4/5 stars

Chris Sanders may not be as famous as some of his Pixar counterparts, but he is surely one of the finest animation directors in Hollywood right now.

He created the now iconic blue alien character Stitch in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch for his 2002 directorial debut, later following it with the equally popular How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods.

The film follows a robot – ROZZUM 7134, or “Roz” for short – washed up in its box on an island. Voiced by Lupita Nyong’o, Roz is a highly capable artificially intelligent being that initially mimics the gait of a crab to help survive this inhospitable environment.

Programmed to always complete its missions, Roz gets a new one when it encounters an egg, out of which hatches a baby goose – a runt named Brightbill (Kit Connor). To help her new charge, Roz is told to help Brightbill “Eat. Swim. Fly by Fall.”

A still from ‘Strange Darling’
| Photo Credit: X/ @strangedarlingx

In Strange Darling, writer-director JT Mollner seems determined to take viewers down a twisted rabbit hole of subversion, tapping into both the psychosexual intensity of Hitchcock and the fever-dream aesthetics of David Lynch, all while standing firmly in the tradition of grindhouse horror. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill slasher, though — far from it. Mollner crafts a fragmented tale of bloodlust and manipulation, flagrantly tossing the presupposed conventions of genre and gender on their heads.

The film kicks off not with a quiet buildup but with a full-throttle chase through a mid-western field. Willa Fitzgerald’s mysterious protagonist, dubbed “The Lady”, flees in slow-motion, her bloodied body bathed in the melancholic strains of Nazareth’s ‘Love Hurts’. These continued cinematic flourishes scream Texas Chainsaw Massacre, yet undercut themself with the unsettling dreaminess of its contemporaries, like Mandy. Mollner doesn’t allow for breathers, immediately thrusting us into Chapter 3 of 6 in his nonlinear puzzle. Chronology is established as irrelevant, and tension simmers through the film’s fractured structure, teasing out reveals just as quickly as it veers off into new directions.

From the outset, Strange Darling pulses with anxiety. The film’s core duo, the Lady and her pursuer, “The Demon” (Kyle Gallner), are locked in a disconcerting bit of debauchery that quickly shifts between moments of pure terror and sparing bits of relief. The Lady may seem like a victim, fleeing for her life, but Mollner’s direction refuses to settle into such clear binaries. Both Fitzgerald and Gallner deliver powerhouse performances that toy with our sympathies. Fitzgerald balances her character’s vulnerability with a looming edge, while Gallner carries a disarming mix of small-town charm and brooding menace.

A still from ‘Strange Darling’
| Photo Credit:
X/ @strangedarlingx

Much of the film’s tension is heightened through its visual and auditory design. Shot entirely on 35mm film (a choice that Mollner feels the need to announce via an opening slate) by actor-turned-cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi, the grainy texture gives the film an eerie retro sheen. The camera lingers on wide landscapes and tight close-ups alike, transforming both into spaces of threat. Colours take on symbolic weight, with a recurring emphasis on red that suggests both passion and violence in equal measure. 

The sound design, however, isn’t as well-executed, and the film’s crucial early conversations are muddied by an imbalance that left me squinting for meaning. Though its intentions were presumably to disorient and heighten the mystery, it felt more like a technical oversight than an artistic choice.

What makes the film really stand apart is how it toys with expectations. Mollner knows exactly how we’ve been conditioned to make snap judgments about gender roles in crime and horror — and he weaponizes that instinct at every turn. The film teases you with questions you think you’ve answered (I won’t spoil the fun), only to yank the rug out from under you just as you’re settling in

.But as the layers of misdirection pile on, the intrigue begins to wear thin. The entire game hinges on one central twist and while it’s deliciously disorienting at first, once the rug is fully pulled, the narrative starts to lose a bit of its bite.

A still from ‘Strange Darling’
| Photo Credit:
X/ @strangedarlingx

Mollner’s taste for shock value also teeters uncomfortably close to gratuitousness. The Lady spends much of the film in various states of physical and emotional torment, and while the genre often thrives on discomfort, the relentless brutality begins to feel less commentary and more an indulgence in suffering. A late plot development involving a woman police officer also feels particularly misjudged, with a disturbing comedy of errors that risks pushing the film into dangerously misogynistic territory.

Still, despite its edginess, the film is undeniably stylish, and for fans of genre films that revel in artifice and unease, it offers plenty to admire. The film’s aesthetic choices, from its lush lighting to its serpentine editing, put Mollner’s confidence on full display. The film succeeds in creating a mood — one of oppressive dread and sickly seduction — that lingers long after the final frame.

In the end, Strange Darling stands as one of the boldest cinematic offerings of the year. Sure, it’s not perfect — beneath all the blood-splattered bravado, you might wonder if the plot’s substance fully keeps pace with its ambition. But in an ocean of cookie-cutter horror, Strange Darling is audacious enough to leave a lasting impression, even if it occasionally trips over its own self-indulgent shoes.

Strange Darling is currently running in theatres

Gov. Gavin Newsom is heading east to headline a splashy big-dollar fundraiser for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in New York before the vice president’s first debate with former President Trump on Tuesday in Philadelphia, which he’ll likely attend.

The governor will promote Harris and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, from Sunday through Wednesday, according to a member of Newsom’s political team, making media appearances and attending fundraisers in New York and stumping for the Democratic ticket in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Newsom is jumping back into campaigning for the Democratic nominee after largely lying low in the weeks since Harris replaced President Biden at the top of the ticket. Newsom was a prominent surrogate for Biden, stumping for him around the country and defending him after his poor debate performance in June that ultimately led the incumbent to bow out of his reelection campaign.

But his role in Harris’ campaign had been unclear. Harris campaign officials said Saturday that Newsom is a leader of Harris’ national campaign committee, the same role he held with Biden’s campaign.

Harris and Newsom have a long history, having run in the same political circles in San Francisco before being sworn in together on the same day in 2004, Newsom as mayor and Harris as district attorney.

The vice president reminisced about their friendship at her first Bay Area fundraiser after becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in August.

“I have known Gavin as a friend and colleague for so, so many years,” she said. “I want to thank you in front of all of our friends who are here for being an extraordinary leader of California and the nation.”

Still, a vein of competition has marked their relationship for many years, as both were viewed as rising stars in the Democratic Party. It was particularly notable during the Democratic National Convention last month: Newsom attended, but without a prominent official role.

The governor, who normally seeks the spotlight, had only a brief moment on camera during the official programming when he announced California delegates’ votes for Harris. He said he turned down an opportunity to speak on the opening night of the convention because he was attending a school orientation for his children and couldn’t get to Chicago in time.

Newsom told The Times in an interview during the convention that he was awaiting an assignment from the Harris campaign and was mindful of how the rest of the nation views San Francisco and California.

“I’m deeply situationally aware of that, and that’s why I’m not asserting anything,” he said. “I’m happy. I don’t need anything or want anything. I just want to be helpful and not hurtful.”

One way Newsom is helping is by raising money. An invitation to Sunday’s fundraiser in New York City asks donors to contribute up to $100,000 to attend the event headlined by Newsom, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Hosts include producer Shonda Rhimes and actors Tony Goldwyn, Robert De Niro, Leslie Lloyd Odom Jr. and Amber Tamblyn.

The fundraiser is taking place as campaign disclosures show Harris with a gaping financial lead over Trump. The Democratic nominee’s campaign announced Friday that she and Walz and their allied committees had raised $361 million in August, the most in the current electoral cycle, and had $404 million in cash on hand.

Trump, running mate JD Vance and their allied committees raised $130 million in August and had $295 million in the bank, according to Republicans. The former GOP president is scheduled to return to California this week for a pair of high-dollar fundraisers, one notably hosted by relatives of Newsom’s wife, according to invitations obtained by The Times.

After New York, Newsom is scheduled to visit Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, Harris is debating Trump at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. His aides referred questions about his attendance at the debate to the Harris campaign, which did not respond to The Times’ question.

A source familiar with the plans, though not authorized to speak about them publicly, said that Newsom is widely “expected” to attend the faceoff as a surrogate who’s vocally promoting Harris in her historic run against Trump.