In Strange Darling, nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer's vicious murder spree. The horror-thriller currently sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and is, without doubt, a movie of the year candidate.
Written and directed by JT Mollner (Outlaws & Angels), Strange Darling features cinematography by Giovanni Ribisi (Avatar) and stars Willa Fitzgerald (Reacher), Kyle Gallner (Smile), Ed Begley Jr. (Better Call Saul), and Barbara Hershey (Black Swan).
Earlier this month, we were able to sit down with Mollner and Ribisi to learn more about how they created this legit film of the year candidate. The movie is jaw-dropping not just in terms of how the story plays out, but the visuals on screen as well.
During the course of our conversation, they talk about shooting on film, Ribisi's feature debut as Director of Photography, and their approach to colour, violence, and a must-see tracking sequence involving one of Strange Darling's leads.
You can check out the full interview with JT and Giovanni below.
This film is phenomenal. In a digital world, it’s always refreshing to see a movie shot on 35mm film; for you both as director and cinematographer, what made that right for this story?
Giovanni: Well, I think film and celluloid is really what brought JT and I together. We met through someone who was working at Kodak at the time, Steve Bellamy, a mutual friend. This is just the first thing we bonded on. Then, five years later, JT sent me the first draft for this and within 15 minutes of reading it, I called him and said, ‘I have to be involved in this. What can I do?’
JT: Yeah, it’s one of those things where, for me, it’s never been a choice shooting film or not shooting film. When I met Giovanni, we both bonded over that and especially this story felt like what we were looking for, the feelings we wanted to evoke, and the films we watched that inspired us to make this. We’re from an era that only used celluloid so it felt like there was no other way.
Giovanni, you’ve worked with some all-time great filmmakers over the course of your career as an actor. How did those experiences prepare you to come on board Strange Darling as Director of Photography?
Giovanni: I started out as a child actor and was really all my life more or less grew up on movie sets. The camera and the camera crew were always a fascination for me. At a certain point, it was probably 20 or 25 years ago, which ages me but there it is, I started asking questions about that and really had this fascination and curiosity. It was something I’d been working on in the background and this is me more or less coming out with this movie as a cinematographer.
JT: He’s quite good at the job.
Giovanni: Oh jeez, thank you.
I’d definitely agree with that. This story is told in a non-linear way and, for me, that made it even more engrossing. JT, what was the biggest challenge in structuring the story in that way and making sure it didn’t confuse audiences?
JT: Well, that’s great to hear - that it doesn’t confuse audiences! I never thought it would because I didn’t set out to write a non-linear story. I was just inspired to write this story and the only way it could be told was that way. Chapter 3 came to me first and I didn’t know what the rest of the story was. Months went by of going on hikes, taking showers, falling asleep, and the moment before falling asleep, I would take notes and this thing came to me in that order. It had to be told in that order and if it gets put back in linear order - which we tried at one point as an experiment because we were told to - it seems conventional. That’s the way it had to be told and I was just hoping that everybody outside of my circle would see the effectiveness of it in that order. And it seems to be working, thankfully, and I can’t imagine it any other way.
Colour is a big part of this movie and when there’s violence, it means something; the blood really pops off the screen and drives home the horror of those moments. What was it like collaborating on those scenes?
JT: We talked about not wanting this to be an exploitation flick necessarily. I like those movies but we wanted the violence to be brutal and explosive, but also at the same time, understated and grounded. Some people won’t feel that way but everything is relative and to me it is. We were restrained here [Laughs]. When the violence happens, it should be very effective because there are quiet moments and moments without that. We wanted the colours in those scenes and others to be a huge part of this movie and we talked about colour really evoking emotions in different ways in different scenes.
Giovanni: Yeah, we had the opportunity to work together for a good four or five months, talking about that and putting together an extensive document that was sort of our bible. At a certain point, it was really important to get through the end of it and go back. A lot of the ideas as far as colour and colour palette, the shot design, and what we were doing, came out of that. And then, of course, you get to a movie like this or of this nature and it all goes out the window! It’s still something you can use and, ultimately, that was the grounding actor for us.
JT: Absolutely. And then we brought in Priscilla Elliott, production designer, too.
Giovanni: She was incredible.
JT: We talked to her about colour and colour control. Giovanni and I were always really into primary colours because so many modern films were leaning into tertiary colours.
Giovanni: Like sand.
JT: Reds and blurs and black were always a big deal and when we met with Priscilla, we talked to her a lot about sticking to that. She taught me to stay disciplined in that area and we made sure in every single scene, we used the colours in that scene to evoke certain emotions.
I’m not getting into any spoilers, but there’s a phenomenal one-shot sequence with a character running from a motel to another building. What was it like putting that together?
JT: Well, a line producer and certain crew member really didn’t want us to do that scene [Laughs].
Giovanni: [Laughs]
JT: Like, ‘Do you have to do it in one take?’
Giovanni: Then there were all these discussions. ‘Is it gonna be a golf cart? Some dude running on a skateboard?’ That specific scene is emblematic of perseverance and really trying to be diplomatic but reasserting the vision and being loyal to that, no matter what or how much somebody tries to convince you otherwise [Laughs].
JT: Those long takes, when they make sense, are really, really important to me. We have two of those tracking shots in this movie where we don’t want to get out of the scene. We don’t want the audience to get out of the scene and want the characters and actors to be able to live in it. If it was up to me, we wouldn’t have shot any coverage. With this scene, we shot no coverage or stitching coverage because we wanted to keep it.
Giovanni: With stitching coverage, a lot of producers or filmmakers get worried when you do that. Because there’s really no escape hatch. That’s the movie for that duration if you don’t have anything else. I think it’s a testament to JT and his willingness to be radical. The inclination to be radical and to take chances like that and actually succeed at doing it, which I think he did.
JT: The fact he was able to realise it in that scene…once I saw he’d captured that, I knew we didn’t need any stitching coverage. The execution is everything and the fact we both decided to go for it. It was exhilarating. A challenging day but one of the best memories I have from the film.
Giovanni: Mind you, that was an interesting thing. I don’t know if this is too much information or whatever but we had another location set and something happened with that location and it fell out. We essentially had 18 hours on a Sunday to prep that location and figure all of that stuff out with other people [Laughs] but again, it happened and we lifted our heads up and went, ‘Okay, there’s something here.’
JT: Yeah, the jumping off the balcony was decided the night before! Some of the studio folks were like, ‘What, are you joking?’
Giovanni: That’s also something that says for the stunt crew we had. Usually, that takes a lot of prep but we were safe about it, responsible of course, and had somebody that pulled it together. It talks to the nature of filmmaking sometimes, especially with budgets like this or films of this nature. It really is a miracle, you know.
Strange Darling can ONLY be seen in theaters on Friday, August 23, 2024.