stated the start of every episode of “The Twilight Zone” was to take viewers on a “journey into a wondrous land of imagination.” Not quite up to the task, “Don’t Worry Darling” brings us to a Palm Springs Airbnb with the singer of “Watermelon Sugar.”

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Maggie Smith, ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Downton Abbey’ actor, dies at 89

Two-time Oscar winner Maggie Smith, the celebrated stage actress who starred in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and burnished her long-shining star by playing the scene-stealing dowager countess of “Downton Abbey” and the exacting Professor McGonagall in the “Harry Potter” franchise, has died. She was 89.

The respected English dame “passed away peacefully” early Friday in a London hospital, her sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement to the Times.

“An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother,” they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs.

Her sons did not disclose her cause of death in the statement. Smith had been candid about her health issues in the past, suffering from glaucoma, Graves’ disease and breast cancer, and she underwent hip replacement surgery in her 80s. In their statement, her sons thanked the “wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.”

During a career that spanned six decades, Smith acquired a large following on both sides of the Atlantic and became one of few to achieve the triple crown of acting – winning Academy, Emmy and Tony awards. She earned her Oscars playing the unconventional schoolmarm in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and a brittle movie star in “California Suite” in the 1970s. She also had four Primetime Emmys, three Golden Globes, a Tony, an Olivier Award and a slate of BAFTAs to her name.

The veteran performer famously summed up her career in a single sentence: “One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act, and one’s still acting.”

Beginning her work in theater as a teen, Smith played Shakespeare’s Rosalind and Beatrice. She hit her stride with imperious characters and class-conscious snobs. A commanding presence on par with contemporaries Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave, Smith was awarded as a Companion of Honor by Queen Elizabeth in 1990. In person, Smith was funny, self-deprecating and down-to-earth.

“I’ll get restless unless I’m acting. That’s when I come really alive, you see,” she told The Times.

She alternated theater work with cinema and achieved Oscar nods for “Othello” (1965), “Travels with My Aunt” (1972), “A Room with a View” (1985) and “Gosford Park” (2001). In addition to “Downton Abbey” and the eight-film blockbuster “Harry Potter” saga, Smith starred in several projects teeming with established British talent, including the “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” films and “The Lady in the Van.”

“I’ve had quite a range as an actress,” she quipped. “All the way from Desdemona to Virginia to acting with a pig in (1984’s) ‘A Private Function.’”

A key to her popularity with such disparate audiences was her range. Her late-onset acclaim as the loyal deputy headmistress charged with Gryffindor House in the much-hyped wizard franchise was to be expected. And while she was the first pick for the role, legions of young “Harry Potter” fans had never heard of Smith when she was cast. But her participation in the franchise brought new fans and great financial reward.

“Harry Potter is my pension,” she told the Telegraph.

She read J.K. Rowling’s bestsellers and enjoyed playing the iconic professor, regarding her time on the films as “surreal.” But the movies did not endear her to film acting, and she wasn’t always thrilled with the exposure the part gave her. Of “Downton Abbey,” ITV’s surprise mega-hit that resuscitated public broadcaster PBS in the United States, Smith said she never bothered to watch the series.

“Why do I want to see it?” she told the Times. “I’m doing it. I know the story of it. I do have the boxed set, but you know that would take me to the end of my life to watch.”

She delighted in her later work, though lamented the demands of “Downton” and “Harry Potter,” as well as quitting the stage. The British national treasure made no conscious decision to stop theater but thinned out her commitments after her breast cancer diagnosis. Still, theater remained her first love.

“I feel more at ease in the theater than I do in life,” she told t he Times in 2003. “What I find extraordinary in theater is the immediacy of working with an audience, a whole house full of people. To know you can have everybody listening and reacting to what you are doing, there’s nothing quite like that.”

Smith had a strict policy of not reading her reviews – and never used the internet – learning what was written about her only when her husband Beverley Cross, the late playwright, would allude to it after he scoured every line.

“I find if you do read the notices you start to play them. If the critics pick on one particular moment of your performance you become obsessed by it. So I don’t read them. My husband usually says something like: ‘They were OK. Don’t panic,’ and that’s enough for me,” Smith said in 1985.

Despite her reputation as being unpretentious, she acquired a notoriety on set, intimidating directors and co-stars. She said it was a product of fear and nerves.

“The awful thing is, I’m very aware when I’m being difficult, but I’m usually so scared. And that’s shaming, at the age one is,” she said.

But there was no use changing course so late into her career, and she said it would “frighten” co-workers if she were nicer.

“It’s gone too far now to take back,” she told the Telegraph. “If I suddenly came on like Pollyanna, it wouldn’t work – it would frighten people more if I were nice. They’d be paralyzed with fear. And wonder what I was up to. But perhaps I should try it … ‘Hello! What fun! We’re going to be here all day! And then filming all night too! Goodie!’”

Born Margaret Natalie Smith in 1934, she changed her name to Maggie Smith in 1956 when she registered with Equity, the British actors’ union, because Margaret Smith was taken.

She was born in the Essex suburb of Ilford, and there was little theatrical about her background: Her father, Nat, was a medical technician, and her Scottish mother, Meg, was a Presbyterian. Her brothers, Ian and Alistair, were twins six years older than her. The family moved to Oxford when she was 5, and suddenly she realized she wanted to act.

“I was totally obsessed, which confused my parents utterly. Both my brothers were architects, and they just didn’t know where it [her driving ambition] had come from,” she told the Telegraph.

Smith received little encouragement upon announcing her dramatic intentions – even her grandmother turned to her mother and said: “You simply can’t let her. Not with that face.”

After leaving Oxford High School for Girls at 16, her plans to go to London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art were foiled by her parents. They said that if she wanted to pursue her dream, she would have to stay in Oxford.

She joined the Oxford Playhouse School of Theatre, debuting at 17 as Viola in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” Her talent, immaculate timing and propensity for comedy were noted, with an Observer writer saying, “She looks as crisp as a celery stick and speaks like a girl who has a good mind of her own.”

Doing revues in Oxford and at festivals, producer Leonard Sillman saw her and “that’s how it happened,” Smith told The Times in 2016 . At 21, she starred in Sillman’s musical comedy revue, “New Faces of 1956,” on Broadway and soon was a rising star.

She made her film debut in the 1958 crime drama “Nowhere to Go” with George Nader. Upon her return to Britain, Laurence Olivier invited her to join London’s Royal National Theatre, and she played Desdemona opposite Olivier in “Othello,” first on stage, then in the 1965 film version, for which she received her first Oscar nomination. It was a role that felt intimidating but propelled her career.

“It was scary,” she told The Times in 2016. “Shakespeare and I were a long way apart because I had been doing things like ‘New Faces’ and revues. I would have been terrified anyway just leaping into Shakespeare, but that was going in at a pretty dizzying level.”

Olivier had also recruited charismatic young actor Robert Stephens, with whom Smith immediately fell in love. The star couple’s onstage chemistry was palpable in “Hay Fever” and “Much Ado About Nothing,” which were big sellers at the box office.

They married in 1967 and had two sons, Christopher and Toby, but the union was eroded by Stephens’ alcoholism and instability as Smith succeeded in film while his career stalled out. They divorced in 1975 and, four months after it was finalized, she reunited with Cross. They remarried, and he took on her two sons as his own.

Smith and Olivier famously didn’t get along and, after her divorce, she and her family set off for Canada, where she spent four years with the Shakespeare Company at Stratford, Ontario. Under the direction of Robin Phillips, she tackled classical roles she hadn’t in London – Cleopatra, Rosalind and Lady Macbeth among them.

“It was wonderful,” she told the Telegraph, “like starting life all over again, really.”

In swinging 1960s London, when films featured fresh mini-skirted ingenues such as Julie Christie and Redgrave, Smith stood apart. Filmmakers picked up on her eccentric, mannered style and the so-called “Maggie Smith character” – the class-fixated braggart she perfected – was born.

“I think it’s just a question of people not knowing quite what to do with you,” she said.

Smith appeared on Broadway in 1975’s “Private Lives” and 1979’s “Night and Day.” Her 1970s film credits included “Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing,” “Murder by Death” and “Death on the Nile.” Alongside a cast that included Jane Fonda, Walter Matthau, Michael Caine, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and Alan Alda, Smith earned her second Academy Award playing Oscar-loser Diana Barrie, who finds herself among a motley crew of guests staying at a Beverly Hills hotel in Neil Simon’s 1978 “California Suite.”

Then came “Virginia,” the play about modernist writer Virginia Woolf in 1981. The show was so successful that it was taken to London. She also starred with Olivier and Harry Hamlin in Cross’ adaptation of the Greek epic “Clash of the Titans” and a slew of film comedies before landing in the 1985 Merchant Ivory production of E.M. Forster’s “A Room With a View.” The romantic drama was up for three Oscars, including best picture and supporting actress for Smith. It was her first pairing with Dench, a close friend who would work with her onstage in 2002 for David Hare’s “The Breath of Life,” in Charles Dance’s “Ladies in Lavender” (2004) and the “Marigold Hotel” films.

But it was “Quartet” that kept popping up on her resume. She had first played Lois Heidler in James Ivory’s 1981 film version and revisited the role when the film was rebooted in 2012 in Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut. Smith earned a BAFTA nomination for the former and a Golden Globe nomination for the latter.

Her nightly role as Lettice Douffet, the eccentric tour guide at the heart of Peter Shaffer’s comedy “Lettice and Lovage,” earned her a Tony Award for best actress when it hit Broadway in 1990. Contemporary film stars Alan Bates , Glenda Jackson and Redgrave were regulars on the West End, but Smith was among the British artists such as Anthony Hopkins and Dench,who appeared at subsidized houses despite their flourishing film careers.

“You find that a lot of actors here – myself included – do film because you need that kind of money in order to work in the [subsidized] theater,” Smith said in 1988. “It used to be in this country that you either did films or you worked in the theater. We’re lucky to be around at a time when you can do both.”

The same year “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” hit theaters, Smith earned wide acclaim in Robert Altman and Julian Fellowes’ mystery-comedy “Gosford Park.” The 2001 film earned seven Oscar nominations, including best picture. Smith was nominated for supporting actress.

“I’m always in costume and period things, wandering around in wigs,” she told The Times in 2001. “If they want one of those snobbish English nasty people or whatever, I get into that bracket.”

Due to her age and health, Smith skipped several American awards shows in her later years even though she won multiple times for “Downton Abbey.” Her absence became a punchline at the 2016 Emmy Awards when host Jimmy Kimmel swiped her supporting actress trophy, saying they wouldn’t mail it but that she could get it at the lost and found.

Writing via the Masterpiece PBS Twitter account, Smith said: “I was very astonished and pleased to win the award. I feel the Emmys has been overly generous to me. If Mr. Kimmel could please direct me to the lost and found office I will try and be on the next flight.” She signed off on the post: “Love old Maggie.”

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