harry’s acting not ruining the movie or being just terribly bad is a pleasant surprise. “what i liked abt the movie is that it feels like a movie” really gave a bad impression. good for him
@@applet4rts639 totally fair, i actually haven’t even seen the movie tbh, just haven’t heard too many terrible complaints abt him. but yk harry’s a singer not an actor for a reason
i haven’t seen it it so i could be completely wrong, but i feel like a better ending would’ve been alice trying to escape, failing (because the portal is closed), and then a hard cut to her cooking breakfast for a new husband named Jack like nothing ever happened
i watched it and i thought that was how it was going to end, they did a good job making us think that was going to happen and it’s a genuine shock to see she survived. i would have been reall disappointed if that’s how it ended cause it would have felt like the movie was for nothing
@@harperlee6957 It would've felt like it was for nothing and probably not been satisfying, but fulfilled the whole metaphor of being stuck in a man's world inevitably
It's based on a screenplay that has much a darker ending! Where she escapes 2x. First time gets caught, doesn't leave the pod and her husband drugs her in the simulation. She doesn't take the pills and searches for the escape key, and leaves to find more info, crawling around his apt learning about the simulation before returning at hubbys return. So she is in it. Plays good wife, warns the neighbor who is in denial. And drugs DH, ties him up and pegs him. She is returned to the simulation in a psych ward lobotomized. And no longer that guys wife.
I think her actually choosing to “side” with the men would be the only interesting ending. Like the implication being that she tricked a new partner into the simulation, so technically she could be the one in control even in spite of the structure of the society of the simulation.
I keep thinking of the added trauma of the women held captive who had children in the victory project. They will escape or wake up and no longer have them and be grieving a child that never existed. It’s extra cruel and none of this is addressed. It couldn’t have worked as a mini series but the film didn’t in any way
I feel like the point Grayson made about how no one would believe Alice after she escapes the victory project should have been included in the narrative. It would have been a much more impactful ending if she wakes up, panics, tries to go to the police and they just laugh at her and call her crazy, find the bodies and arrest her/send her to a mental institution or something. It could have been a very good metaphor for how even after seemingly escaping the grasps of men who are wronging you, men still run the world and will not listen to you. It could have been a commentary on how under the patriarchal society we live in, no matter what happens women will always be ignored/not taken seriously. It’s a never ending cycle unless we do something about it.
i think putting the best scenes in a trailer is such a bad idea. especially when it’s a horror movie or psychological thriller. i noticed that It had the exact same problem. every single jump scare or “scary” moment was in the trailer. the trailer basically summed up the movie so it felt like a waste of time. i wasn’t surprised by any of the jump scares because i had already seen them. it was one of those moments where you’re like “ohhh so that’s when this scene happens” because you’ve seen it before lol
So you were saying how it doesn’t make sense how no one looked for Alice, you’re right. But, there was actually an alternative ending (I think when Shia was supposed to play Jack, they were going to go with that ending). In the alternative ending Alice wakes up and she sees newspapers and articles about how she went “missing” and people mourning her, and the other women in the Victory project who disappeared. The men in the project would fake the women’s disappearance with the help of Frank. But Olivia decided to give the movie an open ending which leaves plot holes like the ones you mentioned.
I really wish that they kept this ending bc couples with the commentary of the rise of “traditional roles” and “incels”, it could have given it a relevant angle
This was the original script ending and Olivia and another writer changed it as soon as they received it. So it was before the cast was ever put together
I wanna know all the upkeep Jack had to do when when Alice was asleep. Like we see him giving her drips of water, but does she just lay there in a diaper? How often does he change it? Wouldn’t she get bed sores? Is she on a feeding tube? She’d probably be in awful physical shape when she does wake up anyways.
Yeah I wish we saw more of the real world. Like I get his sentiment of “my wife works all the time. I lost my job I just want to support her and feel like a big manly breadwinner again” whatever but like wtf else was happening? They both had presumably decent jobs at one point but they live in the worst little run down apartment in a completely falling apart town. Is the whole world fucked? Like does it take place in the future? Wtf does he do when he goes to work. We see him in the plain room and then coming home later and getting in bed with her so I assume he goes to work during the day in the real world and then tunes in with her in the afternoon. I don’t think Frank was like “I’m gonna make a great little world where sad poor incels can lay in bed and get pussy and freshly cooked meals all the time” without there being a drastic catch? Like they can make these people do practically anything. The interview process was also super secretive and selective so like what kinda messed up stuff are they doing in the real world for work?
I kept saying after I saw it "this shouldve been a book" and i stand by that like if this premise was handed to a really good psych thriller author it'd be a best seller, but the pacing is way too fast and the inciting incident is confusing
Two seperate movies were made for the Stepford Wives and they're similar but not the same as Don't Worry Darling. This movie as a book would've hit way harder.
i felt that it was super cliché and the twist was boring asf but i’ve also seen a lot of people new to the psych thriller genre who LOVE it. i think that for someone not familiar w/ all of the overdone tropes, the movie would be wayy more enjoyable
That's my case, I haven't watched the genre at all, just saw the movie on theaters because it was the one with the earliest session, I don't think I'd have watched it at all otherwise. I enjoyed it a lot, I found the first part REALLY boring, but the twist was satisfactory to me and I like the concepts behind it
It sounds almost exactly to the first season of Westworld. If anybody is interested in this type of plot, that show is much more interesting and complex than this movie sounds lol
i think it’s probably enjoyable for anyone who doesn’t take movies too seriously. but i would be confused still which is annoying kinda sounds like a rushed movie
it’s funny bc when he was promoted he looked terrified so i thought his promotion was a front for frank punishing him for his wife’s antics and kept expecting something to happen to him while he was dancing but nope!! he just danced for like five minutes straight for no reason 😍😍
@@helenb2703 RIGHT??? He actually looked scared shitless and I thought he knew something the others didn't about the promotion?? Literally waited for something threatening to happen to him and then he just danced for five minutes😀👍
My biggest issue - the plane scene Why did the plane crash. It’s a simulation. Is it implied that she’s actually crazy? No, right, because we see it pass through the skybox, and she doesn’t know it’s a simulation yet. Like, who coded a fucking plane crash? That the wives might see??
regarding the portal, i was under the impression that when alice went to headquarters the first time, she did leave the victory project. I thought that’s why olivia wilde’s character said “jack won’t be able to put you back in this time” at the end. if that’s not the case then this whole movie makes literally no sense lol
Alice is also dressed significantly more 60s whereas Bunny is deeply 50s as an indicator of Alice being a more modern woman on the outside, being the breadwinner etc.
i went for florence pugh and harry made it hard to stay… his acting wasn’t the best (it wasnt the worst either) but putting him alongside flo and other known actors like nick kroll made him look horrible and his acting was very flat. The movie plot was alright but the ending seemed rushed and overall predictable lol
i think that's the reason why Harry got so much bad reviews. Not only he got less time to "practice" for his role, he also play alongside A-tier actors like Florence
Nick kroll was literally in it for like 2 minutes at most, I get saying that compared to Florence he was bleh but naming Nick or well anyone else for that matter is just insane because no one in that cast minus Florence and even Olivia is actually a GOOD actor. Everyone was mediocre in every little sense even Nick kroll which okay you mentioning him has confused the hell out of me because he isn’t known for being a super good fantastic actor and I think even putting him and Florence in the same sentence is borderline offensive 😭
SPOILERS FOR DWD worst part is that alice wakes up STRAPPED TO THE BED. she cant get out. so shes now trapped next to a rotting corpse, waiting for the IV drip that's keeping her alive to run out so that she can eventually die of starvation.
literally half of this movie is "ooOoo something's weird!!!", I wish they actually focused on the interesting stuff and create a story that isn't predictable and boring. also the plot hole about alice's family or friends not noticing her disappearance drove me insane watching it. and, I think they made harry british because for the few minutes I heard it, his american accent sounded inconsistent, or off. I don't really remember what was off, but it was enough where my friend and I looked at the each other in confusion.
Yeah the small bit of his American accent was… bad… why was he even casted.. he didn’t bring anything unique to the role, in fact it was the opposite.. I’m just confused at the decision
Why couldn’t he have just also been British in real life? There are British people who live in the US he could just be a British man and it would avoid the weird convoluted detail about him choosing to be British in the simulation lmao
@@EF-kk3vh i haven't watched this movie, youre telling me they decided the only reasonable way for Harry Styles to be British is if he chose to be British within the simulation??
For the Harry being British in the sim thing- you can see in his real world apartment/computer room he has an older James Bond poster so I would think his whole sim vibe was based on being James Bond- the hair/the car/the accent etc
i’m not a huge movie watcher, but i am an artist, and what sold me to the movie completely was the artistic side of it. all of the scenes in some way were produced amazingly (imo) and the twists and strangeness of the scenes were so artistically beautiful to me. the movie worried me with the tension, and the story to me was good. i don’t watch many psych-thrillers, so this is from an amateurs perspective ! i just thought the cinematography was amazing. great video as per usual
ik I’m super late to the party, but my interpretation of Wilde’s character was, as you said, that she knew she was in the simulation but still decided to go along with it anyway. But, the fact her character was played by the director of the film came off to me that Olivia Wilde knows she’s in a patriarchal industry (film) but goes along with it all for some reason. No clue how accurate or “correct” that reading is, but I think it’s very telling about Wilde if true.
@@tardigradeColonies from what i've heard others say, better movies to watch that follow similar themes or storylines would be "The Truman Show" and "Get Out".
i understand why olivia says the sex scenes with Jack and Alice are important to show their love for each other, but in the scenes we see he’s always pleasing her. we don’t get to see anything with him as the main focus, it’s all about Alice, and to me it feels more like Jack trying to make sure she’s happy and satisfied since the wives are the husbands responsibility. when frank says to jack “looks like you’re not pleasing your wife enough”, it’s cause the husband’s role in the simulation is to make sure the wife doesn’t find out their life isn’t real and to do that they have to keep them happy and satisfied so they don’t question things. also when jack says he thinks they should have a baby after alice talked about how she and jack DONT want kids, i saw it as not him just wanting more of alice in a kid, but also so that she has something new to focus on and take up her time while he’s away and can’t occupy her.
i agree with all of this but really it was nice and refreshing to see the woman as the main focus in sex for once ,even ofc if it had other implications in the movie
@@misakiXmei there’s a lot of little differences between the two because it was originally made by different people and I believe this version was rewritten by Olivia Wilde and someone who also wrote for booksmart but I can find a link that points out some of the major changes. Some key changes though include the differences in the location of the portal/how she finds it, her escape at the end, the fight for her life, etc. Overall it seemed like there was more happening in the original than this one and it didn’t seem as predictable as this one. Oh and in the original there weren’t as many plot holes like ‘where’s Alice’ because everyone thinks she’s dead in the real world and that’s explained in the script too.
@@misakiXmei When Alice wakes up it's in the year 2050 and finds out her and Jack actually got divorced and he then kidnapped her and made everyone else assume she was dead. She goes back to the simulation but gets put through electroshock therapy. She late fights Jack and ties him to a bed and interrogates where he admits to it saying they divorced because she had too much work. She leaves the simulation and Jack follows her, they fight and Alice kills Jack. Bunny finds the scene because it turns out it happened in their kitchen in the 50s (idk this part isnt clear). Alice is sent to a mental hospital where Bunny visits her and tells her she always knew and tells Alice there is an exit door behind her. Alice goes through the door and it cuts to black. A better (if not perfect) ending than the one in the actual movie imo.
I may not have the accurate version of the ending because I just heard it through a Tiktok, but I believe the fight with Jack and Alice where she kills him takes place in the real world. Alice then wakes up in an asylum in the 50’s and it’s implied if not just stated she imagined the whole movie. Only then is she visited by Bunny and told there’s a door behind her for her to leave. It’s supposed to be like a “you don’t know what’s real and what’s not anymore” kinda thing where you’re always guessing which reality is the real one
i was so bummed that so chris and gemma were criminally under utilized in this. like i thought chris was going to be a big baddie and we didnt really see a whole lot of that. like i wanted way more. if we act like the trailers dont exist (bc i didnt watch them prior to), there aren't even enough breadcrumbs in the actual movie for the audience to reach the conclusion, i think its good storytelling when an audience can guess as the story progresses what the twist is. like it's just a lot of weird things but so unclear if she was actually imagining them like a mental break deal or if it was an actual glitch. i felt like nothing actually happened like the whole movie
To address the accent switching, if you look in the background of his flashback scenes with Alice, there’s a James Bond poster in the background. So I think that the implication is that he’s a James Bond fan and wants to be like him with the suaveness, coolness and overall Britishness. The flash was so brief so I’m not surprised that most people missed it. It honestly seems a bit lazy, like they were trying to clean up why Harry can’t do an American accent so he’s English for the rest of the movie. I think that Jacks characterization would’ve been better if they did drill into his desire to be an “alpha male” like James Bond, BUT they didn’t so it’s super subtle to a fault and not in a groundbreaking kind of way.
i think i have an answer about the plot whole w/ Alice's family. The ending for Don't Worry Darling was originally different from what we saw in the movie, originally once Alice leaves the simulation, she sees divorce papers and a death certificate indicating that she was planning on divorcing Jack and so he fakes her death and forces her to be in the simulation. It doesn't make the most sense either but it does shed some light on how he could have gone away with it. I hope this helps clear it up!
if that man was capable of kidnapping his (ex)-gf (from the flashbacks i believe they broke up at some point) cuffing her to a bed, and trapping her in a simulation, i wouldn't be surprised if he faked alice death?? also, the accent thing, i just feel for him, specially in the 50s would make him more "sophisticated and cool" , very incel of him tbh .
@@mcchilde2903 I called jack incel as a joke bc he was listening to franks podcast and it sounds a lot like the rhetoric incels use online. And by the accent thing, I mean jack choosing to be British and have an accent bc it might make him sound cool and fancy… which he was not in real life
I felt the movie needed to either flesh out the story elements in a more satisfying way, or lean fully into the more abstract elements and create a more loose/surrealist plot. In the end it felt like it did neither, and therefore didn't really have a real vision of what it wanted to be.
the point about the music is so true! i didn't notice that but looking back the whole first 15 minutes seemed like back to back 50s songs to 'set the scene' or something. and with the scary music too-it created the tension, instead of building on what was happening. i had a good time watching the movie but i don't think it said a whole lot about anything.
I could see her seeing a therapist that works with cults and cult deprograming, since it would probably be the closest irl thing to what she experienced
23:53 i took it as alice actually did exit the simulation when she went to the desert but jack was there to put her back, not that the portal was closed. but not even the writers know for sure probably.
I saw someone saying about how Harry Styles and Florence Pugh in this movie remind them of in high school musicals when like there’s this one random guy who just decides that he wants to be in the musical and he gets like the lead role and then he’s like 😢pared with this girl who’s been working to get this role for like her entire life
I always love Graysons jokes about things like this. I looked in the description and saw "we were right to be worried darling" and I actually laughed out loud, also great video too :)
I thought I was the only one who noticed the music and I’m so so glad you got it too! The suspenseful music without nothing suspenseful happening made be anxious. Not to mention the criminally slow pacing. 1.5hr in they were STILL eluding to something sinister and I got frustrated only to be left with a cliffhanger?!?
This is so spot on. Like, everything you said totally nailed what I was thinking. And the drama surrounding it did a damn good job, bc the literal only reason I went to see it was to see what all the fuss was about. I feel like a lot of the plot was supposed to be played out in the subtext (as there was zero world building) but Styles was SO bad at conveying any emotion through body language that it almost makes me wish they could have kept Shia (as problematic as he may be) bc he would have known how to make those scenes more intense. Or just.. literally any other actor. It's a shame, because I think it could have had a lot of potential with a better director and more fleshed out storyline. It makes me wonder how they got queen Florence to sign on.. no wonder she did zero promotion for it 🤷
i commented this on trins video and think it’s relevant here lol: i think that the overall message of the film and how it relates to today could have been super impactful if it was handled/marketed the right way. i interpreted it as a criticism of how online cults of personality indoctrinate lonely young men who feel dejected as a result of capitalism. this also extends to incel groups online (even tho jack was in a relationship with alice). a lot of these guys are pulled in figures like jordan peterson and andrew tate who claim to be sticking up for depressed men, but instead of criticizing capitalism they claim feminism is what made them this way. i think that’s evident in the fact that the simulation is centered in the 50s, since 50s imagery is glamorized by right wingers as a time that we need to “return to” in order to “restore the family”. like think about it: it’s a simulation, why did they choose to make it a past era when they could’ve just done an idealized version of modern lifestyle? one of the scenes with jack and alice’s old lives shows frank specifically talking about the role of men or something along those lines too. i’m also pretty sure olivia wilde specifically linked the film to peterson so there’s that this online pipeline is really harmful and it’s expanding with platforms like tiktok that make it easier to fall down rabbit holes. but the fact that the film was marketed to be a “womens-empowerment” movie (and the fact that the drama behind it really upstaged any discussion about the plot) was super damaging to any lessons that the audience could have derived from it. i wish it was put in better hands/circumstances
this!! i really think that many people didnt get how important the ACTUALL lesson of this film about mens indoctrination from incel cults is. i really liked seeing a film comment on this in not the most direct way , at least not direct instantly, this is definitely not a bad movie and i really enjoyed it because it was a nice mash of things and different societal issues
“If I had a nickel every time… I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice” is now my favorite quote thanks to you 😂 I haven’t seen it yet, but after watching your critique I want to see it just to nit-pick it myself lol
I literally just finished watching the don’t worry darling controversy video and was like “oh, dang, I kinda wish Grayson would cover it” and then scrolled down and say this one
i watched it last night so kinda perfect timing but i loved your analysis, when i watched it i kind of walked away not thinking it was bad but not being super impressed and you put that into words so well with talking abt how it was just pointless rly which i think is what i was feeling
I can't believe I actually predicted the plot and twist of the movie. I was like "this is gonna be some Village stuff where the movie doesn't take place in the past but it's the present". Basically a mix of The Village and the Black Mirror episode.
I'm pretty sure Olivia Wilde was only the director and didn't actually write the script so I was really curious what was actually written and what was her own choice. I saw a tiktok the other day of someone giving a synopsis of the original script and it honestly seemed better thought out and more interesting
I’m so glad you mentioned the feet at the end because I thought I was going crazy looking at them or that maybe Florence had a no feet clause in her contract 😂 I know you touched on it at the end but my opinion of the movie changed when I recontextualised the actual point of the story. The point of the story isn’t about the Victory Project, it’s about Alice being gaslit. While I do think it was messy and not perfectly done, the overall pacing of the film made more sense to me when I realised it’s entirely about Alice. To a certain extent, I don’t even think it was about what was actually being done to her by the male characters but how her mind was struggling to keep a hold on what felt like an ever changing reality. I was definitely disappointed by the ending and the dystopian sci-fi nerd in me still wants more explanations about how it all works but I’m happy to let that go because it was never actually what the movie was about. (At least not in my opinion) I think the movie was poorly marketed and OW really was not the best person to tell this story and it’s true that it didn’t really make any hard points about abusive relationships but I can still accept it for what it was trying to be. Edit: I also think that’s why the trailer was so “obvious” with what it showed. We’re not watching the film trying to figure out what’s going on (not strictly at least) or the grand mystery behind it all. Again - poorly marketed.
there actually is a black mirror episode that does this concept way better, season 4 episode 1. the episode title is USS Callister. this guy's a co-founder of an online multiplayer space themed game, and he falls in "love at first sight" with a new coworker. this guy is like the main coder for the game or something and has a bit of a rivalry with the guy he reports to, as they kind of silently compete with each other for the new girl's attention. so he's the main coder of the game, and we come to find out he has made his own personal version of this game, where he takes the DNA of his coworkers if they slight him (and he does not have a good reputation at the office), and puts them into his game, but these are more like copies of the people and not his coworkers themselves. so he ends up doing the same with the new girl's DNA, and we see how cruel and vile he acts as the creator and leader of the game world that they're in towards his "coworkers". the coworkers are all sentient and understand that this is a simulation, but they have no free will and can't escape as the main guy is literally the creator and has coded it so they cannot escape, and then punishes them severely for not complying with his insane game world. it's really good honestly and i think it made a better commentary on patriarchy and incels than this movie tried to...
Okay so I saw the movie today with a friend. And the questionable consent of the women in the simulation while knowing of Wilde’s quotes that the sex shows the couple’s “love” / the movie’s “admirable” representation of women’s pleasure being a priority has made me feel deeply unsettled. How could she or anybody else on the writing team/PR crew not see the problem? How could this movie empower those to prioritize women’s pleasure, when there isn’t confirmed consent? Are we really understanding how patriarchy and sex overlap when we begin to blur the lines between pleasure and sexual assault? I’m so glad you discussed it because I didn’t want to feel like I was the only one who picked up on it. Thank you.
So, I took my little sister to see this yesterday (she's a huge Harry stan, so we know why she wanted to go) I was dreading it, and I am not the kind of person to DREAD seeing a movie. Generally, with me I enjoy going to the theatres because it's so much more fun, I don't know why. My pros to this movie: The story is interesting to me, and I thought the acting was good. The concept of Jack being an absolute disgusting pig in real life only to make himself a suave, young, rich British man in the simulation was really interesting to me because I thought of it as: "This is how men really see themselves, while their partner sees the real thing." Florence was a standout, but when is she not? She did a phenomenal job in this very polarizing character. I was also impressed with Olivia Wilde, I don't know much about her, but her acting was pretty okay. Harry did better than I thought he would, but I agree he isn't like Chris Pine, who can be threatening without having to scream at the top of his lungs. I actually enjoyed the music in the movie because this is a world created by men who just want their wives to be obedient; they don't care about music. Frank probably just googled "Top hits of the 50s-60s" and had that on repeat because no one would notice, and he doesn't care. Also "Life Can be a Dream" fits the movie's story in almost an ironic sense when you think about it. My cons: We got in there, and I got annoyed at how artsy it was throughout the movie. If you have to rely on gore, sex, or foul language, then your movie is not worth seeing. This movie used its sex as a reason to kind of make moviegoers uncomfortable, I think, as opposed to aroused or intrigued. The sex scenes were super uncomfortable and overdone. The one with Jack eating Alice out after the first 15 minutes felt like it went on for 5 minutes. The suicide was shocking, but you knew it was coming; I found it stupid that Margaret got on the roof just to slit her throat, like...babe wtf was the point? (Being artsy was the point, lol). I could not stand that Olivia Wilde talked about how important the sex scenes were when, as you said, Grayson, they were NOT CONSENSUAL. Jack had to drug Alice in real life, strap her to a bed, and keep her sedated to have her take part in this simulation. He did it because she was working long hours at the hospital. After all, he couldn't keep a job. She would come home tired and gross, and he would try and get some; dude, she is busting her ass for you, and you can't even clean the damn dishes?!?!? UGH, SO ANNOYING! Lol, anyway, yeah, so all the sex scenes we witness in the movie, as SA scenes. Overal Rating: Story: 7/10: it was exciting but needed more polishing Acting: 8/10 Everyone did well with the characters given Music: 10/10 I'm a sucker for the 50s Directing: 6/10; stop being artsy for the sake of being artsy; you aren't Joker. Rating of the movie itself: 6/10, I would definitely watch it again, but I would probably need to pace myself.
i actually thought there were not as many sex scenes as everyone was saying... there were like what, 2?? and the gore was basically non existent, same as the profanity. also, joker was artsy for the sake of bwing artsy, lol
@@jhoelene yes, but if you read my comment. The sex lasted forever and did nothing for the story. Why did we have to see Jack eat Alice out? Why did we have to see Jack finger Alice and Frank watch? It didn’t do anything for the story. And after learning about what was happening you realize that the sex was entirely not consensual. Jack is a r*pist. And Joker makes sense if you read the comics, for me, I found it really annoying the first time but I came to understand it more the second time. Maybe it’ll be the same for DWD. Like I said I’m totally willing to watch it again. All I meant was: “if you need to rely on sex, gore, profanity, your movie looks weak”. An I definitely agree that DWD relied a lot on the drama for its press cause there was no other press for the movie
@@mischiefmanagedxx592 i mean, the point of the scene where frank watches them have sex is pretty much revealed later in the film; so that he can bring it up over dinner and humiliate alice. as for the eating out scene, i believe it was just to introduce the couple and alice's daily routine (waking up, being a housewife, having sex, going to bed). i agree that it seemed like it went on forever, but it's not that serious, i've seen movies with way longer and more unnecessary sex scenes, lol i really dont find joker annoying but it was a bit pretentious aesthetic-wise.
@@jhoelene oh no no you’re right there has TOTALLY been worse. I just don’t enjoying having to watch a character be assaulted over and over again. I honestly wish that it was more implied than shown. And yeah when you put the Frank scene like that it definitely makes more sense. I think it would’ve been better if Wilde didn’t constantly act as if the sex was so beautiful and artistic when it’s really upsetting at the end
Why is nobody talking about the weird scene with frank walking in on them having sex in his room, and Alice just like doesn’t do or say anything and they just stare at each other? Who among us would not have yelled and like jumped up and stopped having sex??
I saw someone say that this movie felt like a first draft, and honestly I agree. The ending is really clunky, and they forget about a lot of plot points established early on, like the plane that crashed or the weird goings-ons that never really get explained. Also they completely forgot about the weird tremors lol, I saw some people say it was when the men left the simulation but it happened before they all left?? so what did they mean? like fr it feels like a rough draft that should've had a year longer in the writing room.
I feel like also it might have been more interesting to see more of after Alice escapes, like who does she tell about this? does she try to get ppl to believe her or keep it to herself? are there maybe other projects like this around the world she has to work to bring down? there are probably soo many other interesting routes they could've taken but instead they made maybe the most predictable, cliche, vapid story they could
you should look into Olivia Wilde more because once you do you will realize that she DEFINITELY should not have made this at all. The list of extremely problematic things that she has done..... there is a 2 part yt vid detailing her very questionable actions. I also think you should look into the Kiki Layne situation. Both she and Ari'el spoke about how most of their scenes were cut and Kiki was cut from all the promo despite her name being featured on all the posters. I also think that Olivia wanted there to be room for a sequel but with how much the cast seemingly dislikes each other, I doubt we will see one ever. Also, Chris Pine dropped out of Jimmy Kimmel and both he and Florence skipped the official premiere... and all of Olivia's posts about DWD when it originally wrapped, spoke highly of everyone, and then with Harry's, it was a lengthy post about how it's rare for men to step back and let women be the leads, etc. only for her to use him as the main marketing factor for the film by having DWD opportunities at his shows and the seemingly endless pap walks. Also, she didn't mention female pleasure once, she mentioned it continuously during the entire press run even after Florence Pugh said she didn't like the sex scenes being the only part people talked about, and Alice can't consent to anything because she is TIED down to a bed in a simulation. You should read the original script online because it is so much better than what Olivia went with. Like it actually made sense and if they continued with it, I think the reception to this film would've been a lot better. In the original script, Bunny isn't one of the main characters, Margaret is. There were onset videos that leaked during filming and Margaret was actually supposed to be alive and was in the final scene where Alice runs out of the house but for some reason, it was cut? The only reason that Alice starts to question anything is because of Margaret. and also, what was that plane? This film is basically white Get Out or White Mirror (as some are referring to on twitter) Anyways totally disappointing just wanted to rant about it because it could have been so good.
I dont think people are focusing enough on how fucking weird it is for a director with so much seniority in the industry to be dating a pop star ten years younger than them attempting to break into that industry. That would be weird on its own- and then for them to be very rapidly cast as the lead in their movie- She's literally his boss, and he is noticeably and repeatedly out of his depth through out this whole process. If the genders were reversed people would be calling that out two ways from Sunday with the twitter fest that happened around this movie
@@emma-tz8bg I don't care how old you are or how long you've had the job - You don't date employees/You don't hire your s/o to be an employee like this. Had she just been dating him - that'd be one thing. She wouldnt have "seniority in the industry" just because she's been working in it longer - but no - She decided to make him her employee. She put him under intense scrutiny and in a position he was arguably not qualified for- And her self in a position of direct power and influence over him and his career. Had a Man in the industry done the exact same thing I highly doubt you'd be saying this.
since u mentioned rewatching shameless i’d love to see i video abt the lost potential of that show… the first four season were some of the best tv i’ve ever seen but after season 5 they they lost their focus on the emotional resonance of the characters and as it went on (for waaay too long) it just became a shell of the show it was when it began
Also, this is Harry's second film and he's one of the leads, so of course his acting is a bit wonky. He wasn't great, but like I don't think he deserves all the hate he gets, he just needs practice imo. Hopefully he'll be better in My Policeman
@@miaboaler2968 I think it's too soon to tell tbh and i think it's hard to look past the fact that it's Harry Styles, like I personally couldn't see him as Jack, I only saw Harry which ruined it a bit for me ngl
@@ithinkiwoulddie9196 he's famous, ofc he gets a lead role and by him having a lead role in a movie also brings in more money, if he wasn't famous, he definitely wouldn't get a lead role for his second acting job
For me his acting is a problem because he got paid a lot, and a lot more than Florence at that. I do understand that he got paid THAT much with that little experience because he's famous and he would bring more money than he got paid but in my eyes he getting paid that much just allows people to criticize him even if he doesn't have the experience, especially because he doesn't have the experience
I don't want this to sound like an insult but I've fallen asleep like 3 times trying to watch this video because your voice is pure ASMR to me hahahahaha
From what you’re saying (because I probably won’t see the movie) it sounds like what i originally assumed it would be (based on the lengthy trailer) is better. I thought it would be a sci-fi psychological-thriller about a group of cold scientists running a retro-futuristic social experiment wherein men (and Olivia Wilde) maintain and populate a small, community in the middle of the desert, and they kidnap women and program them with a story about how they met their husband (men who won their “ticket” into this idealistic community). These women are chosen or sent away by their families to sort of be “reformed”. It could even be expanded to discuss some sort of feminist theme about what is expected from women and this sort of incel traditionalist mindset as they show the outside world (once we as the audience realize the truth) debating whether or not this is okay and protesting, or maybe the world doesn’t know at all, and we have to watch these womens families struggle to find them. It would help explain the sight of the plane flying overhead, because the community scientists have set up cloaking devices to hide planes from the community and hide the community from any outside influence. The whole thing is just a conspiracy theory in the eyes of outsiders to the community. It would solve the other issues of what to do with Alice when she wakes up: she’s not “waking up”. She’s getting her memories back and escaping and now her body isn’t frail and hollow. Think of Stepford Wives Truman Show with a Black Mirror edge.
Also about the portal, I don't think they say portal opening in the scene of the husbands, I'm pretty sure they said approaching portal with the countdown. And later, bunny implies that Alice did leave the simulation when she touched the glass, but because jack was "at work", he was there in the real world and immediately put her back in again.
Also: is the pregnant character only pregnant in the simulation, or also in the real world? And how does that work if she does give birth irl? Unless the children themselves are just simulations. And are Bunny's kids simulated or did they kidnap real children and put them into project like the women?
In the end Bunny implies her kids had died in real life and she’s a willing participant because she gets to pretend her kids are still alive. However all the kids are simulations.
19:08 in the original scripts it showed a flyer or notice paper saying that alice had died so the women were made to look like they'd either gone missing or died in the real world
I read that the original ending to the script was different to what we saw and you should look at that, it answered a lot of the plotholes and I don't know why they changed it
i maintain that it would have been much better as a limited series, which i know seem over done nowadays, but i really think it would have done the story more justice bc the concept is super interesting. there could have been more development of the twist, perhaps an episode showing the beginnings of the simulation and more on how it actually works, more exploration of jack and alice’s dynamic before he signed up rather than less than five minutes, the real would implications (isn’t alice’s family and friends worried? or the other peoples’????? huge plot hole) etc. i just think that if you’re going to make such a big, important, feminist, of-the-time claim then you really need to spell it out and make it obvious so that everyone understands it.
I can’t believe we went from “I’m never seeing Don’t Worry Darling” to “So I saw Don’t Worry Darling”, Grayson. Truly character undevelopment 😞
Character degradation 💀
@@Jatbee0815 get %$f9b
she did it so we didn't need to do it
Lmaoo
taking one for the team
harry’s acting not ruining the movie or being just terribly bad is a pleasant surprise. “what i liked abt the movie is that it feels like a movie” really gave a bad impression. good for him
The funniest part is a common review I’ve seen is “… well, it was a movie”
Disagree his acting truly ruined the movie for me even without the fact that it’s a badly executed concept
his acting was just so, "I had acting lessons for the first time" but maybe its just me
@@haha-sm7cn yeah fr it was like watching boys in y9 do drama performances again
@@applet4rts639 totally fair, i actually haven’t even seen the movie tbh, just haven’t heard too many terrible complaints abt him. but yk harry’s a singer not an actor for a reason
i haven’t seen it it so i could be completely wrong, but i feel like a better ending would’ve been alice trying to escape, failing (because the portal is closed), and then a hard cut to her cooking breakfast for a new husband named Jack like nothing ever happened
Yeah it would be more of a thriller if it didn't have a Hollywood ending
i watched it and i thought that was how it was going to end, they did a good job making us think that was going to happen and it’s a genuine shock to see she survived. i would have been reall disappointed if that’s how it ended cause it would have felt like the movie was for nothing
@@harperlee6957 It would've felt like it was for nothing and probably not been satisfying, but fulfilled the whole metaphor of being stuck in a man's world inevitably
It's based on a screenplay that has much a darker ending! Where she escapes 2x. First time gets caught, doesn't leave the pod and her husband drugs her in the simulation.
She doesn't take the pills and searches for the escape key, and leaves to find more info, crawling around his apt learning about the simulation before returning at hubbys return.
So she is in it. Plays good wife, warns the neighbor who is in denial. And drugs DH, ties him up and pegs him. She is returned to the simulation in a psych ward lobotomized. And no longer that guys wife.
I think her actually choosing to “side” with the men would be the only interesting ending. Like the implication being that she tricked a new partner into the simulation, so technically she could be the one in control even in spite of the structure of the society of the simulation.
I keep thinking of the added trauma of the women held captive who had children in the victory project. They will escape or wake up and no longer have them and be grieving a child that never existed. It’s extra cruel and none of this is addressed. It couldn’t have worked as a mini series but the film didn’t in any way
I agree, a mini series would have been amazing
Exactly! Very strong scenes but it was a weak film when put together
Saw the notification and said “Sorry past Grayson, but I gotta watch present Grayson”
😂
I feel like the point Grayson made about how no one would believe Alice after she escapes the victory project should have been included in the narrative. It would have been a much more impactful ending if she wakes up, panics, tries to go to the police and they just laugh at her and call her crazy, find the bodies and arrest her/send her to a mental institution or something. It could have been a very good metaphor for how even after seemingly escaping the grasps of men who are wronging you, men still run the world and will not listen to you. It could have been a commentary on how under the patriarchal society we live in, no matter what happens women will always be ignored/not taken seriously. It’s a never ending cycle unless we do something about it.
An APT metaphor i concur... Of a lie.
This was forever ago but wasn’t Alice strapped to the bed? I don’t know how she would even be able to leave even if she woke up😭
i think putting the best scenes in a trailer is such a bad idea. especially when it’s a horror movie or psychological thriller. i noticed that It had the exact same problem. every single jump scare or “scary” moment was in the trailer. the trailer basically summed up the movie so it felt like a waste of time. i wasn’t surprised by any of the jump scares because i had already seen them. it was one of those moments where you’re like “ohhh so that’s when this scene happens” because you’ve seen it before lol
So you were saying how it doesn’t make sense how no one looked for Alice, you’re right. But, there was actually an alternative ending (I think when Shia was supposed to play Jack, they were going to go with that ending). In the alternative ending Alice wakes up and she sees newspapers and articles about how she went “missing” and people mourning her, and the other women in the Victory project who disappeared. The men in the project would fake the women’s disappearance with the help of Frank. But Olivia decided to give the movie an open ending which leaves plot holes like the ones you mentioned.
I really wish that they kept this ending bc couples with the commentary of the rise of “traditional roles” and “incels”, it could have given it a relevant angle
This was the original script ending and Olivia and another writer changed it as soon as they received it. So it was before the cast was ever put together
I wanna know all the upkeep Jack had to do when when Alice was asleep. Like we see him giving her drips of water, but does she just lay there in a diaper? How often does he change it? Wouldn’t she get bed sores? Is she on a feeding tube? She’d probably be in awful physical shape when she does wake up anyways.
Yeah I wish we saw more of the real world. Like I get his sentiment of “my wife works all the time. I lost my job I just want to support her and feel like a big manly breadwinner again” whatever but like wtf else was happening? They both had presumably decent jobs at one point but they live in the worst little run down apartment in a completely falling apart town. Is the whole world fucked? Like does it take place in the future? Wtf does he do when he goes to work. We see him in the plain room and then coming home later and getting in bed with her so I assume he goes to work during the day in the real world and then tunes in with her in the afternoon. I don’t think Frank was like “I’m gonna make a great little world where sad poor incels can lay in bed and get pussy and freshly cooked meals all the time” without there being a drastic catch? Like they can make these people do practically anything. The interview process was also super secretive and selective so like what kinda messed up stuff are they doing in the real world for work?
everyone clowned on harry for saying it is a movie that feels like a movie, but i have yet to read a more succinctly accurate review.
it didn't feel like a movie, though. It felt like a long advertisement for a movie that doesn't exist
My favourite part was when darling said “Don’t worry darling” then they don’t worry darlinged all over the place
Hell yeah brother
They did in fact make us worry
I kept saying after I saw it "this shouldve been a book" and i stand by that like if this premise was handed to a really good psych thriller author it'd be a best seller, but the pacing is way too fast and the inciting incident is confusing
The book exists; it's called The Stepford Wives
Two seperate movies were made for the Stepford Wives and they're similar but not the same as Don't Worry Darling. This movie as a book would've hit way harder.
EXACTLY MY THOUGHT
It kind of reminds me of More Than This
i felt that it was super cliché and the twist was boring asf but i’ve also seen a lot of people new to the psych thriller genre who LOVE it. i think that for someone not familiar w/ all of the overdone tropes, the movie would be wayy more enjoyable
That's my case, I haven't watched the genre at all, just saw the movie on theaters because it was the one with the earliest session, I don't think I'd have watched it at all otherwise. I enjoyed it a lot, I found the first part REALLY boring, but the twist was satisfactory to me and I like the concepts behind it
THIS
Well yeah. People new to rock music probably like Nickelback. That doesn't make it okay 😂
It sounds almost exactly to the first season of Westworld. If anybody is interested in this type of plot, that show is much more interesting and complex than this movie sounds lol
i think it’s probably enjoyable for anyone who doesn’t take movies too seriously. but i would be confused still which is annoying kinda sounds like a rushed movie
The real darling was the friends we made along the way!
The tapdancing scene went on FOREVER
i love to read comments like this without having watched the movie
It was so funny to me
Dude was dancing like he slipped on a wet floor for 5 minutes
it’s funny bc when he was promoted he looked terrified so i thought his promotion was a front for frank punishing him for his wife’s antics and kept expecting something to happen to him while he was dancing but nope!! he just danced for like five minutes straight for no reason 😍😍
@@helenb2703 RIGHT??? He actually looked scared shitless and I thought he knew something the others didn't about the promotion?? Literally waited for something threatening to happen to him and then he just danced for five minutes😀👍
My biggest issue - the plane scene
Why did the plane crash. It’s a simulation. Is it implied that she’s actually crazy? No, right, because we see it pass through the skybox, and she doesn’t know it’s a simulation yet. Like, who coded a fucking plane crash? That the wives might see??
It’s a glitch, just like the eggs that are hollow shells in the beginning
regarding the portal, i was under the impression that when alice went to headquarters the first time, she did leave the victory project. I thought that’s why olivia wilde’s character said “jack won’t be able to put you back in this time” at the end. if that’s not the case then this whole movie makes literally no sense lol
Yeah I’m pretty sure she exited the first time, he saw she woke up while he was too clocked out and then clocked her back in.
Yes yes, which is why she glitches when she comes back in bc I guess the coding didn’t account for the women leaving???
Alice is also dressed significantly more 60s whereas Bunny is deeply 50s as an indicator of Alice being a more modern woman on the outside, being the breadwinner etc.
i went for florence pugh and harry made it hard to stay… his acting wasn’t the best (it wasnt the worst either) but putting him alongside flo and other known actors like nick kroll made him look horrible and his acting was very flat. The movie plot was alright but the ending seemed rushed and overall predictable lol
what was the reason for nick kroll tho he came n went
@@katrinamack444 a cameo i’m guessing
i think that's the reason why Harry got so much bad reviews. Not only he got less time to "practice" for his role, he also play alongside A-tier actors like Florence
Nick kroll was literally in it for like 2 minutes at most, I get saying that compared to Florence he was bleh but naming Nick or well anyone else for that matter is just insane because no one in that cast minus Florence and even Olivia is actually a GOOD actor. Everyone was mediocre in every little sense even Nick kroll which okay you mentioning him has confused the hell out of me because he isn’t known for being a super good fantastic actor and I think even putting him and Florence in the same sentence is borderline offensive 😭
When Gemma chan’s character stabbed Chris pine and said “you stupid stupid man” the entire theater applauded. It was such a jarring experience
SPOILERS FOR DWD
worst part is that alice wakes up STRAPPED TO THE BED. she cant get out. so shes now trapped next to a rotting corpse, waiting for the IV drip that's keeping her alive to run out so that she can eventually die of starvation.
yesss literally!! makes no sense
Ig she's trapped either way but the point is to question whether to live the fantasy or wake up to a cruel reality
Why does this feel like a bad ripoff of Stephen King?
I think that's kinda the point? She escaped one extreme patriarchy, but we also live in a patriarch and Jack still chose her future.
No i think her dancing at the end that's cutting in an out is her after she's made it out
literally half of this movie is "ooOoo something's weird!!!", I wish they actually focused on the interesting stuff and create a story that isn't predictable and boring. also the plot hole about alice's family or friends not noticing her disappearance drove me insane watching it. and, I think they made harry british because for the few minutes I heard it, his american accent sounded inconsistent, or off. I don't really remember what was off, but it was enough where my friend and I looked at the each other in confusion.
Yeah the small bit of his American accent was… bad… why was he even casted.. he didn’t bring anything unique to the role, in fact it was the opposite.. I’m just confused at the decision
Why couldn’t he have just also been British in real life? There are British people who live in the US he could just be a British man and it would avoid the weird convoluted detail about him choosing to be British in the simulation lmao
@@EF-kk3vh literally! it would have been so much easier and not been that confusing
@@EF-kk3vh i haven't watched this movie, youre telling me they decided the only reasonable way for Harry Styles to be British is if he chose to be British within the simulation??
In the original ending Alice sees missing person reports about her after she wakes up in the real world which would have made way more sense
“It was definitely a movie” yes agreed 😂💀 I loved that so much ❤
For the Harry being British in the sim thing- you can see in his real world apartment/computer room he has an older James Bond poster so I would think his whole sim vibe was based on being James Bond- the hair/the car/the accent etc
James Bond was also a mysogynist
i’m not a huge movie watcher, but i am an artist, and what sold me to the movie completely was the artistic side of it. all of the scenes in some way were produced amazingly (imo) and the twists and strangeness of the scenes were so artistically beautiful to me. the movie worried me with the tension, and the story to me was good.
i don’t watch many psych-thrillers, so this is from an amateurs perspective ! i just thought the cinematography was amazing. great video as per usual
Glad to hear that the movie really did feel like a movie
ik I’m super late to the party, but my interpretation of Wilde’s character was, as you said, that she knew she was in the simulation but still decided to go along with it anyway. But, the fact her character was played by the director of the film came off to me that Olivia Wilde knows she’s in a patriarchal industry (film) but goes along with it all for some reason. No clue how accurate or “correct” that reading is, but I think it’s very telling about Wilde if true.
My problem with it was that basically everything in this film has been done better by other films
Would you recommend any particular better done films that deal with similar themes?
@@tardigradeColonies from what i've heard others say, better movies to watch that follow similar themes or storylines would be "The Truman Show" and "Get Out".
@@tardigradeColonies the stepford wives (both adaptations). it was essentially copied.
@@tardigradeColonies The Stepford Wives 1975.
@@sapphirefire291
It also kinda reminds me of Sighltess in a way
i understand why olivia says the sex scenes with Jack and Alice are important to show their love for each other, but in the scenes we see he’s always pleasing her. we don’t get to see anything with him as the main focus, it’s all about Alice, and to me it feels more like Jack trying to make sure she’s happy and satisfied since the wives are the husbands responsibility. when frank says to jack “looks like you’re not pleasing your wife enough”, it’s cause the husband’s role in the simulation is to make sure the wife doesn’t find out their life isn’t real and to do that they have to keep them happy and satisfied so they don’t question things. also when jack says he thinks they should have a baby after alice talked about how she and jack DONT want kids, i saw it as not him just wanting more of alice in a kid, but also so that she has something new to focus on and take up her time while he’s away and can’t occupy her.
i agree with all of this but really it was nice and refreshing to see the woman as the main focus in sex for once ,even ofc if it had other implications in the movie
I read the ending of the original script and I would’ve much rather have seen that then whatever Olivia and the writers came up with.
What would the original ending be? 🤔
@@misakiXmei there’s a lot of little differences between the two because it was originally made by different people and I believe this version was rewritten by Olivia Wilde and someone who also wrote for booksmart but I can find a link that points out some of the major changes. Some key changes though include the differences in the location of the portal/how she finds it, her escape at the end, the fight for her life, etc. Overall it seemed like there was more happening in the original than this one and it didn’t seem as predictable as this one. Oh and in the original there weren’t as many plot holes like ‘where’s Alice’ because everyone thinks she’s dead in the real world and that’s explained in the script too.
@@misakiXmei When Alice wakes up it's in the year 2050 and finds out her and Jack actually got divorced and he then kidnapped her and made everyone else assume she was dead. She goes back to the simulation but gets put through electroshock therapy. She late fights Jack and ties him to a bed and interrogates where he admits to it saying they divorced because she had too much work. She leaves the simulation and Jack follows her, they fight and Alice kills Jack. Bunny finds the scene because it turns out it happened in their kitchen in the 50s (idk this part isnt clear). Alice is sent to a mental hospital where Bunny visits her and tells her she always knew and tells Alice there is an exit door behind her. Alice goes through the door and it cuts to black.
A better (if not perfect) ending than the one in the actual movie imo.
@@andreabuksbaum7224 holy shit that would have been amazing… they ruined it
I may not have the accurate version of the ending because I just heard it through a Tiktok, but I believe the fight with Jack and Alice where she kills him takes place in the real world. Alice then wakes up in an asylum in the 50’s and it’s implied if not just stated she imagined the whole movie. Only then is she visited by Bunny and told there’s a door behind her for her to leave.
It’s supposed to be like a “you don’t know what’s real and what’s not anymore” kinda thing where you’re always guessing which reality is the real one
i was so bummed that so chris and gemma were criminally under utilized in this. like i thought chris was going to be a big baddie and we didnt really see a whole lot of that. like i wanted way more. if we act like the trailers dont exist (bc i didnt watch them prior to), there aren't even enough breadcrumbs in the actual movie for the audience to reach the conclusion, i think its good storytelling when an audience can guess as the story progresses what the twist is. like it's just a lot of weird things but so unclear if she was actually imagining them like a mental break deal or if it was an actual glitch. i felt like nothing actually happened like the whole movie
To address the accent switching, if you look in the background of his flashback scenes with Alice, there’s a James Bond poster in the background. So I think that the implication is that he’s a James Bond fan and wants to be like him with the suaveness, coolness and overall Britishness. The flash was so brief so I’m not surprised that most people missed it. It honestly seems a bit lazy, like they were trying to clean up why Harry can’t do an American accent so he’s English for the rest of the movie. I think that Jacks characterization would’ve been better if they did drill into his desire to be an “alpha male” like James Bond, BUT they didn’t so it’s super subtle to a fault and not in a groundbreaking kind of way.
I'm so happy that you said "Sword Art Online" vibes because Olivia Wilde basically made a western isekai
i’m so glad i’m subscribed to you because i refuse to watch don’t worry darling and you’re the only person whose movie reviews i enjoy
i think i have an answer about the plot whole w/ Alice's family. The ending for Don't Worry Darling was originally different from what we saw in the movie, originally once Alice leaves the simulation, she sees divorce papers and a death certificate indicating that she was planning on divorcing Jack and so he fakes her death and forces her to be in the simulation. It doesn't make the most sense either but it does shed some light on how he could have gone away with it. I hope this helps clear it up!
if that man was capable of kidnapping his (ex)-gf (from the flashbacks i believe they broke up at some point) cuffing her to a bed, and trapping her in a simulation, i wouldn't be surprised if he faked alice death?? also, the accent thing, i just feel for him, specially in the 50s would make him more "sophisticated and cool" , very incel of him tbh .
What accent thing? Incel??? Whaaaaaat?
@@mcchilde2903 I called jack incel as a joke bc he was listening to franks podcast and it sounds a lot like the rhetoric incels use online. And by the accent thing, I mean jack choosing to be British and have an accent bc it might make him sound cool and fancy… which he was not in real life
I felt the movie needed to either flesh out the story elements in a more satisfying way, or lean fully into the more abstract elements and create a more loose/surrealist plot.
In the end it felt like it did neither, and therefore didn't really have a real vision of what it wanted to be.
the point about the music is so true! i didn't notice that but looking back the whole first 15 minutes seemed like back to back 50s songs to 'set the scene' or something. and with the scary music too-it created the tension, instead of building on what was happening. i had a good time watching the movie but i don't think it said a whole lot about anything.
I could see her seeing a therapist that works with cults and cult deprograming, since it would probably be the closest irl thing to what she experienced
23:53 i took it as alice actually did exit the simulation when she went to the desert but jack was there to put her back, not that the portal was closed. but not even the writers know for sure probably.
I’m so glad to hear that it *felt like a movie* 🤩
oh my god the way I'm kinda speechless how you magnificently dragged this movie
THIS is the only movie you're all allowed to make "truly the movie of all time" jokes about. it just feels like a movie you know
I saw someone saying about how Harry Styles and Florence Pugh in this movie remind them of in high school musicals when like there’s this one random guy who just decides that he wants to be in the musical and he gets like the lead role and then he’s like 😢pared with this girl who’s been working to get this role for like her entire life
I always love Graysons jokes about things like this. I looked in the description and saw "we were right to be worried darling" and I actually laughed out loud, also great video too :)
I thought I was the only one who noticed the music and I’m so so glad you got it too! The suspenseful music without nothing suspenseful happening made be anxious. Not to mention the criminally slow pacing. 1.5hr in they were STILL eluding to something sinister and I got frustrated only to be left with a cliffhanger?!?
This is so spot on. Like, everything you said totally nailed what I was thinking. And the drama surrounding it did a damn good job, bc the literal only reason I went to see it was to see what all the fuss was about. I feel like a lot of the plot was supposed to be played out in the subtext (as there was zero world building) but Styles was SO bad at conveying any emotion through body language that it almost makes me wish they could have kept Shia (as problematic as he may be) bc he would have known how to make those scenes more intense. Or just.. literally any other actor. It's a shame, because I think it could have had a lot of potential with a better director and more fleshed out storyline. It makes me wonder how they got queen Florence to sign on.. no wonder she did zero promotion for it 🤷
You don’t have to see the movie, just simply imagine it as the concept of the Lego movie with misogyny and sex scenes with Harry styles.
NOT THE LEGO MOVIE DONT DRAG THAT PEICE OF ART INTO THIS DUMPSTER FIRE
@@themthatjest Chris pine is half the villain president business ever was 😤
i commented this on trins video and think it’s relevant here lol:
i think that the overall message of the film and how it relates to today could have been super impactful if it was handled/marketed the right way. i interpreted it as a criticism of how online cults of personality indoctrinate lonely young men who feel dejected as a result of capitalism. this also extends to incel groups online (even tho jack was in a relationship with alice). a lot of these guys are pulled in figures like jordan peterson and andrew tate who claim to be sticking up for depressed men, but instead of criticizing capitalism they claim feminism is what made them this way. i think that’s evident in the fact that the simulation is centered in the 50s, since 50s imagery is glamorized by right wingers as a time that we need to “return to” in order to “restore the family”. like think about it: it’s a simulation, why did they choose to make it a past era when they could’ve just done an idealized version of modern lifestyle? one of the scenes with jack and alice’s old lives shows frank specifically talking about the role of men or something along those lines too. i’m also pretty sure olivia wilde specifically linked the film to peterson so there’s that
this online pipeline is really harmful and it’s expanding with platforms like tiktok that make it easier to fall down rabbit holes. but the fact that the film was marketed to be a “womens-empowerment” movie (and the fact that the drama behind it really upstaged any discussion about the plot) was super damaging to any lessons that the audience could have derived from it. i wish it was put in better hands/circumstances
this!! i really think that many people didnt get how important the ACTUALL lesson of this film about mens indoctrination from incel cults is. i really liked seeing a film comment on this in not the most direct way , at least not direct instantly, this is definitely not a bad movie and i really enjoyed it because it was a nice mash of things and different societal issues
“If I had a nickel every time… I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice” is now my favorite quote thanks to you 😂 I haven’t seen it yet, but after watching your critique I want to see it just to nit-pick it myself lol
is this movie literally not just a worse version of "the stepford wives"??? why has no one pointed this out???
stepford wives inspired black mirror episode
I have seen so many people point it out
Doesn't the movie have a direct reference too? Maybe I'm not remembering correctly
i think this is based on the same book the stepford wives is based on
I literally just finished watching the don’t worry darling controversy video and was like “oh, dang, I kinda wish Grayson would cover it” and then scrolled down and say this one
Your hair looks absolutely amazing and the bones shirt is such a vibe. Thanks for watching this and explaining so i don't have to spend my money. 😂🙏🏻
i watched it last night so kinda perfect timing but i loved your analysis, when i watched it i kind of walked away not thinking it was bad but not being super impressed and you put that into words so well with talking abt how it was just pointless rly which i think is what i was feeling
I can't believe I actually predicted the plot and twist of the movie. I was like "this is gonna be some Village stuff where the movie doesn't take place in the past but it's the present". Basically a mix of The Village and the Black Mirror episode.
i was so hyped for this review, literally every time i saw someone talk about this movie i thought of your commentary 😁
I'm pretty sure Olivia Wilde was only the director and didn't actually write the script so I was really curious what was actually written and what was her own choice. I saw a tiktok the other day of someone giving a synopsis of the original script and it honestly seemed better thought out and more interesting
I’m so glad you mentioned the feet at the end because I thought I was going crazy looking at them or that maybe Florence had a no feet clause in her contract 😂
I know you touched on it at the end but my opinion of the movie changed when I recontextualised the actual point of the story. The point of the story isn’t about the Victory Project, it’s about Alice being gaslit. While I do think it was messy and not perfectly done, the overall pacing of the film made more sense to me when I realised it’s entirely about Alice. To a certain extent, I don’t even think it was about what was actually being done to her by the male characters but how her mind was struggling to keep a hold on what felt like an ever changing reality. I was definitely disappointed by the ending and the dystopian sci-fi nerd in me still wants more explanations about how it all works but I’m happy to let that go because it was never actually what the movie was about. (At least not in my opinion)
I think the movie was poorly marketed and OW really was not the best person to tell this story and it’s true that it didn’t really make any hard points about abusive relationships but I can still accept it for what it was trying to be.
Edit:
I also think that’s why the trailer was so “obvious” with what it showed. We’re not watching the film trying to figure out what’s going on (not strictly at least) or the grand mystery behind it all. Again - poorly marketed.
there actually is a black mirror episode that does this concept way better, season 4 episode 1. the episode title is USS Callister. this guy's a co-founder of an online multiplayer space themed game, and he falls in "love at first sight" with a new coworker. this guy is like the main coder for the game or something and has a bit of a rivalry with the guy he reports to, as they kind of silently compete with each other for the new girl's attention. so he's the main coder of the game, and we come to find out he has made his own personal version of this game, where he takes the DNA of his coworkers if they slight him (and he does not have a good reputation at the office), and puts them into his game, but these are more like copies of the people and not his coworkers themselves. so he ends up doing the same with the new girl's DNA, and we see how cruel and vile he acts as the creator and leader of the game world that they're in towards his "coworkers". the coworkers are all sentient and understand that this is a simulation, but they have no free will and can't escape as the main guy is literally the creator and has coded it so they cannot escape, and then punishes them severely for not complying with his insane game world. it's really good honestly and i think it made a better commentary on patriarchy and incels than this movie tried to...
OMG that's my favorite episode
The scene where she suffocates without end gave me anxiety.
"It was definitely a movie"
Well I'm sold
i think Harry’s casting worked really well because he’s like a little puppy that you wouldn’t expect to do what he did.
it felt like a super long black mirror episode
Okay so I saw the movie today with a friend. And the questionable consent of the women in the simulation while knowing of Wilde’s quotes that the sex shows the couple’s “love” / the movie’s “admirable” representation of women’s pleasure being a priority has made me feel deeply unsettled. How could she or anybody else on the writing team/PR crew not see the problem? How could this movie empower those to prioritize women’s pleasure, when there isn’t confirmed consent? Are we really understanding how patriarchy and sex overlap when we begin to blur the lines between pleasure and sexual assault? I’m so glad you discussed it because I didn’t want to feel like I was the only one who picked up on it. Thank you.
So, I took my little sister to see this yesterday (she's a huge Harry stan, so we know why she wanted to go) I was dreading it, and I am not the kind of person to DREAD seeing a movie. Generally, with me I enjoy going to the theatres because it's so much more fun, I don't know why.
My pros to this movie:
The story is interesting to me, and I thought the acting was good. The concept of Jack being an absolute disgusting pig in real life only to make himself a suave, young, rich British man in the simulation was really interesting to me because I thought of it as: "This is how men really see themselves, while their partner sees the real thing." Florence was a standout, but when is she not? She did a phenomenal job in this very polarizing character. I was also impressed with Olivia Wilde, I don't know much about her, but her acting was pretty okay. Harry did better than I thought he would, but I agree he isn't like Chris Pine, who can be threatening without having to scream at the top of his lungs. I actually enjoyed the music in the movie because this is a world created by men who just want their wives to be obedient; they don't care about music. Frank probably just googled "Top hits of the 50s-60s" and had that on repeat because no one would notice, and he doesn't care. Also "Life Can be a Dream" fits the movie's story in almost an ironic sense when you think about it.
My cons:
We got in there, and I got annoyed at how artsy it was throughout the movie. If you have to rely on gore, sex, or foul language, then your movie is not worth seeing. This movie used its sex as a reason to kind of make moviegoers uncomfortable, I think, as opposed to aroused or intrigued. The sex scenes were super uncomfortable and overdone. The one with Jack eating Alice out after the first 15 minutes felt like it went on for 5 minutes. The suicide was shocking, but you knew it was coming; I found it stupid that Margaret got on the roof just to slit her throat, like...babe wtf was the point? (Being artsy was the point, lol). I could not stand that Olivia Wilde talked about how important the sex scenes were when, as you said, Grayson, they were NOT CONSENSUAL. Jack had to drug Alice in real life, strap her to a bed, and keep her sedated to have her take part in this simulation. He did it because she was working long hours at the hospital. After all, he couldn't keep a job. She would come home tired and gross, and he would try and get some; dude, she is busting her ass for you, and you can't even clean the damn dishes?!?!? UGH, SO ANNOYING! Lol, anyway, yeah, so all the sex scenes we witness in the movie, as SA scenes.
Overal Rating:
Story: 7/10: it was exciting but needed more polishing
Acting: 8/10 Everyone did well with the characters given
Music: 10/10 I'm a sucker for the 50s
Directing: 6/10; stop being artsy for the sake of being artsy; you aren't Joker.
Rating of the movie itself: 6/10, I would definitely watch it again, but I would probably need to pace myself.
i actually thought there were not as many sex scenes as everyone was saying... there were like what, 2?? and the gore was basically non existent, same as the profanity.
also, joker was artsy for the sake of bwing artsy, lol
@@jhoelene yes, but if you read my comment. The sex lasted forever and did nothing for the story. Why did we have to see Jack eat Alice out? Why did we have to see Jack finger Alice and Frank watch? It didn’t do anything for the story. And after learning about what was happening you realize that the sex was entirely not consensual. Jack is a r*pist. And Joker makes sense if you read the comics, for me, I found it really annoying the first time but I came to understand it more the second time. Maybe it’ll be the same for DWD. Like I said I’m totally willing to watch it again.
All I meant was: “if you need to rely on sex, gore, profanity, your movie looks weak”. An I definitely agree that DWD relied a lot on the drama for its press cause there was no other press for the movie
@@mischiefmanagedxx592 i mean, the point of the scene where frank watches them have sex is pretty much revealed later in the film; so that he can bring it up over dinner and humiliate alice. as for the eating out scene, i believe it was just to introduce the couple and alice's daily routine (waking up, being a housewife, having sex, going to bed). i agree that it seemed like it went on forever, but it's not that serious, i've seen movies with way longer and more unnecessary sex scenes, lol
i really dont find joker annoying but it was a bit pretentious aesthetic-wise.
@@jhoelene oh no no you’re right there has TOTALLY been worse. I just don’t enjoying having to watch a character be assaulted over and over again. I honestly wish that it was more implied than shown. And yeah when you put the Frank scene like that it definitely makes more sense.
I think it would’ve been better if Wilde didn’t constantly act as if the sex was so beautiful and artistic when it’s really upsetting at the end
@@jhoelene yeah I don’t find joker annoying anymore lol but I did originally cause I didn’t understand it at first lol
It truly is one of the movies of all time
The more you love your decisions, the less you need others to love your decisions. ♡
6:30 I’m so glad someone else saw similarities with Sword Art Online!! I was just thinking this last night
Why is nobody talking about the weird scene with frank walking in on them having sex in his room, and Alice just like doesn’t do or say anything and they just stare at each other? Who among us would not have yelled and like jumped up and stopped having sex??
The thing about the ending is that Alice is still strapped to the bed, so when she wakes up, she’s going to be in Gerald’s Game.
I saw someone say that this movie felt like a first draft, and honestly I agree. The ending is really clunky, and they forget about a lot of plot points established early on, like the plane that crashed or the weird goings-ons that never really get explained. Also they completely forgot about the weird tremors lol, I saw some people say it was when the men left the simulation but it happened before they all left?? so what did they mean? like fr it feels like a rough draft that should've had a year longer in the writing room.
Final note Grayson is one of the most stunningly beautiful women I have ever seen sorry had to say it
Hey Grayson! As a new TH-camr, you inspire me so much!
we all wanna be jenny nicholson ❤
I love that you spoil the entire movie for me because I really didn't want to go and watch it myself. Thanks!
The nepotism is spilling everywhere these days
I feel like also it might have been more interesting to see more of after Alice escapes, like who does she tell about this? does she try to get ppl to believe her or keep it to herself? are there maybe other projects like this around the world she has to work to bring down? there are probably soo many other interesting routes they could've taken but instead they made maybe the most predictable, cliche, vapid story they could
im so glad youre also a jenny nicholson fan! the TVD video is my comfort video ive seen it like 20 times
just started the video but i wanted to say that your hair and makeup are so pretty in this video 🤍🙃
you should look into Olivia Wilde more because once you do you will realize that she DEFINITELY should not have made this at all. The list of extremely problematic things that she has done..... there is a 2 part yt vid detailing her very questionable actions. I also think you should look into the Kiki Layne situation. Both she and Ari'el spoke about how most of their scenes were cut and Kiki was cut from all the promo despite her name being featured on all the posters. I also think that Olivia wanted there to be room for a sequel but with how much the cast seemingly dislikes each other, I doubt we will see one ever. Also, Chris Pine dropped out of Jimmy Kimmel and both he and Florence skipped the official premiere... and all of Olivia's posts about DWD when it originally wrapped, spoke highly of everyone, and then with Harry's, it was a lengthy post about how it's rare for men to step back and let women be the leads, etc. only for her to use him as the main marketing factor for the film by having DWD opportunities at his shows and the seemingly endless pap walks. Also, she didn't mention female pleasure once, she mentioned it continuously during the entire press run even after Florence Pugh said she didn't like the sex scenes being the only part people talked about, and Alice can't consent to anything because she is TIED down to a bed in a simulation. You should read the original script online because it is so much better than what Olivia went with. Like it actually made sense and if they continued with it, I think the reception to this film would've been a lot better. In the original script, Bunny isn't one of the main characters, Margaret is. There were onset videos that leaked during filming and Margaret was actually supposed to be alive and was in the final scene where Alice runs out of the house but for some reason, it was cut? The only reason that Alice starts to question anything is because of Margaret. and also, what was that plane? This film is basically white Get Out or White Mirror (as some are referring to on twitter) Anyways totally disappointing just wanted to rant about it because it could have been so good.
Which video are you referring to? I tried looking it up but there are so many :') Thanks
frank: *losing his shit over alice possibly escaping*
grayson: my brother in christ, you made the victory project
I dont think people are focusing enough on how fucking weird it is for a director with so much seniority in the industry to be dating a pop star ten years younger than them attempting to break into that industry. That would be weird on its own- and then for them to be very rapidly cast as the lead in their movie- She's literally his boss, and he is noticeably and repeatedly out of his depth through out this whole process. If the genders were reversed people would be calling that out two ways from Sunday with the twitter fest that happened around this movie
not only are they both adults, but olivia doesn’t exactly have seniority in the industry. this is her second time directing EVER
@@emma-tz8bg I don't care how old you are or how long you've had the job - You don't date employees/You don't hire your s/o to be an employee like this.
Had she just been dating him - that'd be one thing. She wouldnt have "seniority in the industry" just because she's been working in it longer - but no - She decided to make him her employee.
She put him under intense scrutiny and in a position he was arguably not qualified for- And her self in a position of direct power and influence over him and his career.
Had a Man in the industry done the exact same thing I highly doubt you'd be saying this.
since u mentioned rewatching shameless i’d love to see i video abt the lost potential of that show… the first four season were some of the best tv i’ve ever seen but after season 5 they they lost their focus on the emotional resonance of the characters and as it went on (for waaay too long) it just became a shell of the show it was when it began
Also, this is Harry's second film and he's one of the leads, so of course his acting is a bit wonky. He wasn't great, but like I don't think he deserves all the hate he gets, he just needs practice imo. Hopefully he'll be better in My Policeman
no hate towards him but acting just doesnt seem like the right fit for him
@@miaboaler2968 I think it's too soon to tell tbh and i think it's hard to look past the fact that it's Harry Styles, like I personally couldn't see him as Jack, I only saw Harry which ruined it a bit for me ngl
But also since this is only his second film it’s a bit weird that he has a lead role
@@ithinkiwoulddie9196 he's famous, ofc he gets a lead role and by him having a lead role in a movie also brings in more money, if he wasn't famous, he definitely wouldn't get a lead role for his second acting job
For me his acting is a problem because he got paid a lot, and a lot more than Florence at that. I do understand that he got paid THAT much with that little experience because he's famous and he would bring more money than he got paid but in my eyes he getting paid that much just allows people to criticize him even if he doesn't have the experience, especially because he doesn't have the experience
I don't want this to sound like an insult but I've fallen asleep like 3 times trying to watch this video because your voice is pure ASMR to me hahahahaha
4:07 what a great way to find out this movie includes one of my biggest triggers!
Omg you look so gorgeous >.< Thank you for this video, I really enjoyed it :3
From what you’re saying (because I probably won’t see the movie) it sounds like what i originally assumed it would be (based on the lengthy trailer) is better. I thought it would be a sci-fi psychological-thriller about a group of cold scientists running a retro-futuristic social experiment wherein men (and Olivia Wilde) maintain and populate a small, community in the middle of the desert, and they kidnap women and program them with a story about how they met their husband (men who won their “ticket” into this idealistic community). These women are chosen or sent away by their families to sort of be “reformed”. It could even be expanded to discuss some sort of feminist theme about what is expected from women and this sort of incel traditionalist mindset as they show the outside world (once we as the audience realize the truth) debating whether or not this is okay and protesting, or maybe the world doesn’t know at all, and we have to watch these womens families struggle to find them. It would help explain the sight of the plane flying overhead, because the community scientists have set up cloaking devices to hide planes from the community and hide the community from any outside influence. The whole thing is just a conspiracy theory in the eyes of outsiders to the community. It would solve the other issues of what to do with Alice when she wakes up: she’s not “waking up”. She’s getting her memories back and escaping and now her body isn’t frail and hollow. Think of Stepford Wives Truman Show with a Black Mirror edge.
"Look at her feet" took me O U T. I was like GRAYSONS SAYS SHES GIVIN THEM OUT FOR FREE, and then u just went in the opposite direction
Whiskey glasses are thick as FUCK, if a piece of the base shattered and embedded itself in his skull, I don't doubt he'd die basically instantly.
Also about the portal, I don't think they say portal opening in the scene of the husbands, I'm pretty sure they said approaching portal with the countdown. And later, bunny implies that Alice did leave the simulation when she touched the glass, but because jack was "at work", he was there in the real world and immediately put her back in again.
The tapdancing scene kinda made me think that Harry studied acting from TH-cam University
Also: is the pregnant character only pregnant in the simulation, or also in the real world? And how does that work if she does give birth irl? Unless the children themselves are just simulations. And are Bunny's kids simulated or did they kidnap real children and put them into project like the women?
They confirm that the kids in the simulation aren’t real, like NPC’s basically
In the end Bunny implies her kids had died in real life and she’s a willing participant because she gets to pretend her kids are still alive. However all the kids are simulations.
thank you, i can only explain this movie as watered-down stepford wives and sword art online LMAO
1:14 accidental Will Wood reference my beloved
im pretty sure jack was British due to the little Easter egg that was in their real life apartment which was a James Bond poster
19:08 in the original scripts it showed a flyer or notice paper saying that alice had died so the women were made to look like they'd either gone missing or died in the real world
Everything, everything you said was ACCURATE.
1:58 I think they were working out the actual VR outside the simulation like they were creating more of that world
I read that the original ending to the script was different to what we saw and you should look at that, it answered a lot of the plotholes and I don't know why they changed it
the beginning 😂😂😂 harry’s so cute
i maintain that it would have been much better as a limited series, which i know seem over done nowadays, but i really think it would have done the story more justice bc the concept is super interesting. there could have been more development of the twist, perhaps an episode showing the beginnings of the simulation and more on how it actually works, more exploration of jack and alice’s dynamic before he signed up rather than less than five minutes, the real would implications (isn’t alice’s family and friends worried? or the other peoples’????? huge plot hole) etc. i just think that if you’re going to make such a big, important, feminist, of-the-time claim then you really need to spell it out and make it obvious so that everyone understands it.