Don't Worry Darling · reception & legacy
2022 · Olivia Wilde
How Don't Worry Darling has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
In September 2022 the press-tour chaos completely swallowed the film — critics called it a handsome muddle with a great Florence Pugh performance, and it's still remembered less as a movie than as the drama that surrounded it, though it did solid box office off the spectacle.
What's debated
The eternal question: is the film actually worse than its reputation, or did the discourse make it impossible to judge — with most agreeing Pugh is too good for the material around her.
Its footprint
It gifted the internet an entire season of memes: Venice 'spitgate' (did Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine?), the leaked 'Miss Flo' video, and Styles' immortal press-junket line that the movie 'feels like a movie.'
Where it stands
A time capsule of 2022 internet film discourse — watched now half as a thriller, half as an artifact of its own press tour.
Named by the director
Influences Olivia Wilde has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.
- The Truman Show (1998) — Wilde named it among the reality-bending films she wanted this to sit alongside.
- The Matrix (1999) — Wilde cited it as a touchstone for the film's questioning of constructed reality.
- Inception (2010) — Wilde pointed to it as a model for big-canvas, mind-bending studio filmmaking.