Don’t Worry Darling (2022), directed by Olivia Wilde

Alice and Jack are living a life of married bliss in the experimental desert town of Victory, where the men go off to work each day and the wives keep house. The loved up couple is in permanent honeymoon mode and it’s all cocktails by the pool and everyone knows their place in the 1950s-style paradise. But Alice gets flashbacks, glimpses of memories and dreams that don’t quite match the idyll and there is a feeling of something off. It’s not ok to ask questions about what the men are actually working on and a sinister doctor is on hand to help keep the wives toeing the company line. Visually stunning, the film has plot elements that don’t quite hang together but the pace and suspense are sufficient to quickly skate on past any doubts. Harry Styles was clearly hired to play Jack for his pulling power, as his acting is adequate at best. However Florence Pugh is compelling as Alice and the film would be nothing without her. Mad Men and the Stepford Wives meet the Handmaid’s Tale in what is ultimately a horror story for our times.