Our Don't Worry Darling dossier: What you need to know, watch, and read about the drama and, well, the dramas

Before Olivia Wilde's Harry Styles-Florence Pugh project arrives, here's a primer to help you unpack the backstories and prepare for the film itself

By Jack Smart | September 19, 2022 | 12:00pm

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Our Don't Worry Darling dossier: What you need to know, watch, and read about the drama and, well, the dramas

L-R: Olivia Wilde as Bunny and Florence Pugh as Alice in Don’t Worry Darling Image: Merrick Morton

Olivia Wilde’s directorial venture Don’t Worry Darling, starring Oscar nominee Florence Pugh and pop superstar Harry Styles, finally opens in theaters on September 23, following months of anticipation, widely dissected trailers, mixed reviews and festival reactions, and loads of behind-the-scenes intrigue. With so much to unpack, it’s understandable if you’re wondering where to start.

So The A.V. Club has assembled a primer of the film’s inspirations (think The Stepford Wives), backstories (consider The Feminine Mystique), and headlines (So. Much. Drama.), all to give you a better sense of where Don’t Worry Darling came from, how we got here, and just what to expect.

Watch: Booksmart

BOOKSMART | Uncut First 6 Minutes

An obvious starting point to a movie led by actor-turned-director Wilde is her first film behind the lens, worthy installment in what the “golden age of female-led coming-of-age comedies.” The Spirit Award-winning features a laugh-out-loud script from Wilde’s collaborator Katie Silberman, along with Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, and Susanna Fogel, and heartfelt, hilarious performances from the dynamic duo of . What does the story of two seniors’ final chaotic days in high school have in common with Don’t Worry Darling, a sexy marital thriller set in a near-fantastical 1950s utopia? It’s to Wilde’s credit that her sophomore directorial feature diverges so much from Booksmart, and audiences may find it fascinating to suss out the throughline between the two. , Wilde “sees both films as part of an ongoing project to examine female experience from multiple angles.”

Read: The Feminine Mystique

Wilde’s description of Don’t Worry Darling, might be incentive enough to buy a ticket. The foremost piece of art associated with Second Wave Feminism, Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique went became a cultural sensation thanks to its research-backed argument that stay-at-home housewives in 1950s America were not, in fact, as satisfied as that lifestyle purported to be. There are twists and turns to Don’t Worry Darling’s story we don’t intend to spoil, but suffice to say Wilde and Silberman are capital-F Feminists, intimately familiar with the movement Friedan inspired.

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See: Slim Aarons’ photography

in an Interview profile that her film’s aesthetic influence was : namely, his depictions of the Kaufman House, a Palm Springs desert home designed by Richard Neutra for Edgar J. Kaufmann. The glamorous, sunny, 1970s California that Aarons captured, in fact, did more than just inspire Wilde’s visuals; the first scene of Don’t Worry Darling was filmed at the Kaufman House itself. “They’ve never shot a film there,” . “To direct the first shot there felt like this really auspicious beginning to this movie, which was this love letter not only to film, but to architecture, to design, to this era.”

Read and watch: The Stepford Wives

THE STEPFORD WIVES - (1975) Trailer

The alone of Don’t Worry Darling evokes an era-specific aesthetic that filmmakers in every subsequent decade have sought to capture: A 1950s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets.Post-war America in the ’50s promised perfection: manicured lawns in front of suburban houses, housewives content in colorful but conservative frocks. Not only does the era practically beg for visual adaptation, it holds thrilling possibilities for filmmakers exploring the darker side of that promise. From Ira Levin’s 1972 feminist horror novel The Stepford Wives and its 1975 Katharine Ross and 2004 big-screen adaptations, to , , , as well as the TV series , Wilde and Silberman had a well-trod cinematic tradition to follow.

Watch: Fatal Attraction

Fatal Attraction (1987) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers

filmmaker-provocateur Adrian Lyne as a cinematic influence on Don’t Worry Darling in most titillating fashion: “Why isn’t there any good sex in film anymore?” (It must be said, Wilde is such a pro at marketing.) Lyne’s most acclaimed example was 1987’s , which, for any movie buff looking to brush up on examples of good sex in film, shouldn’t be .

Watch: Midsommar

MIDSOMMAR | Official Trailer HD | A24

If you’re approaching Don’t Worry Darling as an important chapter in the filmography of Burgeoning Cinematic Icon Florence Pugh, you’re right to do so; while the film’s reviews have been admittedly mixed, critics have praised her work as entrapped housewife Alice Chambers. She was an admired It Girl in Hollywood even before the Academy anointed her with a nomination in 2020 for Little Women, and the film that solidified that reputation was Ari Aster’s mind-melting . Watching Pugh in that instant classic followed by Don’t Worry Darling would make for a perfect shot-and-chaser double feature. P.S. This marks the second time she’s appeared opposite Chris Pine: 2018’s Outlaw King was one of the films that made people sit up and go, “Who is this brilliant ingenue? Let’s get her an Oscar nomination stat!”

Watch: The music video for Harry Styles’ “Treat People With Kindness”

Harry Styles - Treat People With Kindness (Official Video)

Would watching Styles’ videography better prepare you for what to expect from him as a leading actor? Not exactly, although Don’t Worry Darling does indeed feature snippets of his vocals. Is watching “Treat People With Kindness” the quickest and easiest bit of homework on this list? Absolutely—and its good vibes might put you in a better mood. Featuring Styles and Phoebe Waller-Bridge shimmying to dazzling effect, this music video might help you imagine the pop star inhabiting a mid-century aesthetic, or generating chemistry opposite a charming British woman not unlike Pugh.