If you somehow missed the viral trailer, Wilde confirmed in a recent Vogue interview that Don’t Worry Darling will be “really sexy, in a grown-up way,” like many of Adrian Lyne’s various psychosexual thrillers. “I kept saying, ‘Why isn’t there any good sex in film anymore?’” I cannot, in good faith, recommend that you watch 9½ Weeks or Indecent Proposal (to say nothing of Deep Water), but it might be worth revisiting Fatal Attraction if you’re a truly dedicated cinephile.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Stepford Wives (1975)
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
If Don’t Worry Darling owes a debt to any movie, it’s The Stepford Wives; skip the 2004 film, and revisit the 1975 adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel instead. Katharine Ross stars as liberal Manhattan photographer Joanna Eberhart, whose husband Walter (Peter Masterson) convinces her to move to Stepford, Connecticut—only for her to realize that her fellow housewives are the victims of a dark, patriarchal conspiracy. There are shades of Levin’s earlier novel, Rosemary’s Baby, in Alice’s claustrophobia in Victory, too.
