Nearly nothing is what it seems to be in writer-director JT Mollner’s Strange Darling, a horror thriller which he describes as “one day in the romantic life of a serial killer.” While the taut, suspenseful storyline seems at first blush a bit formulaic, it’s anything but as twists and turns take us on a path much different from what’s been traversed before.
What’s uniquely intriguing about being pulled in a direction you hadn’t envisioned is discovering that there’s not only a mystery you hadn’t expected in the narrative but also within yourself as you begin to question the assumptions you made that led you to draw certain conclusions prematurely about the characters and the events unfolding before your eyes. (Editor’s note: To preserve and protect that audience dynamic, this SHOOT piece does not go too deeply into the film’s story and premise.)
Released wide theatrically in the U.S. last week (8/23), Strange Darling premiered at the 2023 Fantastic Fest in Austin to rave reviews. With a cast headed by Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr., the film has gone on to tally a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Strange Darling is Mollner’s second feature as a writer/director–his first being the revisionist western Outlaws and Angels which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016.
While Mollner first and foremost set out to take audiences on a memorable ride in Strange Darling, he’s found it gratifying to see that viewers have had different reactions relative to the film’s meaning, its characters and story. “I try not to push my personal feelings and my personal motivations onto the audience too much. I love when they experience things themselves.”
In that vein, Mollner recalled director/auteur David Lynch declining to explain his films to people. That’s based, said Mollner, on Lynch’s belief that his movies “aren’t meant to be understood. They’re meant to be felt.”
Mollner feels that Strange Darling “breathes new life into a tired genre” while in some respects “waking viewers up” to be “aware of their assumptions–and that things can be quite different from what we expect or [from] conventional thinking.”
Cinematography, Editing
Apropos of a story in which things aren’t what they seem, so too was Mollner’s choice of cinematographer–which on the surface appeared to be a reach of sorts, but in fact was a vote of confidence in a trusted, respected colleague. He tabbed Giovanni Ribisi, an accomplished actor, to lens Strange Darling. This marked Ribisi’s first feature as a DP after having shot short film and music video projects. Mollner explained that he had no trepidation going with a cinematographer who was making his feature debut.
“It wasn’t a leap of faith at all though it may seem like it from the outside,” said Mollner who met Ribisi at the Kodak table during an ASC Awards ceremony several years ago. “I loved him as an actor and found him to be an incredibly erudite cinephile,” recalled Mollner of Ribisi. “We became film buddies” with the two often recommending worthwhile work for the other to see. Mollner became familiar with Ribisi’s cinematography on select projects and was drawn in–particularly by the DP’s obsession for shooting on film. In that and other respects, Mollner and Ribisi are simpatico.
Ribisi not only lensed Strange Darling (on 35mm film) but also served as one of the movie’s producers. Underscoring that the director made the right choice of DP was last year’s Camerimage festival where on the strength of Strange Darling, Ribisi was nominated for a Golden Frog in the Cinematographers’ Debuts competition.
Mollner is an advocate of shooting on film. All of his shorts, except for one, and both of his features as a director went the celluloid route. The film look, what drew him to the movies to begin with, cannot be replicated, he contended. While acknowledging that digital has made strides in getting closer to film sensibilities, it still has a long way to go in order to capture the feel of light moving through images in the “indescribable and intangible” way it does on film. When he started directing shorts in the late 2000s, Mollner recalled, “Everybody was shooting digitally. It was around the time that the RED camera came out.” At the time, Mollner thought he too would shoot digitally but ultimately he held out and adjusted his budget to accommodate film.
Additionally Mollner likes the parameters that film forces him to operate within. You can’t, he observed, just shoot and shoot and shoot when using film. That limitation, unlike digital, serves to keep you more disciplined–and it’s a discipline that Mollner believes helps make him a better filmmaker. He finds himself extensively preparing and shot listing well before production–developing a plan that is meticulous yet still flexible enough to pivot from if weather or other unforeseen issues arise.
Furthermore, preparation and discipline mean that Mollner’s editor, Chris Bell, doesn’t have to find the film when he’s given footage to work with. “His job is to make the movie better,” affirmed Mollner, who is not from the school of generating “piles of footage,” leaving the editor to make sense of and find the movie during post. “I never want to put that on the editor,” related Mollner. “My job as the director is to find the movie before we get in there [the edit room]. Then we hone it, whittle it down, make it stronger.” Mollner described Bell as “a very crucial part of my team,” citing his expertise, ability to finesse and adapt in order to do full justice to the story.
Mollner’s body of directorial work includes assorted short films, music videos and commercials. For the latter he’s helmed for such brands as Lincoln and Monster Energy drinks. He has varied projects in development and as a writer was commissioned to adapt the best selling novella “Loaded” by Joe Hill, as well as the Ernest Hemingway bio “Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy.” Most recently, Mollner served as writer of the big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s best seller “The Long Walk” for Lionsgate with Francis Lawrence directing.
