Ugh! Its just so sad that the story was such a mess. The aesthetics and cast were fantastic but an incoherent script and bad directorial leadership (kudos to Florence for trying to pick up Wilde's slack) just tanked the whole project. What a shame.
no thanks. not going to be going cashless to satisfy annoying 22 23 year olds queuing in Starbucks who wear those pathetic tracksuits and think that being 31 is old
At one point, when Jack in the real world is signing up for the Victory Programme, he's asked if his and Alice's relationship is "Pre-Existing." This heavily implies that some of the women don't even know their "Husbands" in real life, and were essentially kidnapped.
I genuinely fell asleep in the cinema by that point but that is actually disgusting... how Olivia went around and marketed this film as some great display of "female pleasure" is beyond me.
That was one of the things I said as soon as I left the cinema. I wished they'd leaned into that aspect more, or even had them not be together in the real world but he had an obsession with her so kidnapped her into the simulation. It could've been so much better
i’ll never understand why Olivia decided to keep all the multiple sex scenes but cut off Alice finding her own death certificate in Project Victory, kinda creates a plot hole.
there were only 2 very short sex scenes. yea they did feel a little bit unncessary but ig they were trying to show how obsessed jack and alice supposedly were with each other. and olivia didn't write nor rewrite the script, that was the van dyke brothers and katie silberman i believe. i do agree that they shouldn't have changed a few things though
In the original script (the one not edited by Olivia Wild and her team) Alice comes out of the simulation and remembers that she was seeking a divorce from Jack and that’s why he brought her into the simulation. She also logs onto a computer and sees she’s a missing person. Jack comes out of the simulation as well and he and Alice have a showdown outside the simulation and Alice kills him.
This doesn't make much sense either,how can someone who has been laying in bed for months in a coma like state has the physical power to kill someone?it would take weeks to even walk properly
@@Colorfulinblack the script explains that she can’t walk but she kills him by stabbing him with a screwdriver (I think) repeatedly when he has her pinned down I can suspend reality if it was done like that rather than ONE hit to the head with a glass
I feel like this would have made a good 6 episode mini series. That way we could actually explore all these characters stories, answer all those questions, stretch out Frank’s obsession with Alice and draw out Alice slow peeling back the layers of the simulation.
Good point. Jack is his own undoing. He didn't realize that his actions in the real world, when he's near Alice, are sinking into her subconscious and making her realize things in the simulation.
I mean, exactly. I agree with many of the issues this movie has. But what this video and other similar ones fail to do is recognize things that don't need to be spoonfed to figure out. It was really clear to me that she was hearing his voice because Jack had his videos playing in the background.
I remember reading an article about this movie titled “Olivia chooses Styles over Substance” and I think that’s the most accurate way to describe this hot mess of a film.
I feel like Olivia Wilde tried to make this Midsommar 2.0 with the odd visuals but she failed to realize Midsommar had the story and plot that the visuals complimented 😭
It doesn't make sense that Alice is a surgeon, yet people would certainly notice if she suddenly stopped showing up for her busy shifts. Also, Jack signed up for the Victory Programme because he didn't want to have to work, yet he basically has to look after Alice while she's in the stimulation, and make sure that she doesn't die.
@@onewinter9411 It'll been interesting if the women were killed and their consciousness was uploaded to the program. When it revealed the women flip the script and take over the program and trap the men a hell of their own creation.
Moreover if he didn't want to work, he still has to work a job in real life to pay rent like Space Ninja said XD like bro I don't think this is the better option for you
He thought that Alice was unhappy and that he should work, be the “man” and that would make everything better. He was radicalised and thought he could have the perfect like with her in the sim. Like the other men. He at least is in a pre existing relationship, it’s implied that isn’t always the case
Definitely too many plot holes and lack of explanation, totally agree really needed to be a series to draw out all the details it was way too rushed a lot of the couples needed to be explored in depth, and the concept some one else mentioned of the possible kidnapping and imprisonment of the other women by incel men or what type of men were they were in life and how did they trap these women
The fact that she suddenly can drive actually makes sense, seeing as she now remembered her real life, and presumably already knew how to drive there. What bothers me, though, is that she’s still restrained in the real world, so how is she going to get out of those with her husband dead next to her, and a billion locks on the door?
@@ML-uu7wy been a while since I saw it, and only watched it once, but didn’t he die inside the “simulation”? Wasn’t it a thing that if they died in there, they would die for real? In that case I imagine she would still have been shackled. But I absolutely might be remembering wrong!
I guess we don't know if she can get free, but they did (and possibly still do) live in an apartment building so screaming out for help would surely work. Although if he kept her in the same apartment she lived in before becoming a missing person, I have no idea how he got away with this.
Everything I've heard about this movie makes it sound like someone had a dream after watching a psychological horror anthology and just. Wrote down their dream verbatim and made it into a movie.
@@blueblack3591 it’s an original screenplay taken from the 2019 Black List. It was written by Carey and Shane Van Dyke before Katie Silberman was brought on to do a rewrite. What we have is the final product.
This is so true, it’s so disjointed and before the twist its 100% like some of the dreams I have. Just plonk a train station in random places and that’s exactly like my dreams
@@alfie6441 It's not an adaptation of something that was blacklisted. The script itself, not an adaptation but an original script, appeared on "The Black List", what Hollywood calls the most liked scripts not produced yet. It's a survey that studio executives and production company people take every year and they say which they like the most. More than a thousand scripts have been listed on that survey since 2005. It's a script that studio people liked a lot, that's it, it's a new script based on nothing pre-existing
@@andiran23 I called it an adaptation because they completely changed the script by omitting so much of the details in the original. There was so much more information about Alice’s life in the real world, what happened to her, how she escaped, and the recurring images of her in water. A lot of the questions that the final product left us with were answered in the original such as “why doesn’t anyone know that Alice is missing?” In the original script it’s revealed that Jack falsified an accidental drowning. That was all removed so It’s basically like they removed the flesh organs the story needed to actually survive and left it’s bare bones. I’ll edit my comment for the miss wording and go into more detail 🫠
The plot twist of the wife of the villain randomly killing him reminds me of OSP's trope talk on plot twists: "if the audience knows there's a bomb under the table, then a clown jumps out and stabs someone, no one wins because the audience is left going 'uuuh, what?!'" That twist really had no reason to exist
@@Alice-me2qk OSP is a Overly Sarcastic Productions. It's a youtube channel. One of the people who runs the channel has an ongoing series where she breaks down common tropes in media called "Trope Talks". It's a pretty interesting series and she does a good job of discussing all the various ways any given trope can be played.
I feel like the biggest problem with the twist is that everything falls apart once you think about it even a little bit. Jack is a jobless loser that somehow gets a good enough paying job to support him and Alice in the real world AND also pay for the simulation? He yearns for this idealised version of the 50's where he is successful and she is a housewife, but in reality he has to do all the chores and stuff that he presumably didn't want to do while Alice was the breadwinner, but now he also has to ensure she doesn't die. When does he even have the time for fancy dinner parties when he has to work full time, cook, clean, etc AND take care of his wife who can't even leave their bed? How did nobody notice she was missing? Olivia Wilde's character's mini twist also makes the whole thing fall apart. If the simulation can create other people like her kids without needing a real human connecting with them, why do they need to have any kidnapped women at all? Why couldn't Jack and all the other losers just make copies of their wives? Whats the difference between a fully simulated person and a person held in the simulation? Why did they think they didn't need to explain anything about how the simulation works? Seems like they came up with the main twist and were so pleased with themselves they didn't even make a second draft.
You know, this got me thinking that maybe a better twist would have been that the wives were also simulations, like they were AI constructions the men built to be their idealized wives and then they went rogue in the program...
I also hate that in the simulation he apparently only wanted to give her oral sex all the time, as though an Incel is deeply invested in pleasuring women. In reality any Incel in a simulation would be doing this to degrade the woman and make her sexually satisfy him without caring about her own needs. But because Olivia decided it's "feminist" to show female pleasure we have to pretend this one Incel is deeply invested in hers. His character just doesn't make any sense. If he'd gone into deep podcast Incel territory, she would've just dumped him and he would've gone crazy and maybe kidnapped her or something.I agree about making copies of the wives. Why not just live out his Incel fantasies with a fake woman? And what were all those cracks in the simulation meant to be about, the sim glitching, but why? I could see them doing that in a much smarter way where ALL the women notice the glitches, not just her character.
Watch this movie again. No, seriously, watch it again. He doesn’t do chores, they live in a dingy dark apartment. He doesn’t cook, he eats tuna out of a can for survive. He doesn’t much take care of himself, he’s thin and unwashed. His hair is greasy. He probably has a minimum wage job to get by and makes the money go to where he wants (Victory Peoject, electricity, internet are priorities, water, yes, but (my conjecture) hot water isn’t. Cleaning isn’t. Keeping his wife alive is a priority. He has to maintain her and keep her healthy enough to remain in the simulation. Yes, this means she needs water, nutrition, IVs, …maybe physical therapy so she doesn’t atrophy(?). Also, he has a limited number of hours in the simulation. He must be out of it and at work (irl) to remain in TVP. He has to leave the simulation everyday (apparently weekends and days off don’t exist) I’m GUESSING, because there isn’t enough memory to keep the men in the simulation more than the allotted hours.
I interpreted a lot of those strange scenes as metaphors, or glitches in the simulation. For example, the eggs are a metaphor for her perfect life being an empty shell; the odd-shaped building symbolizes her eye. The earthquake tremors could be movement in the real world coming through into their fake one.
I agree. I just felt it all fell flat in the end and that was super disappointing because I was expecting a really badass or tragic ending but it was just…bad
I remember watching a TikTok clip of the credits showing and someone in the audience just say “WHAT?!”, and then everyone laughed. Like that person said what everyone else wanted to say.
I heard somewhere the original script had Jack NOT be her husband, but some employee at the hospital who doesn't earns that much. Which was a much better way of dealing with the twist, as it would only further highlight why so many women in the simulation have a backstory that seems copy pasted, they are kidnapped by incels they know in their actual lives, and their families, friends and actual husbands have reported them missing all along. Statistically speaking some could be lesbians and have had their sexuality forcibly changed by the stimulation. If it had been framed like that, this movie would have painted a very horiffic dystopian reality where incels obtained the actual means to make women subject to them and their pathetic insecurities. But no, Olivia scrapped the best version of the script, and gave us this. If that is not the ultimate sign she chose aesthetics over an actual good movie, I don't know what is.
Same. After watching the movie I felt just kind of disappointed, but after learning about the original scripts for it and how much better they were I actually felt angry. This could have been so amazing.
I actually quite like the fact that jack and alice were originally in a romantic relationship, i think it makes for an interesting and realistic dynamic where men, even while married, often view women as pretty objects whose only goal should be to please and serve them. Jack constantly states that he loves Alice, and yet submits her to those horrific events, and I think that makes it a lot more disturbing! My favorite acting moment from Florence in the movie is when she finds everything out and is conflicted about still loving him. However, I would have still liked to see some background into some of the other wives who were clearly kidnapped.
That would have even made Jack seem more psychotic than just sad when everything is revealed. I feel like the existing relationship between Alice and Jack almost made me sympathize in a way for Jack and made me feel super sad for him. I wish they would’ve kept that original script, it would have been so much more unnerving and jarring.
It's also crazy to think that after she kills Jack and wakes up in real life, she's tied to a bed next to a dead man with no one knowing that she's there. So essentially she's going to die trapped to a bed
spoiler: the reason she hears franks voice throughout her day is because in the real world, jack constantly listens to franks podcasts on his computer. so the movie is highlighting the cracks in the victory project (literally the simulation) and the glitches in it i guess. so when alice hears franks voice it’s actually from jacks podcast and reality seeping into th victory project. idk if that makes sense but yeah
Wasn't he wearing headphones while listening? I thought that was a flashback to what he was listening to before he got them into the simulation. Once they were in the simulation my assumption was he was now working for Frank at that point so that's why he had to "leave" every day and would go work on the simulation for Frank in the real world then come back to the simulation afterwards. To me it seemed like she was just listening to him on the radio. I think that was a point that Frank put those things into the simulation to keep essentially brainwashing them to stay.
The one character I could never understand was bunny. She implies that her children in the real world are dead, but when she’s in the simulation, she doesn’t really interact with her children. She barely spends time with them.
True and also as a friend of mine said : she knows her kids are dead irl and that she is in a simulation so what’s the whole point ?? Just staying in contact with them ?
I’m glad you brought up the messy contrast of creepy weird occurrences being immediately followed by mundane life moments. If there was an increasing ramp off of these instances, it would’ve been better
yeh but aren't the creepy parts supposed to hint that this is not real life (in the end we learn they are in a simulation) so tbh it makes sense. The things that don't make sense are like glitches in the simulation, no?
@@Jess-ci8re that’s what I gathered as well, like the simulation was glitching and not catching up fast enough, and it would try to unalive her before she figured out what was really happening. Overall this movie was a good attempt but we definitely needed more to happen before she found out
In the original script, Alice discovers the truth when she finds a portal to the real world inside a house for sale. She wakes up hooked to an IV and to a machine that puts people into the simulation. Alice unplugs herself, sees she’s in her apartment and in the year 2050. Upon looking around, Alice discovers that Harry Styles' Jack, due to their impending divorce, signed them up for Alt-Life, the equivalent of the Victory Project. Jack had faked her death and forced her into the simulation. Alice re-enters the simulation so as not to raise suspicion, but Jack figures her out and sends her for shock therapy, but it doesn’t work. Alice tricks Jack and then one night forces him to tell her the truth about everything. Eventually, Jack admits that he put them in the simulation because he wanted them to be happy again and that he was angry she had put work before him. Jack tells Alice the location of the exit portal in their house and Alice leaves. However, Jack follows Alice to the present day, and they get into a physical fight resulting in Alice stabbing him with a knife. In the simulation, Bunny finds Jack dead and Alice unconscious. Alice wakes up back in the 1950s in a psychiatric ward, is told she killed Jack and had dreamed the future where she was free. The final scene of the film is Bunny visiting Alice in the psychiatric ward. Bunny reveals to Alice there is an escape portal behind them and leaves. Alice begins to head towards the door and the film ends.
Whenever there is over the top hype before a movie hits the cinemas, its a bad sign. The movie itself creates the hype, a good story, outstanding characters, actors, music everything. Then it lingers in your mind, you think and talk about it, you rewatch it and then it becomes iconic.
This could have been way cooler if it was either an actual psychological thriller about realizing you’re in a simulation and slowly becoming aware or losing your mind, or if it was a psychological thriller as all the wives become aware together and it turns into a hostile takeover of the simulation
I recommend The Stepford Wives (1975, not the one with Glenn Close and Nicole Kidman). Princess Weekes did a video called "Why Don't Worry Darling doesn't Work" it compares the two, well three, films, it's really good.
i still cant believe alice ruined all her hard work on the food just for some head? like there was a perfectly fine sofa?? or counter??? or literally floor???? but you had to do it on the table??????😭
I felt this should've been a 3 episode mini series - episode 1 is her living in this world and noticing a lot of slightly odd things and getting more and more confused, episode 2 would be her trying to escape and discover what is actually going on, and then episode 3 would be her in the real world and what happens with her trying to speak the truth and being gaslit by the world and feeling even crazier than when she was inside.
Once the movie ends and right before the credits go up, you hear Florence take a deep breath as if she’s waking up. I interpreted this as she makes it back to the real world to bring an end to Victory.
as this comment section pointed out, she's going to wake up restrained. Unless she can scream loud enough, she could easily die of starvation, and if she's been in bed for months... she might not be able to make much noise.
@@robertlewis6915 There was a short clip of her with modern clothes dancing around in a modern house as well, I mean the background didn't look anything like in the simulation so I'm guessing she did make it and she was fine but it still left so many questions, I mean what did she do with Jack's body and did people of the Victor try to come after her? I mean Frank must've had people in the outside world as well, it couldn't have been just him running the whole thing.. like the ones who were chasing her and were right behind her when she touched the window were very much still alive so what happened with them? Unless his wife was aware the she was in a simulation and she woke up the other wives as well and they killed them all but idk I actually got the impression that she was in on it too and she just got mad that he messed up, she looked shady throughout the whole movie for me as well.
Olivia Wilde put my ego in check. This reminds me of those times I have a cool vague idea for a story in my head, with specific scenes and imagery that I know would be cool, but not actually put in the work to sit down and create a fleshed out world, characters, and plot with a good consistent storyline lol.
Start writing it! I have a huge writer’s block because im afraid of writing something that could come out as dumb and unbearable, while this nonsense was approved and produced by a major company 😂 I dont care anymore ill just start to write
YESS this is something I'm realizing too! I used to have so many little ideas that I thought were so great, but it was overwhelming. Now I realize the important part is the work and the inspiration to truly flesh out a story, and this is actually empowering because it's how you make something good.
In the original screenplay Alice wakes up whilst Jack is at work and she finds out about the Victory Project on his computer as well as a bunch of missing posters as her family and the police tried to find her but Jack misled them. Jack comes home and Alice kills him in real life. Sadly Olivia changed the script and cut it out and instead went with the cliffhanger (seemingly setting up a sequel with Gemma Chans character in charge of the simulation)
After many thoughts (mainly questions XD), I've had after watching the movie I simply came to the conclusion that this whole movie was just executed like a "prequel" to another one that will "presumably" explain what wasn't in the first, with Gemma's character in charge, my thoughts exactly! I wonder if Chan will be up for a sequel, though. Or even Pine, cause there are bound to be flashbacks going back to the starting of this whole project and how their characters' relationship developed in parallel.
I just had a thought that maybe Bunny saying she “lost” her kids in the real world isn’t because they died, but because they were taken away from her, possibly because of neglect ? It’d explain why she still doesn’t appear to spend much time with them
I was wondering which it was, too. If they somehow died tragically or if they were just taken away. I also found it interesting that she was the only one in the town who had kids.
I thought that too. She's hardly a loving, hands-on mom. I instantly thought she lost them to the system and not to death and living in the simulation was the easy way to get them back; she doesn't have to better or prove herself etc like she would have to in the real world.
felt like wilde tried too hard to make all of the villains have a reasoning for being evil… like jack wanting to be a better bf or bunny’s kids being dead
Honestly everything could have been fixed with like one sentence of dialogue: "the machine is breaking because the women's subconscious minds are fighting back" Like you get the symbolic layer of women fighting back against oppressive systems, you explain the random earthquakes and occurrences since they're literally "breaking" Victory, you add narrative weight to Gemma Chan's character killing her husband since it could be seen as the "final blow" to this program, and even makes Chris Pine's character's behavior have another layer since he's so sure of himself, he doesn't think his program can fail even if he spends the whole movie observing yet another crack in his code. But NOPE, vague explanation for the win.
I like how this movie didn’t dumb things down for people who need shit explained to them explicitly. It’s a movie. Art. In the eye of the beholder. Choosing to be eccentric. And I’ve seen worse movies in the regard. How is this confusing to you? It’s not a math problem…
@@brandib2821 Right I feel like the movie blatantly told us that without actually saying the words lmao, was it not obvious in the unseen where the women were all looking like shit was adding up and the street lights were popping 😂
I’m so confused by those who are saying this movie doesn’t explain anything simply because they didn’t say this line out loud. First time watching this point was pretty obvious to me. “All these things went unexplained!” It’s pretty clearly explained without saying it out loud.
Well ok you guys may see that without it being “explained”. But i think the issue with the movie is its sequence doesn’t lead anywhere or tie up to anything that the understanding is easily lost. Meaning you could see it as about women fighting back men’s oppression blablabla, or u could see it as meaning nothing more than she just got out. Regardless there wasn’t enough impact in the story for whatever message it may have had to land.
Bad writing sadly, there was a lot of potential for this to be a better film, as it mainly needed to be fleshed out more with its story. Like with a few rewrites it really could’ve been a good film. Like they said as a result it was just a mess. Proves a film cant be carried by visuals, great actors and an intriguing basic premise. If its not written/told well, its still not gonna be good regardless.
It can happen when a director's priorities are the visuals, and leaving the script and acting as an afterthought. I've been involved with projects where a self indulgent director and cinematographer will spend most of the time fussing over the lighting and camera set-ups and the actors get no direction beyond "stand there" - and you'd need a good producer or assistant director to reign them in (after actors, cinematographers are always the biggest primadonnas on set). They can be so fixated on getting a cool shot or spectacular lighting that they don't pay much attention to what the shot's saying in service of the story - Michael Cimino wasted a whole day's worth of filming in Heaven's Gate getting a seconds-long shot of someone cracking a whip (he demanded 52 takes).
I personally like the weird shifts in scenes because it makes it feel like a dream and already from the start you know something is up, it's artificial. Like in dreams your surroundings or situations can just morph into another thing and you just accept it because in the dream it makes sense.
Also, Alice starts to question her reality because Jack keeps singing the same song in the real world (the one she keeps humming throughout the movie) and it brings her snippets of memories of them together in real life. Bunny never tells her that they'll find her real body and kill her. She only her that they'll kill her, which they try to do before she gets to headquarters. Also, the wives in that world can't drive, we don't know if Alice in the real world knew how to drive. The movie explains most things if you pay attention. It doesn't spoonfeed them. The ending was abrupt, because that was the end of her simulation. We start the movie with her in the simulation, we end the movie with her waking up. It makes sense. I liked it. I almost didn't watch because I'm not a big Harry Styles fan, but a clip of the dinner table discussion scene changed my mind
@@lactose.free.milky.way. Biggest issue is fact, that first 90 min was known before movie even aired. Trailers were so much "oh it's next remake of stepford wives". First 50-60 min is ok, then we have wasted 30 mins and in last 30 mins we have snipshots of what should be most important. Like if it's simulation, then why losers? It's some illegal experimental R&D? Why those women are kept and looked by men? Shouldn't it be proffesional medical faculity? Brainwashing, especially so big, isn't cheap, so you don't want your "asset" to stop existing because of "user error" We knew it would be "men bad" movie, but it should have at least some social commentary about it instead of "look men bad, they have PODCASTS!"
I thought the same thing watching this video. I was like did you pay attention at all cause this was all explained. Not to say there aren’t some holes but that’s just reality sometimes not everything can be tied up in a nice bow
What makes me enjoy this movie isn’t the weird stuff that happens to Alice but how she reacts to it. It’s an exploration into her not knowing if she’s really crazy or if everyone is lying to. And it’s an exploration into her relationship with jack and how much she’s willing to forgive
ik everyone hated it but i rly liked it. the whole time i just kept thinking “this is what psychosis feels like.” everyone and everything is convincing you that your experience isn’t real. but you know what you’re experiencing
I have seen the movie, read the original Black List script, AND read a version close to the shooting script. This movie is a Frankenstein's Monster of both versions with some more madness thrown in. Black List script version Alice was Jack's ex-wife who he managed to declare dead somehow before trapping her in the simulation. In the later version, she is a surgeon at the hospital and Jack is like an orderly who kidnapped her which makes more sense to me personally. Should have picked a lane instead of trying to be all things but also make Jack/Harry Styles kinda sympathetic. "Just loved you way too much to watch you have to work triple shifts to support us while I refuse to get a job."
Another horrifying thing i realized. Bunny referred to the other lady as "always pregnant", I was wondering what her backstory was as to why, then I realized it might be because her "husband" has a pregnancy fetish
I'm a nurse, so my complaints are related to keeping her alive lol. The clip with an "IV" in Alice's arm.... They used a butterfly needle which is used to draw blood, it isn't used to give fluids. IV fluids are not nutritious To prevent bed sores, she would have to be shifted in bed/turned every 2 hours. That obviously didn't happen, haha
Pneumonia, Thrombosis etc. where are the preventions? 😂😭 Also if he were to manage her full healthcare, he’d have to be pretty darn qualified in the healthcare department.
@@jasminewilliams1673 patient at risk for delusional thought process as evidenced by her interactions with her psycho husband in the victory project, lol
Feels like they tried to add some of that psychotic energy from black swan to the movie but forgot that it has to be explained and that it has to make sense
Pine's voyeuristic smile of satisfaction when he watches Alice and Jack stems out of the control of her sexual pleasure. He's the puppetmaster that created this world that is ultimately pulling the strings on her every emotion. It's like a passive threeway for him.
@@danielijust8776 i mean those are just tropes. It depends on how you execute them. You might as wells ay that we can't write fantasy because Tolkien already did it. The problem is not that it's a simulation, it's the execution of the entire thing lol
I heard someone say that Gemma Chan’s character was being setup for a sequel or something where she takes over the VR, so maybe that was where it was leading to. But their bodies would still need to be taken care of IRL, and with the exception of Bunny, there’s no reason for them to want to stay there
Watching this movie I was like dang they put Florence through it. Like having to get squished between a wall and a pane of glass so she can't move, cover her face with plastic wrap so she can't breathe, run barefoot on dirt/gravel, meanwhile everyone else is just like chillin lmao
I mean Chris pines character implies she’s different than the rest, so it makes sense if she’s fighting back against the simulation she’d be the one having the negative experience. Also didn’t another character kill themselves because of it? So maybe not everyone else was chilling lol
@@AJ-pu9jq ya what that person said lol Florence as an actress felt like she had to do so much more than the others who were mostly filming scenes of parties or lounging by the pool or something like that lol
@@AstraeaAntiope oooh I thought they meant character wise, thank you for letting me know and I completely agree like damn i hope she had plenty of care bts when doing those
I could totally understand Olivia’s character wanting to be in that dream world over reality, her kids obviously died and the dream world she gets them. If my kids died I would want to escape too.
To be honest (maybe a hot take), I kinda liked the movie because of the cast, the stunning visuals and just the vibe it had. It may not be a great movie, but it was enjoyable and aesthetic to watch on my sick day!
Fr, I loved her in If Beale Street Could Talk and was excited to see ger and Florence worked together, but no. Her scenes were cut and Bunny somehow got more screentime than her
It made all her and her husbands scenes pointless, there would have been more interest if the only stuck to Alice’s pov and take the friend storyline out of it
@@jasminewilliams1673 well idk because kiki laynes character is what made alice start seeing something was wrong i think it was very necessary it just needed to be done right
@@makaylalashe4730 yes I get that was started her journey but I felt it was done so poorly, they either could have given actual scenes and not exposition for Kiki laynes experiences, or just focused on Alice loosing her footing. I just didn’t care when the character attempts s**cide because there was nothing the audience witnessed of their friendship
For a psychological thriller this had my theater in cacophonous laughter more than anything else. Very funny theatrical experience honestly. Like a really great 10 year old cinematographer got to write, direct, and edit a movie
The reason I think chris pines character said she challenged him is cause he was the programmer so every time she pushed the limits of the simulation he could edit it
@@khadizaahmed8989 I'm going out on a limb here and speculate. Alice is an ER doctor, so her brain is wired much differently than the other wives. So, her enhanced critical thinking is highly disruptive to the simulation. That's why at the dinner table convo with Pine, the others did not believe her and believed Pine.
I think the biggest plot hole is that Alice is a SURGEON. If she was just a nurse I could under the financial difficulties. But a surgeon would not be living that kind of poverty with their salaries.
After freshly coming off watching this, I'm gonna add this real quick: I believe Jack had to work for Frank (Pine's character) outside the simulation in order for access to it and to support himself and Alice. That seemed especially poignant when they were arguing the last time and Jack was saying how much he hates going out to work. I definitely think Frank had a cult-like following with everyone and was able to convince the men (and Bunny) to join him in his new world order mission. You can also see it in the way the other characters idolize and essentially worship Frank in the simulation that makes me think he convinced everyone on the outside to contribute to the Victory Project.
I really think that something happened during editing because of the "Chris pine is dead now" scene. It is so out of nowhere that I cannot believe that a writer can pull something like that up without realizing it comes out of nowhere. I think there was a whole storyline about Gemma Chan's character that was cut out of the movie. And starting there, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the case with several other plot moments.
That's a really good point, about Gemma Chan's storyline being cut out- it definitely feels like she had more of a background but we just didn't know about it. I was so surprised when she killed him, especially after she seemed so defensive over him at the dinner scene, I thought she would know about it and be running the simulation alongside Chris Pine or something.
Kiki Lane’s character, who is kinda the main catalyst for Alice to begin questioning things, had her entire character’s storyline whittled down to only a few scenes for no reason, so I can believe they did it to someone else. That or it’s from a earlier draft of the script and for some reason they couldn’t think of a better punishment for Chris pine’s character so they decided to leave it
I’ve really started to dislike Chris Pine. Lately every movie I find him in, it’s terrible lol. Next time I see him in something, I’m changing the movie.
So much of this movie’s plot would have been solved if all the people forced into the simulation were digital copies of the originals. No questions about bodies or death rules, really heavy stakes when it comes to Chris Pine’s character, the glitches can be a software issue (or Harry’s failed career being a programmer and his poor attempts at hacking his Florence-bot gives her extra abilities), and the escape from the simulation can be hijacking the bodies of the husband maybe (leaning into themes of SA, control and bodily autonomy). Ending the movie with Alice-in-Jack looking at Alice coming home tired in her scrubs would have been _haunting_
That's basically the plot of the USS mcCallister episode of Black mirror: after a pretty normal interaction with a neckbeard colleague, a young woman wakes up in a parody of original star trek where neckbeard is the captain everyone has to fawn over. It's quickly confirmed though that the people in the simulation are virtual copies, and the original copies are actually still living their normal lives in the real world, but the copies are held hostage in a creepy scenario. actually, it's pretty lighthearted for black mirror.
I've never seen the movie, but hearing people describe it leaves me with so many questions. Who gives Florence her eyedrops when Harry is away? Does she ever go to the bathroom? How is she able to escape the virtual simulation so easily? How much money does Harry have to make so he can pay for the apartment and the VR?
I feel like their are so many issues with this film related to olivia wilde and other writers for the film not understanding technology/not having a very strong imagination of how this tech would have to work to actually exist.
I may be wrong but I think it’s implied that Jake now works for the Victory project, like Victory pays for everything and the men have to make it back by working for victory in some way. About Alice’s upkeep - I don’t know, maybe she’s just living in her waste while he’s working
@@KD-ou2np I feel like a lot of movies (and writters in general) have problem with their high concept stories because they usually will explore it just enough for you to like it and want to learn more about it and then either drop it immediately or give it some out of nowhere, reminds me of those edgy kids that say ash is in a coma and all your favorite characters are dead because they don't want to indulge in the fantasy
This would have really been a thriller if they didn't make Jack an incel. If he had been a charismatic, popular, and conventionally handsome person who had a good job who still took Alice and put her in this program, it would have sent absolute chills up my spine.
Imagine if Jack had put as much effort into actually having a good relationship with his girlfriend as he did kidnapping her and shoving her into a simulation where they had a good marriage, he wouldn't have needed the simulation at all. Especially since he apparently landed a good enough job to support the household plus however much it costs to have a kidnapped girlfriend shoved into a simulation so the job hurdle was already covered.
The part about him having to need to leave the simulation to go back into the real world and make money to keep being in the simulation was so dumb like if he could get a job back in the real world and take care of such a big complicated thing, then why go to all this trouble about being in a fake world at all? I know, I know, it also gave him a new much cooler identity and all but that was also something he could've achieved in the real world - I mean once he had landed a good job to support his household and felt ''good enough'' (because as we saw, obviously the problem was that she had a job while he stayed rotting at their house glued to a computer all day) as his girlfriend then he could've only progressed to better things from there. It just didn't make sense to me at all, I mean I get the bit about wanting to live the dream like we all fantasize about being someone better, prettier, richer, successful etc but we always have to come back to reality at some point and it's no different in this case at all, I mean since he already had to leave the simulation every day to make sure that he keeps being in it then why not just give it a go outside of it too? I mean if you think about it he didn't even really get to enjoy the simulation that much since he had to get in and out of it all the time lol so what was even the point of it.
@@jisookomblackpinkkru256 maybe I know too much about alpha/incel culture but this was never a question for me. Its much easier to work a job that only pays for the "basics" than trying to have everything he can in the simulation. On top of that I cant help but remember all those dudes that sell this mindset to men that essentially pay their viewers to promote them and get more people on board, I wouldnt be surprised this might be how he pays for the simulation. Like yes, its correct if he actually put in the effort in their relationship and life they would probably have a good life together. BUT they dont. The mass shooter that even had a manifesto, essentially openly admitted it, he never put any effort into meeting women. He would sit parked in his car for hours and get mad because women didnt just approach him. This is incredibly common in incel spaces. Im not sure if we find out what his job/profession is, my bet is that there was little to no chance he would be able to get a job that would carry better "social prestige" or salary than a surgeon. By laws of the manosphere this means hes a failure and his wife will leave him for a "higher value male" sooner or later. So to him the simulation is the only way he can actually have the life he wants. Which in those cyrcles is the imaginary version of the 50s from coca cola ads with a traditional hot wife at home and an amazing house, job and prestige.
@@jisookomblackpinkkru256 That the dude was whining about her always working and really just complaining about the concept of a surgical resident having a busy work schedule while he watches YT videos all day, told me it was more about making sure her entire existence was focused solely on him than any financial motivation.
@@jisookomblackpinkkru256 When I first watched the movie I assumed he's able to find a job but unable that find a good enough job to have the life he wants, big house, stay at home wife, fancy dinner every night, etc. I think somehow keeping himself and Alice alive in that thing is cheaper than we imagine and he can barely manage that
@@BambiLena666 Yesss thanks to my knowledge about incel culture and right before reasearching about kidnapping of Colleen Stan, I did not have problems with "coherence" of the plot. I can perfectly see how this would happen if it was possible in the real world. Keep on going in real life instead of living in an artificial world where you have the authority as a MALE and your ex girlfriend is under your control, that would be more easy and approachable for a healthy person, not for an insecure incel.
You have to read the original script before Olivia Wilde ruined it. Jack was supposed to be Alice’s stalker and at the end you realize she doesn’t actually know him, he kidnapped her from the hospital. In the real world people were looking for her but she was in a secret location. There’s a part in the movie where she’s supposed to try and escape but they catch her and stick her back in the simulation. All the women in there were supposed to be kidnapped, and the Jack was supposed to be mean and abusive and very 1950s mean husband. Olivia Wilde took over and ruined the whole script, Harry Styles also did not want to portray and abuser because it would be bad for her image. Literally it would have been such a good movie if they had stuck with the OG script
I think it would've made more sense if they made the Victory Project bigger. Maybe it's not just a simulation, but a physical building with the program running inside. Instead of Jack having to care for Alice, they have care centers in the building for the wives, like coma patients in a hospital. Maybe the town is laid out exactly like the building, so instead of a car chase at the end, Alice breaks the simulation and her real world self has to escape the real world building based on her knowledge. She kills Jack in real life when she comes home, and maybe the other wives physically wake up too, so the ending is all of them coming home and killing their husbands in the real world.
this idea could also explain how Jack is even able to afford this program, maybe they're like test subjects used for some study on how minds are affected by simulations, while the whole 50s setting is essentially a byproduct. And the husbands could be leaving to the real world to participate in some real world tests... Heck, make it so that they both agreed to participate for some reason but Alice's memory of it was erased - maybe it would add complexity to the whole "women good men bad thing". I don't know, this idea would need a lot of polishing but at least it could be made into a semi-coherent movie
while I was watching the movie that's kind of what I tought the plot twist was gonna be! I was convinced it Project Victory was a real place and Alice was kidnapped and had her memory erased
I also thought the project extending to the real world and the jobs were for the victory program in some way depending on their skill, recruitment sure but also programmers and medical people who took care of the women stuck in the program in some sort of facility so that Victory is maybe so insidious they can fake deaths and make people go missing without question So their whole lives depended on Frank and The Victory Project Like they had so much to work with and they did so little with it in the movie
I interpreted the plane crash as something Alice imagined, like her mind telling her something is wrong with the reality she’s living in. There’s the toy plane she saw with her friend who lost her son and that manifested into a warning sign, leading her to the place she knows she’s not supposed to go (and also where the little boy wandered off to), which is why no one else saw it or heard it.
A really dystopian version of the ending could be her waking up, and because she is restrained and her muscles have (probably) atrophied, she starves to death, or just dies. would have made this movie more unsettling and more like the aesthetics the movie was aiming for, it wouldn't make the movie not bad, but it would be cool..
The quakes, Alice wrapping her head, etc… were glitches or changing in the program. Alice wrapping her head was basically her mind coming through trying to get herself out of this made up matrix, subconsciously. A better written script would’ve explained this. Also, all of these women aren’t married to these men. Some of these women were basically kidnapped by these men and put into this simulation.
I actually really liked this movie, and that's probably because I don't normally judge my enjoyment according to the structure and the actual factors that go into making a film, I just decide based on how I was affected emotionally. Overall, I found myself terrified with the fact that all these men thought they could decide what made these women happy and take their lives and trap them in this world. I think the reason I became more and more afraid as we started to unpack the reality of Victory was the fact that their entitlement isn't actually fictional and is the mindset of a lot of people. All in all really great video you put out and it's really interesting to see another perspective
I think it's great that some people enjoyed the movie, I didn't, lol. I think it depends on how you interact with your media. I like to analyse and get a logical/full answer at the end of the movie (funnily enough, that's why I like romcoms!), but if that's not what you looking for, like for you, you're going in with a view of "how am I going to feel?" you are going to enjoy different things than me. It's fun and interesting that people see movies in different ways :)
That's totally fair. We're all different in how we experience things. However, I believe most viewers didn't even hate the idea of this movie at all. Like, we do see people acting like this irl. There are "movements" that encourage these types of mindsets and it's horrifying how quickly they gain traction now that the internet's such a huge part of our lives. Many men don't want to "lose" their power in society and wish to regress for one reason or another. And it's not always who you'd expect to fall into these holes, because these group "leaders" and voices often prey on a commonality or relatable circumstances instead of just one type of person with a singular belief. I think the emotional kind of audience member is what Olivia depended on for this movie, and why it fails beyond its concept. It has the workings of a good film and even had the means, but its execution is what flopped for most. It's refreshing to see someone say that they actually did like it, though. I didn't hate it as much as others, like it mostly made sense to me, but it didn't do enough. Like others have said, it would've been perfect for a mini series.
I paused it at the awards ceremony scene to go switch some laundry over and I was flabbergasted that there was still an hour left lmfao. It had so much potential
they NEEDED to reveal the twist about halfway through the film or at least 3/4 of the way because i believe they did it in the last like 20 minutes which obviously didn't work...ugh this movie had SO much potential
I was super excited for this as well. At least Florence’s performance is amazing as always. You guys should check out the Pitch Meeting for this after. It’s a good laugh.
This just sounds like someone wrote a movie by only listening to descriptions of Wes Anderson and M. Night shyamalan movies and mashing these two together
"A succession of sequences" is the hands down best way to describe this movie. The next time i want to watch a near future pocket dystopia pseudo romance thriller about women's bodily autonomy, ill just watch Fresh again.
They wrote off so many key scenes from the original script that could’ve solved a lot of the problems people have with this movie. I was genuinely pissed off when I read it after my screening.
I will literally watch anything you upload. Even when I don't know whatever movie/series you're talking about. The amount of work you put into each video can really be felt on this side of the screen
I feel like you missed some of the plot and symbolism 1. You see Margaret in the yard holding a red plane that was her son's, later you see the same red plane crash. The plane crash didn't happen, it's Alice's subconscious leading her to the exit. 2. The visions (walls closing in, Margaret in the ballet studio, wrapping her head with saran wrap) were essentially nightmares where the real Alice felt trapped and was conveyed with claustrophobic imagery 3. The earthquakes could have been anything to do with the simulation like updates, bugs etc. 4. Alice is being taken care of by Jack IRL with an IV 5. Shelley and Frank were working together, you can hear her voice when the husbands enter the simulation. She turns on Frank because he was foolish for keeping Alice and Jack in the simulation instead of removing them and now the whole Victory Project is compromised. Shelley was also hypnotizing the wives during ballet class so she might have even been the mastermind of the whole project but lets Frank be the figure head because potential husbands would likely listen to a man over a woman. 6. There is Alice in wonderland symbolism with the main character (Alice) and Bunny (white rabbit)
Some of these helped, but my word, #4 is a miss. An IV comes no where close to providing full time 24-hour care to a bedridden invalid. Two words friend: bed sores. Bedridden patients need to be rotated every 2 hours. Bonus points for diapering and a feeding tube! It's a huge amount of work, and there's a reason nurses do it in shifts, it's never just up to one person.
And that’s why the closer she gets to reality her clothes start looking more and more like the nightgown she’s trapped in. Not trapped because last time he went in he untied her. The earthquakes are up to our imaginations but he does ask the dr if he knows of any “bugs” going around when dr is checking Alice.
@@sitcomchristian6886 that’s true but we only saw a short clip of the IV and him dripping water into her mouth, maybe technology has improved to where she can get nutrients via IV now or Jack just takes out the feeding tube or she has one directly into her stomach that’s not shown. I only brought it up because the video creator said “how is Jack keeping her alive” when it was shown that he does some medical stuff to her in a short clip. I appreciate your insight though, nurses do a lot!
@@laurent.52 yes great catch! This movie doesn’t spoon-feed the audience explanations, a lot of it is subtle and you may even have to watch the movie twice to realize some of the symbolism and story.
@@cheetodust745 Exactly!!! I watched it 3x and I tell everyone, once you finally see the very ending you’ll want to go back and rewatch all the subtle clues and foreshadowing and sybolysm you missed if you pay very close attention, like Olivia said “ if you blink, you may miss a clue “🤫😉
With the elderly couple jumping off the cliff in "Midsommar" and the plane falling from the sky in "Don't Worry Darling", could we say "Florence Pugh looking up and seeing something tragic" is its own genre by now? No? Takes more than two occurrences? That's fine, thought I'd ask just in case.
the last scene where gemma chain stabs chris pine is the biggest head scratcher for me. we are never told why she stabs him. what is she probably gonna get out of it.
it made no sense, we don’t know enough about either character nor how the victory project runs to understand why she did that. she proclaimed it was her time now (i believe) so what is she gonna do? take over the project… for the women?
@@aonsayss i interpreted it as a corny “feminist” sex revenge line. there’s so much focus on sex in the movie, and she says it’s her turn right as she stabs (ie penetrates) him with a knife, with the camera focused on her shoving it into him. i groaned out loud in the theater at it, so i’ve been surprised no one else really took it that way. the original script apparently had alice shove something up jack’s ass in “revenge” so that interpretation isn’t coming out of nowhere.
@@SalveRegina8 i think she was waiting for the perfect moment to kill him. like as soon as all hell broke loose, she was able to gain the upper hand. she just played along so he wouldn’t suspect a thing.
From what I'm seeing, this movie is trying to be an updated version of The Stepford Wives, but misses the point about what made that story creepy. The scariness wasn't "Ohhhh look at these creepy things happening!" It was from the dissonance of Joanna, as a newcomer, finding the behavior of everyone a little off and not knowing if it's really weird or she just doesn't get the local culture. Then, as things get weirder, we have her husband, someone she thought she could trust, gaslighting her by insisting everything is fine and she's the one being weird. And while the whole conspiracy and twist is frightening, there's also the underlying premise that the men in the town really only see their wives as sex objects and maids. They don't want actual companions with opinions and feelings and hobbies and lives of their own. And Joanna's husband apparently agrees with this, raising a whole host of other fears. Did he always feel this way about his wife? Was he easily swayed? Could anyone's seemingly loving, supportive spouse do the same? Do all men secretly resent having to accommodate their wives having things of their own to do? The movie tries for that, but it looks like it just falls on "LOOK WEIRD VISUALS ARE WEIRD"!!!
Yeah the potential was so promising that seeing end up this way is just hilarious x) ...all the ingredients are there....tales special talent to screw it up like this
YES! The Stepford Wives has so much to unpack and discuss. I did a short group project on it in college. I love the question of "did Joanna's husband know the full story about Stepford before they moved?" Because after he went to his first "men's meeting" he seemed really disturbed and troubled. It's such a great movie.
Yeah both Stpeford Wives movies have great social commentary. First one have horror feeling, second one is comedic, but both do great job on social commentary. First one is "you think being housewife is bad?" and 2004 one is "ok I get you are succesfull, but can you be, at least sometimes, femine at house?". While DWD whole social commentary is "men bad", like why?
I just watched this movie and all I can say is yeah, it's ridiculously convoluted but I stayed with it since Harry Styles is so easy on the eyes I didn't care whether he could act.
This video is a frustrating mix of good complaints (there are definitely weird things that seem to just happen for the sake of being weird, like the eggs and the plane crash) and places where the movie did actually address those things, such as: • The “woman standing mysteriously in her backyard” is the person before Alice who realizes something is off about the town. • Ditto with the “strange phone calls from her neighbor”. • The distant shaking is supposed to sell that the men are working on something big and dangerous enough to warrant telling people to keep away. • Her hearing Frank's voice in her head (and having visions) is part of the system of repetitive messages and images designed to keep her brain in a state where it can be kept in the simulation (fairly common with horror media that involve hypnosis). • Frank's speech does not mean anything because the Victory Project is not real, so he is just improvising something that sounds inspirational. • Alice is exceptional to Frank because she has resisted the hypnosis more than anyone else who has been put into the simulation, which tests the limits of his system. The response of an engineer who found a really good QA tester mixed with the sadistic tendencies of someone who would trap people in a simulation. • Alice is shown to have an IV, presumably giving her what fluids and nutrients her body needs. • There was allegedly an earlier version of the script where we found out there was a missing persons report filed for Alice. • There are myriad reasons someone in Bunny's position might choose to staying in and stay aware, and a plethora of sci-fi media have explored those sorts of responses to grief. • IIRC, we were never told the women are fine if they die. We never see what happens to Margaret, and no one who tells Alice that Margaret is fine is trustworthy. • Alice can drive at the end because she regained her memories from the real world. • It is shown more broadly that Alice regaining her memories also caused the other wives to start to “wake up”. I agree the movie never explains why/how (or why/how that also causes streetlights to explode), but it does explain why Shelley suddenly turns on Frank. To the issue of the meaning of the movie, it read very much to me like a heavy-handed metaphor for living in a patriarchal society, and Wilde specifically talked about the focus on how “MAGA” men idealize the 50s. Far from your complaint about a lack of any meaning in the movie, my complaint after watching it was that it was *too* heavy-handed 😄
what Don't Worry Darling attempts to say with its plot, The Stepford Wives did better nearly two decades ago (some of the jokes aged poorly but the main plot line of intimidated men turning their accomplished wives into subservient underlings is still relevant)
Not only that but it’s like white women have been trying to write their own version of get out since that movie came out and they’ve failed every single time.
I’ve watched it twice now, and I think I can explain one thing! The scene where Alice wraps her head in the plastic wrap comes after she witnesses the girl slash her own throat, and after she’s told that the girl is somehow just fine now - so I think that scene is her intentionally trying to suffocate herself to see what happens to her? (Like maybe to see if she’ll just wake up in bed again, just like she did in the plane crash sequence?) We just see of course that she ultimately can’t go through with doing it, when she tears the plastic off.
I truly don't understand how you were so lost during the movie. And as someone who is reviewing something I can't believe how many concepts you didn’t catch or couldn't understand
I think’s it tacky (in a lowkey funny way) that Olivia Wilde gave her character be the 3rd lead in the film behind the two main stars😂😂 Kiki Layne should of been the 3rd lead
I think everything about this movie shows how tacky she is, especially in how she tried to market the film (showing women having sex they enjoy is automatically empowering, even if it’s under false pretenses??)
@@Blue.1889 I was about say there was something off about it. They’re pointless and drag on. Yet both scenes are of only Alice being pleasured?. Tf is wrong with Olivia Wilde?.
As a woman who has men trying to control her body, thoughts, and beliefs on the daily, I understood the movie. Chris Pine's character watching them have sex is him showing his power and control. He watched them have a deeply personal moment that Florence Pough's character didn't want him seeing, but ultimately was powerless to stop him.
I don't think she could have stopped even if she wanted to. I interpreted all the sex scenes as her being programmed to give Style's character sex whenever he wanted it. Some men with old-skool mindsets think wives should always be submissive like that.
if people actually were trying to control you, just get away from them. If you can't because you're financially reliant on them, you're a leech. However, we all know the truth is you're just a wanabe victim.
Thank you again to Ridge Wallet! Go check them out now at ridge.com/friendlyspaceninja to get your own!
I was just looking to get one, well now I got a promo code
Ugh! Its just so sad that the story was such a mess. The aesthetics and cast were fantastic but an incoherent script and bad directorial leadership (kudos to Florence for trying to pick up Wilde's slack) just tanked the whole project. What a shame.
HUMANS!!! I love that show I didn’t even realize it was her!!! Have they come out with a new season?? Like after the AI eyes turn purple???
no thanks. not going to be going cashless to satisfy annoying 22 23 year olds queuing in Starbucks who wear those pathetic tracksuits and think that being 31 is old
It SOUNDS like a modern 'reimagining' of the "Stepford Wives"
At one point, when Jack in the real world is signing up for the Victory Programme, he's asked if his and Alice's relationship is "Pre-Existing." This heavily implies that some of the women don't even know their "Husbands" in real life, and were essentially kidnapped.
I genuinely fell asleep in the cinema by that point but that is actually disgusting... how Olivia went around and marketed this film as some great display of "female pleasure" is beyond me.
oh holy shit. i missed that and it's REALLY fucked up.
That was one of the things I said as soon as I left the cinema. I wished they'd leaned into that aspect more, or even had them not be together in the real world but he had an obsession with her so kidnapped her into the simulation. It could've been so much better
@Alexandere Xinith wouldn't being obsessed w someone who doesn't know u exist be a lot more ~incel~ than chasing ur ex?
Wtf i see you comment on every video i watch ??
i’ll never understand why Olivia decided to keep all the multiple sex scenes but cut off Alice finding her own death certificate in Project Victory, kinda creates a plot hole.
That's sad, another case of a movie really screwing it up with unnecessary scenes instead of something really interesting
Multiple sex scenes? There were only two, and they were not explicit or anything. I agree on the plot hole tho.
Nah that actually sound interesting😂
there were only 2 very short sex scenes. yea they did feel a little bit unncessary but ig they were trying to show how obsessed jack and alice supposedly were with each other. and olivia didn't write nor rewrite the script, that was the van dyke brothers and katie silberman i believe. i do agree that they shouldn't have changed a few things though
They took a script with a good concept and bad execution and made it worse
In the original script (the one not edited by Olivia Wild and her team) Alice comes out of the simulation and remembers that she was seeking a divorce from Jack and that’s why he brought her into the simulation. She also logs onto a computer and sees she’s a missing person. Jack comes out of the simulation as well and he and Alice have a showdown outside the simulation and Alice kills him.
That would've been badass
So much better.
This doesn't make much sense either,how can someone who has been laying in bed for months in a coma like state has the physical power to kill someone?it would take weeks to even walk properly
@@Colorfulinblack the script explains that she can’t walk but she kills him by stabbing him with a screwdriver (I think) repeatedly when he has her pinned down I can suspend reality if it was done like that rather than ONE hit to the head with a glass
Honestly sounds like a better ending
I feel like this would have made a good 6 episode mini series. That way we could actually explore all these characters stories, answer all those questions, stretch out Frank’s obsession with Alice and draw out Alice slow peeling back the layers of the simulation.
yessss
Frank was obsessed with Alice cuz he knew she was onto him
i would’ve loved that
Yesss
Each episode highlighting a different couple with the final episode being frank’s
the reason she hears Chris pines voice in her head is because Jack is listening to his podcasts in real life. same with the song she keeps humming.
Good point. Jack is his own undoing. He didn't realize that his actions in the real world, when he's near Alice, are sinking into her subconscious and making her realize things in the simulation.
That really explains some of the weird shit he says, too. She's hearing his podcast stuff, not his actual responses at times.
I mean, exactly. I agree with many of the issues this movie has. But what this video and other similar ones fail to do is recognize things that don't need to be spoonfed to figure out. It was really clear to me that she was hearing his voice because Jack had his videos playing in the background.
I remember reading an article about this movie titled “Olivia chooses Styles over Substance” and I think that’s the most accurate way to describe this hot mess of a film.
Oh wow😂
Ouch. The accuracy.
AKA “Well at least the cinematography, sets and costuming were really good…”
@@sophieh.4097 duh
and that’s the truth! we all know it lol
I feel like Olivia Wilde tried to make this Midsommar 2.0 with the odd visuals but she failed to realize Midsommar had the story and plot that the visuals complimented 😭
She totally tried to do "Stepford Wives, but Midsommar-ly unsettling!" and ignored the thing that made both stories work which is an actual plot lol
And the character development
@@mariaah3073 could not agree more 👏
midsommar is so overrated
@@muhammadhussam9958 at least it's decent and doesnt have plotholes like this movie.
It doesn't make sense that Alice is a surgeon, yet people would certainly notice if she suddenly stopped showing up for her busy shifts. Also, Jack signed up for the Victory Programme because he didn't want to have to work, yet he basically has to look after Alice while she's in the stimulation, and make sure that she doesn't die.
in the original script, Alice saw her own obituary in which the Victory programme has a way to fake these women's death.
Well jack wanted power over her??? I dunno...
@@onewinter9411 It'll been interesting if the women were killed and their consciousness was uploaded to the program. When it revealed the women flip the script and take over the program and trap the men a hell of their own creation.
Moreover if he didn't want to work, he still has to work a job in real life to pay rent like Space Ninja said XD like bro I don't think this is the better option for you
He thought that Alice was unhappy and that he should work, be the “man” and that would make everything better. He was radicalised and thought he could have the perfect like with her in the sim. Like the other men. He at least is in a pre existing relationship, it’s implied that isn’t always the case
Don't Worry Darling should have been a series, every plot hole they leave open and all the rushed twists could be explored and would be so cool
That series would have been Westworld
Definitely too many plot holes and lack of explanation, totally agree really needed to be a series to draw out all the details it was way too rushed a lot of the couples needed to be explored in depth, and the concept some one else mentioned of the possible kidnapping and imprisonment of the other women by incel men or what type of men were they were in life and how did they trap these women
AliceVision
@@lucinda_null I knew I wasn't the only one who made that connection! 😂
Exactly! A serious would have been better. So many questions unanswered.
The fact that she suddenly can drive actually makes sense, seeing as she now remembered her real life, and presumably already knew how to drive there.
What bothers me, though, is that she’s still restrained in the real world, so how is she going to get out of those with her husband dead next to her, and a billion locks on the door?
I got the idea that when he’s home he takes the shackles off. (Per the “careing”for her scene)
@@ML-uu7wy been a while since I saw it, and only watched it once, but didn’t he die inside the “simulation”? Wasn’t it a thing that if they died in there, they would die for real? In that case I imagine she would still have been shackled.
But I absolutely might be remembering wrong!
I guess we don't know if she can get free, but they did (and possibly still do) live in an apartment building so screaming out for help would surely work. Although if he kept her in the same apartment she lived in before becoming a missing person, I have no idea how he got away with this.
Everything I've heard about this movie makes it sound like someone had a dream after watching a psychological horror anthology and just. Wrote down their dream verbatim and made it into a movie.
I think it is a book adaptation
@@blueblack3591 it’s an original screenplay taken from the 2019 Black List. It was written by Carey and Shane Van Dyke before Katie Silberman was brought on to do a rewrite. What we have is the final product.
This is so true, it’s so disjointed and before the twist its 100% like some of the dreams I have. Just plonk a train station in random places and that’s exactly like my dreams
@@alfie6441 It's not an adaptation of something that was blacklisted. The script itself, not an adaptation but an original script, appeared on "The Black List", what Hollywood calls the most liked scripts not produced yet. It's a survey that studio executives and production company people take every year and they say which they like the most. More than a thousand scripts have been listed on that survey since 2005. It's a script that studio people liked a lot, that's it, it's a new script based on nothing pre-existing
@@andiran23 I called it an adaptation because they completely changed the script by omitting so much of the details in the original. There was so much more information about Alice’s life in the real world, what happened to her, how she escaped, and the recurring images of her in water. A lot of the questions that the final product left us with were answered in the original such as “why doesn’t anyone know that Alice is missing?” In the original script it’s revealed that Jack falsified an accidental drowning.
That was all removed so It’s basically like they removed the flesh organs the story needed to actually survive and left it’s bare bones.
I’ll edit my comment for the miss wording and go into more detail 🫠
The plot twist of the wife of the villain randomly killing him reminds me of OSP's trope talk on plot twists: "if the audience knows there's a bomb under the table, then a clown jumps out and stabs someone, no one wins because the audience is left going 'uuuh, what?!'"
That twist really had no reason to exist
It seemed like that “twist” that never went anywhere was like Olivia Wilde’s message: “GO FEMINISM!” but making no logical sense
What's "OSP's trope talk"?
@@Alice-me2qk OSP is a Overly Sarcastic Productions. It's a youtube channel. One of the people who runs the channel has an ongoing series where she breaks down common tropes in media called "Trope Talks". It's a pretty interesting series and she does a good job of discussing all the various ways any given trope can be played.
Eyyyyy a fellow OSP fannn
apparently Gemma Chan' character also had a lot of scenes cut out, maybe it made ore sense with those scenes? but yeah, it was out of nowhere
I feel like the biggest problem with the twist is that everything falls apart once you think about it even a little bit. Jack is a jobless loser that somehow gets a good enough paying job to support him and Alice in the real world AND also pay for the simulation? He yearns for this idealised version of the 50's where he is successful and she is a housewife, but in reality he has to do all the chores and stuff that he presumably didn't want to do while Alice was the breadwinner, but now he also has to ensure she doesn't die. When does he even have the time for fancy dinner parties when he has to work full time, cook, clean, etc AND take care of his wife who can't even leave their bed? How did nobody notice she was missing?
Olivia Wilde's character's mini twist also makes the whole thing fall apart. If the simulation can create other people like her kids without needing a real human connecting with them, why do they need to have any kidnapped women at all? Why couldn't Jack and all the other losers just make copies of their wives? Whats the difference between a fully simulated person and a person held in the simulation? Why did they think they didn't need to explain anything about how the simulation works?
Seems like they came up with the main twist and were so pleased with themselves they didn't even make a second draft.
You know, this got me thinking that maybe a better twist would have been that the wives were also simulations, like they were AI constructions the men built to be their idealized wives and then they went rogue in the program...
@@michalgenesove1646 In that case the film would have been a very blatant plagiarism of Stepford Wives.
I also hate that in the simulation he apparently only wanted to give her oral sex all the time, as though an Incel is deeply invested in pleasuring women. In reality any Incel in a simulation would be doing this to degrade the woman and make her sexually satisfy him without caring about her own needs. But because Olivia decided it's "feminist" to show female pleasure we have to pretend this one Incel is deeply invested in hers. His character just doesn't make any sense. If he'd gone into deep podcast Incel territory, she would've just dumped him and he would've gone crazy and maybe kidnapped her or something.I agree about making copies of the wives. Why not just live out his Incel fantasies with a fake woman? And what were all those cracks in the simulation meant to be about, the sim glitching, but why? I could see them doing that in a much smarter way where ALL the women notice the glitches, not just her character.
Watch this movie again. No, seriously, watch it again. He doesn’t do chores, they live in a dingy dark apartment. He doesn’t cook, he eats tuna out of a can for survive. He doesn’t much take care of himself, he’s thin and unwashed. His hair is greasy. He probably has a minimum wage job to get by and makes the money go to where he wants (Victory Peoject, electricity, internet are priorities, water, yes, but (my conjecture) hot water isn’t. Cleaning isn’t. Keeping his wife alive is a priority. He has to maintain her and keep her healthy enough to remain in the simulation. Yes, this means she needs water, nutrition, IVs, …maybe physical therapy so she doesn’t atrophy(?). Also, he has a limited number of hours in the simulation. He must be out of it and at work (irl) to remain in TVP. He has to leave the simulation everyday (apparently weekends and days off don’t exist) I’m GUESSING, because there isn’t enough memory to keep the men in the simulation more than the allotted hours.
@@Ratchet2431 honestly it kind of already is
This movie would have been so good if someone like Jordan Peele had directed it. There was so much potential.
Jordan Peele could direct anything and I would be a masterpiece.
Jordan peele would have made this legendary
@@Itsginamendez Jordan peele overrated asf
Jordan Peele would have started a religion and everyone would convert to it.
get out and us were good but nope sucked even harder than this movie
I interpreted a lot of those strange scenes as metaphors, or glitches in the simulation. For example, the eggs are a metaphor for her perfect life being an empty shell; the odd-shaped building symbolizes her eye. The earthquake tremors could be movement in the real world coming through into their fake one.
felt similarily!
I agree. I just felt it all fell flat in the end and that was super disappointing because I was expecting a really badass or tragic ending but it was just…bad
Agree. That was what I was doing. Seeing it as dream logic with a mix of metaphors.
Yes exactly
I remember watching a TikTok clip of the credits showing and someone in the audience just say “WHAT?!”, and then everyone laughed. Like that person said what everyone else wanted to say.
that happened in my screen shwing of multiverse of madness lmao someone siad 'was that it' at the end of the second afdter credits
@@picturethis4903 that movie was also mumbled poodoo
I guess Harry was right when he said the movie felt like a movie. There’s not really anything else to say
he was being polite
I understand now. It felt like a movie, but wasn’t an actual movie. Real Movies have coherent plots.
everyone roasted him for it but there's really no way to explain it lmao
he was right because even the actors themselves had no idea what it was besides it being a movie
That's the real plot, harry styles was telling us what the movie was abt
I heard somewhere the original script had Jack NOT be her husband, but some employee at the hospital who doesn't earns that much. Which was a much better way of dealing with the twist, as it would only further highlight why so many women in the simulation have a backstory that seems copy pasted, they are kidnapped by incels they know in their actual lives, and their families, friends and actual husbands have reported them missing all along. Statistically speaking some could be lesbians and have had their sexuality forcibly changed by the stimulation. If it had been framed like that, this movie would have painted a very horiffic dystopian reality where incels obtained the actual means to make women subject to them and their pathetic insecurities. But no, Olivia scrapped the best version of the script, and gave us this. If that is not the ultimate sign she chose aesthetics over an actual good movie, I don't know what is.
Same. After watching the movie I felt just kind of disappointed, but after learning about the original scripts for it and how much better they were I actually felt angry. This could have been so amazing.
I actually quite like the fact that jack and alice were originally in a romantic relationship, i think it makes for an interesting and realistic dynamic where men, even while married, often view women as pretty objects whose only goal should be to please and serve them. Jack constantly states that he loves Alice, and yet submits her to those horrific events, and I think that makes it a lot more disturbing! My favorite acting moment from Florence in the movie is when she finds everything out and is conflicted about still loving him.
However, I would have still liked to see some background into some of the other wives who were clearly kidnapped.
That would have even made Jack seem more psychotic than just sad when everything is revealed. I feel like the existing relationship between Alice and Jack almost made me sympathize in a way for Jack and made me feel super sad for him. I wish they would’ve kept that original script, it would have been so much more unnerving and jarring.
this script is just as bad any idea that was ever there for this movie or any version is shit
Source?😂 cause y’all be saying anything
It's also crazy to think that after she kills Jack and wakes up in real life, she's tied to a bed next to a dead man with no one knowing that she's there. So essentially she's going to die trapped to a bed
spoiler:
the reason she hears franks voice throughout her day is because in the real world, jack constantly listens to franks podcasts on his computer. so the movie is highlighting the cracks in the victory project (literally the simulation) and the glitches in it i guess. so when alice hears franks voice it’s actually from jacks podcast and reality seeping into th victory project. idk if that makes sense but yeah
Wasn't he wearing headphones while listening? I thought that was a flashback to what he was listening to before he got them into the simulation.
Once they were in the simulation my assumption was he was now working for Frank at that point so that's why he had to "leave" every day and would go work on the simulation for Frank in the real world then come back to the simulation afterwards.
To me it seemed like she was just listening to him on the radio. I think that was a point that Frank put those things into the simulation to keep essentially brainwashing them to stay.
Thank you for this insight
“it was all a simulation” is the new “it was all a dream” on the level of disappointing and lazy twist endings
Oh no I think you’re right 😫
Oh 😩
I agree!
I think simulations can work if done properly just this movie had it’s issues
@@mariaskabardonis8353 people are so sick of that twist, it's gotta be done super well at this point to not be hated
The one character I could never understand was bunny. She implies that her children in the real world are dead, but when she’s in the simulation, she doesn’t really interact with her children. She barely spends time with them.
Like in real life. No wonder they died
@@RandomPerson-tz7wk 😂😂😂😂
True and also as a friend of mine said : she knows her kids are dead irl and that she is in a simulation so what’s the whole point ?? Just staying in contact with them ?
@@RandomPerson-tz7wk Stop thats not funny HAHAHAHHAHA
And complaining over how hard motherhood is, WHAT DID SHE EXPECT BY CHOOSING TO BE A MOTHER? 😂
I’m glad you brought up the messy contrast of creepy weird occurrences being immediately followed by mundane life moments. If there was an increasing ramp off of these instances, it would’ve been better
It's sad to think even the poorest quality horror media can get this" weird creepy occurrences" thing right more thsn this high budget movie
yeh but aren't the creepy parts supposed to hint that this is not real life (in the end we learn they are in a simulation) so tbh it makes sense. The things that don't make sense are like glitches in the simulation, no?
@@Jess-ci8re that’s what I gathered as well, like the simulation was glitching and not catching up fast enough, and it would try to unalive her before she figured out what was really happening. Overall this movie was a good attempt but we definitely needed more to happen before she found out
In the original script, Alice discovers the truth when she finds a portal to the real world inside a house for sale. She wakes up hooked to an IV and to a machine that puts people into the simulation. Alice unplugs herself, sees she’s in her apartment and in the year 2050. Upon looking around, Alice discovers that Harry Styles' Jack, due to their impending divorce, signed them up for Alt-Life, the equivalent of the Victory Project. Jack had faked her death and forced her into the simulation. Alice re-enters the simulation so as not to raise suspicion, but Jack figures her out and sends her for shock therapy, but it doesn’t work. Alice tricks Jack and then one night forces him to tell her the truth about everything. Eventually, Jack admits that he put them in the simulation because he wanted them to be happy again and that he was angry she had put work before him. Jack tells Alice the location of the exit portal in their house and Alice leaves. However, Jack follows Alice to the present day, and they get into a physical fight resulting in Alice stabbing him with a knife. In the simulation, Bunny finds Jack dead and Alice unconscious. Alice wakes up back in the 1950s in a psychiatric ward, is told she killed Jack and had dreamed the future where she was free. The final scene of the film is Bunny visiting Alice in the psychiatric ward. Bunny reveals to Alice there is an escape portal behind them and leaves. Alice begins to head towards the door and the film ends.
That should have been the finale
There’s another version of the script where they never knew each other and he just obsesses over her, kidnaps her, and forces her in the simulation.
Well I feel like an idiot - I never noticed "Alice," "Bunny," and a portal - "Alice in Wonderland" 🙃
Whenever there is over the top hype before a movie hits the cinemas, its a bad sign.
The movie itself creates the hype, a good story, outstanding characters, actors, music everything. Then it lingers in your mind, you think and talk about it, you rewatch it and then it becomes iconic.
This could have been way cooler if it was either an actual psychological thriller about realizing you’re in a simulation and slowly becoming aware or losing your mind, or if it was a psychological thriller as all the wives become aware together and it turns into a hostile takeover of the simulation
Yes! Fun and much more interesting ideas
I recommend The Stepford Wives (1975, not the one with Glenn Close and Nicole Kidman). Princess Weekes did a video called "Why Don't Worry Darling doesn't Work" it compares the two, well three, films, it's really good.
@@sousleciel2416Truman Show a little bit too
@@Gratefulrose36 Oh yeah! I've been meaning to watch that ♥️
I would have almost rather have followed the black women and her issues with her kid as she slowly starts to lose it.
i still cant believe alice ruined all her hard work on the food just for some head? like there was a perfectly fine sofa?? or counter??? or literally floor???? but you had to do it on the table??????😭
I was just like 'at least the plates aren't breakable' 🤷🏻♀️ she just cooked for NOTHING 💀
Legit, it looked so good too ......
LOLLLLLLL
That’s what I said when I saw it in theaters. I was like all that hard work for some dick?! 😂
Fr though😂 at one point she was just pushing things for no reason
I'm so confused. Doesn't that mean that Alice would wake up handcuffed to a bed alone next to a dead man? Would she be able to escape that?
With her muscles atrophied 😂
I'm assuming that Bunny would have found a way to help her.
This is the plot of Gerald's Game.....
he undoes one of her hand cuffs right before she dies
@@tjgreen7448 how
I felt this should've been a 3 episode mini series - episode 1 is her living in this world and noticing a lot of slightly odd things and getting more and more confused, episode 2 would be her trying to escape and discover what is actually going on, and then episode 3 would be her in the real world and what happens with her trying to speak the truth and being gaslit by the world and feeling even crazier than when she was inside.
Sounds like a shorter version of WandaVision
I agree even a 6 part mini hey.
Once the movie ends and right before the credits go up, you hear Florence take a deep breath as if she’s waking up. I interpreted this as she makes it back to the real world to bring an end to Victory.
as this comment section pointed out, she's going to wake up restrained. Unless she can scream loud enough, she could easily die of starvation, and if she's been in bed for months... she might not be able to make much noise.
@@robertlewis6915 There was a short clip of her with modern clothes dancing around in a modern house as well, I mean the background didn't look anything like in the simulation so I'm guessing she did make it and she was fine but it still left so many questions, I mean what did she do with Jack's body and did people of the Victor try to come after her? I mean Frank must've had people in the outside world as well, it couldn't have been just him running the whole thing.. like the ones who were chasing her and were right behind her when she touched the window were very much still alive so what happened with them? Unless his wife was aware the she was in a simulation and she woke up the other wives as well and they killed them all but idk I actually got the impression that she was in on it too and she just got mad that he messed up, she looked shady throughout the whole movie for me as well.
You can really feel the effects of the behind the scenes drama, it literally feels like there are scenes missing from the film
Olivia Wilde put my ego in check. This reminds me of those times I have a cool vague idea for a story in my head, with specific scenes and imagery that I know would be cool, but not actually put in the work to sit down and create a fleshed out world, characters, and plot with a good consistent storyline lol.
Start writing it! I have a huge writer’s block because im afraid of writing something that could come out as dumb and unbearable, while this nonsense was approved and produced by a major company 😂 I dont care anymore ill just start to write
True tbh. Your comment serves as a good reminder for me too haha
YESS this is something I'm realizing too! I used to have so many little ideas that I thought were so great, but it was overwhelming. Now I realize the important part is the work and the inspiration to truly flesh out a story, and this is actually empowering because it's how you make something good.
@@gabia.575 this! Im ganna start doing the same too😂😂
In the original screenplay Alice wakes up whilst Jack is at work and she finds out about the Victory Project on his computer as well as a bunch of missing posters as her family and the police tried to find her but Jack misled them. Jack comes home and Alice kills him in real life. Sadly Olivia changed the script and cut it out and instead went with the cliffhanger (seemingly setting up a sequel with Gemma Chans character in charge of the simulation)
After many thoughts (mainly questions XD), I've had after watching the movie I simply came to the conclusion that this whole movie was just executed like a "prequel" to another one that will "presumably" explain what wasn't in the first, with Gemma's character in charge, my thoughts exactly! I wonder if Chan will be up for a sequel, though. Or even Pine, cause there are bound to be flashbacks going back to the starting of this whole project and how their characters' relationship developed in parallel.
Can’t wait for a Victory Project Cinematic Universe
I will gladly do without the scene you just described. Unnecessary
17:15 Jack doesn't just believe that men should be providers, he believes that ONLY men should be providers.
I just had a thought that maybe Bunny saying she “lost” her kids in the real world isn’t because they died, but because they were taken away from her, possibly because of neglect ? It’d explain why she still doesn’t appear to spend much time with them
Hmm interesting and I can get behind that because until her last scene I never even got the impression she liked her kids
I was wondering which it was, too. If they somehow died tragically or if they were just taken away.
I also found it interesting that she was the only one in the town who had kids.
I thought that too. She's hardly a loving, hands-on mom. I instantly thought she lost them to the system and not to death and living in the simulation was the easy way to get them back; she doesn't have to better or prove herself etc like she would have to in the real world.
Idk cus her wording in the movie was “they’re alive here” implying they’re dead in the real world . I watched the movie twice
Frank/Shelly had kids serving them at the party@@KristySki
Oliva Wilde's character literally having the wandavision simulation-kids arc at the end is so random lol
she really went copy paste on wanda 💀💀💀
felt like wilde tried too hard to make all of the villains have a reasoning for being evil… like jack wanting to be a better bf or bunny’s kids being dead
@@anonymousperson7443 omg true, i didn't notice that
And she didn't even LIKE her kids in the simulation! Like...
I thought it was an arc stolen from the Stepford wives 💀💀
Honestly everything could have been fixed with like one sentence of dialogue: "the machine is breaking because the women's subconscious minds are fighting back" Like you get the symbolic layer of women fighting back against oppressive systems, you explain the random earthquakes and occurrences since they're literally "breaking" Victory, you add narrative weight to Gemma Chan's character killing her husband since it could be seen as the "final blow" to this program, and even makes Chris Pine's character's behavior have another layer since he's so sure of himself, he doesn't think his program can fail even if he spends the whole movie observing yet another crack in his code. But NOPE, vague explanation for the win.
You just fixed the ending of this movie
I like how this movie didn’t dumb things down for people who need shit explained to them explicitly. It’s a movie. Art. In the eye of the beholder. Choosing to be eccentric. And I’ve seen worse movies in the regard. How is this confusing to you? It’s not a math problem…
@@brandib2821 Right I feel like the movie blatantly told us that without actually saying the words lmao, was it not obvious in the unseen where the women were all looking like shit was adding up and the street lights were popping 😂
I’m so confused by those who are saying this movie doesn’t explain anything simply because they didn’t say this line out loud. First time watching this point was pretty obvious to me.
“All these things went unexplained!”
It’s pretty clearly explained without saying it out loud.
Well ok you guys may see that without it being “explained”. But i think the issue with the movie is its sequence doesn’t lead anywhere or tie up to anything that the understanding is easily lost. Meaning you could see it as about women fighting back men’s oppression blablabla, or u could see it as meaning nothing more than she just got out. Regardless there wasn’t enough impact in the story for whatever message it may have had to land.
The aesthetics of this film are gorgeous. Like, so visually stunning. And the concept of it is intriguing. So HOW did it turn out like this??
Bad writing sadly, there was a lot of potential for this to be a better film, as it mainly needed to be fleshed out more with its story. Like with a few rewrites it really could’ve been a good film. Like they said as a result it was just a mess. Proves a film cant be carried by visuals, great actors and an intriguing basic premise. If its not written/told well, its still not gonna be good regardless.
They weren't even successful at making it look like a 'perfect nightmare', it just looked perfect lol
Because at the end of the day, good ideas are just that.. good ideas. They mean nothing if the execution ends up being terrible.
Procution hell and Bad writing desies
It can happen when a director's priorities are the visuals, and leaving the script and acting as an afterthought. I've been involved with projects where a self indulgent director and cinematographer will spend most of the time fussing over the lighting and camera set-ups and the actors get no direction beyond "stand there" - and you'd need a good producer or assistant director to reign them in (after actors, cinematographers are always the biggest primadonnas on set). They can be so fixated on getting a cool shot or spectacular lighting that they don't pay much attention to what the shot's saying in service of the story - Michael Cimino wasted a whole day's worth of filming in Heaven's Gate getting a seconds-long shot of someone cracking a whip (he demanded 52 takes).
I personally like the weird shifts in scenes because it makes it feel like a dream and already from the start you know something is up, it's artificial. Like in dreams your surroundings or situations can just morph into another thing and you just accept it because in the dream it makes sense.
Also, Alice starts to question her reality because Jack keeps singing the same song in the real world (the one she keeps humming throughout the movie) and it brings her snippets of memories of them together in real life.
Bunny never tells her that they'll find her real body and kill her. She only her that they'll kill her, which they try to do before she gets to headquarters.
Also, the wives in that world can't drive, we don't know if Alice in the real world knew how to drive.
The movie explains most things if you pay attention. It doesn't spoonfeed them. The ending was abrupt, because that was the end of her simulation. We start the movie with her in the simulation, we end the movie with her waking up. It makes sense.
I liked it. I almost didn't watch because I'm not a big Harry Styles fan, but a clip of the dinner table discussion scene changed my mind
@@lactose.free.milky.way. Biggest issue is fact, that first 90 min was known before movie even aired. Trailers were so much "oh it's next remake of stepford wives". First 50-60 min is ok, then we have wasted 30 mins and in last 30 mins we have snipshots of what should be most important.
Like if it's simulation, then why losers? It's some illegal experimental R&D? Why those women are kept and looked by men? Shouldn't it be proffesional medical faculity? Brainwashing, especially so big, isn't cheap, so you don't want your "asset" to stop existing because of "user error"
We knew it would be "men bad" movie, but it should have at least some social commentary about it instead of "look men bad, they have PODCASTS!"
I thought the same thing watching this video. I was like did you pay attention at all cause this was all explained. Not to say there aren’t some holes but that’s just reality sometimes not everything can be tied up in a nice bow
What makes me enjoy this movie isn’t the weird stuff that happens to Alice but how she reacts to it. It’s an exploration into her not knowing if she’s really crazy or if everyone is lying to. And it’s an exploration into her relationship with jack and how much she’s willing to forgive
ik everyone hated it but i rly liked it. the whole time i just kept thinking “this is what psychosis feels like.” everyone and everything is convincing you that your experience isn’t real. but you know what you’re experiencing
i liked that once something weird happened, it moved on as if nothing happened, because that’s what you do when you’re in psychosis
I have seen the movie, read the original Black List script, AND read a version close to the shooting script. This movie is a Frankenstein's Monster of both versions with some more madness thrown in. Black List script version Alice was Jack's ex-wife who he managed to declare dead somehow before trapping her in the simulation. In the later version, she is a surgeon at the hospital and Jack is like an orderly who kidnapped her which makes more sense to me personally.
Should have picked a lane instead of trying to be all things but also make Jack/Harry Styles kinda sympathetic. "Just loved you way too much to watch you have to work triple shifts to support us while I refuse to get a job."
Both are way more terrifying than what we got
Either of those two would be more interesting.
Where can we find the original script ?
The black list script is a lot better than the movie imo
Both of those would have been more interesting.
Another horrifying thing i realized. Bunny referred to the other lady as "always pregnant", I was wondering what her backstory was as to why, then I realized it might be because her "husband" has a pregnancy fetish
Or maybe he put her in the simulation while she was pregnant
Or maybe she couldn't get pregnant irl?
Or maybe she lost a baby
This whole comment thread is such a good example of why the movie is so bad. So many questions.
@@arinasunday5474 no, you don't get it, this needs to be somehow about man hate
I'm a nurse, so my complaints are related to keeping her alive lol.
The clip with an "IV" in Alice's arm.... They used a butterfly needle which is used to draw blood, it isn't used to give fluids.
IV fluids are not nutritious
To prevent bed sores, she would have to be shifted in bed/turned every 2 hours. That obviously didn't happen, haha
Diapering and rash prevention, muscle atrophy, vision loss from not blinking, risk of infection, 02 sats/respiration 😂
Pneumonia, Thrombosis etc. where are the preventions? 😂😭 Also if he were to manage her full healthcare, he’d have to be pretty darn qualified in the healthcare department.
@@laprimavera4949 my girl needs some sequential compression devices
@@jasminewilliams1673 patient at risk for delusional thought process as evidenced by her interactions with her psycho husband in the victory project, lol
Couldn’t she just be given TPN?
Feels like they tried to add some of that psychotic energy from black swan to the movie but forgot that it has to be explained and that it has to make sense
Pine's voyeuristic smile of satisfaction when he watches Alice and Jack stems out of the control of her sexual pleasure. He's the puppetmaster that created this world that is ultimately pulling the strings on her every emotion. It's like a passive threeway for him.
This feels like one of those great idea, not-so-clean execution kind of things😅
Agreed
They had the platform but no plan
about 5 great ideas but all Frankensteined together
@@hockeygrrlmuse but what is so great about the Idea? Trueman Show Already did Something really similiar.
@@danielijust8776 i mean those are just tropes. It depends on how you execute them. You might as wells ay that we can't write fantasy because Tolkien already did it. The problem is not that it's a simulation, it's the execution of the entire thing lol
At the end they made it seem like all the women were waking up and not believing their husbands. But then she drove away and it went no where
I heard someone say that Gemma Chan’s character was being setup for a sequel or something where she takes over the VR, so maybe that was where it was leading to. But their bodies would still need to be taken care of IRL, and with the exception of Bunny, there’s no reason for them to want to stay there
And this supposedly dramatic moment kind of got undercut by that one hilariously whiny neighbor is all like "Waaaaah, this wasn't supposed to happen"
Watching this movie I was like dang they put Florence through it. Like having to get squished between a wall and a pane of glass so she can't move, cover her face with plastic wrap so she can't breathe, run barefoot on dirt/gravel, meanwhile everyone else is just like chillin lmao
I mean Chris pines character implies she’s different than the rest, so it makes sense if she’s fighting back against the simulation she’d be the one having the negative experience. Also didn’t another character kill themselves because of it? So maybe not everyone else was chilling lol
@@AJ-pu9jq I think this person is talking about what Pugh actually had to physically endure, vs. the other actors.
@@AJ-pu9jq ya what that person said lol Florence as an actress felt like she had to do so much more than the others who were mostly filming scenes of parties or lounging by the pool or something like that lol
@@AJ-pu9jq I don't like thinking about that implication of Alice being "not like other girls" 😕 kinda cheapens it
@@AstraeaAntiope oooh I thought they meant character wise, thank you for letting me know and I completely agree like damn i hope she had plenty of care bts when doing those
I could totally understand Olivia’s character wanting to be in that dream world over reality, her kids obviously died and the dream world she gets them. If my kids died I would want to escape too.
Yes but as humans we must grieve heal live and move foward
To be honest (maybe a hot take), I kinda liked the movie because of the cast, the stunning visuals and just the vibe it had. It may not be a great movie, but it was enjoyable and aesthetic to watch on my sick day!
Kiki Layne having most of her scenes cut out from the movie was just insulting.
Fr, I loved her in If Beale Street Could Talk and was excited to see ger and Florence worked together, but no. Her scenes were cut and Bunny somehow got more screentime than her
she was literally such an important character!!! i love bunny’s character but she had too many unimportant scenes
It made all her and her husbands scenes pointless, there would have been more interest if the only stuck to Alice’s pov and take the friend storyline out of it
@@jasminewilliams1673 well idk because kiki laynes character is what made alice start seeing something was wrong
i think it was very necessary it just needed to be done right
@@makaylalashe4730 yes I get that was started her journey but I felt it was done so poorly, they either could have given actual scenes and not exposition for Kiki laynes experiences, or just focused on Alice loosing her footing. I just didn’t care when the character attempts s**cide because there was nothing the audience witnessed of their friendship
For a psychological thriller this had my theater in cacophonous laughter more than anything else. Very funny theatrical experience honestly. Like a really great 10 year old cinematographer got to write, direct, and edit a movie
The reason I think chris pines character said she challenged him is cause he was the programmer so every time she pushed the limits of the simulation he could edit it
and she could push the limits of the simularion because?
@@victoralejandrotrimmerestr3672 because her subconscious was fighting back
@@vvanished but why was it only her? Why was she the only woman who could fight back why not the other wives? What makes Alice so special
@@khadizaahmed8989 bc she florence pugh, duh 🙄
@@khadizaahmed8989 I'm going out on a limb here and speculate. Alice is an ER doctor, so her brain is wired much differently than the other wives. So, her enhanced critical thinking is highly disruptive to the simulation. That's why at the dinner table convo with Pine, the others did not believe her and believed Pine.
I think the biggest plot hole is that Alice is a SURGEON. If she was just a nurse I could under the financial difficulties. But a surgeon would not be living that kind of poverty with their salaries.
she's a resident, she's called that in the film, I guess Ninja missed it 🤷♀️
Some Nurses make $200k+ in major cities.
Not exactly impoverished.
Now EMTs on the other hand…
“just a nurse”
I believe she paid off his debt a couple of times which is why she started to get tired when he stopped trying to work
@@TheElectricMayhem she’s a resident doctor and doctors have huge student loans to pay off after med school. She’s also only in her mid 20s.
After freshly coming off watching this, I'm gonna add this real quick: I believe Jack had to work for Frank (Pine's character) outside the simulation in order for access to it and to support himself and Alice. That seemed especially poignant when they were arguing the last time and Jack was saying how much he hates going out to work. I definitely think Frank had a cult-like following with everyone and was able to convince the men (and Bunny) to join him in his new world order mission. You can also see it in the way the other characters idolize and essentially worship Frank in the simulation that makes me think he convinced everyone on the outside to contribute to the Victory Project.
I really think that something happened during editing because of the "Chris pine is dead now" scene. It is so out of nowhere that I cannot believe that a writer can pull something like that up without realizing it comes out of nowhere. I think there was a whole storyline about Gemma Chan's character that was cut out of the movie. And starting there, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the case with several other plot moments.
That's a really good point, about Gemma Chan's storyline being cut out- it definitely feels like she had more of a background but we just didn't know about it. I was so surprised when she killed him, especially after she seemed so defensive over him at the dinner scene, I thought she would know about it and be running the simulation alongside Chris Pine or something.
Kiki Lane’s character, who is kinda the main catalyst for Alice to begin questioning things, had her entire character’s storyline whittled down to only a few scenes for no reason, so I can believe they did it to someone else. That or it’s from a earlier draft of the script and for some reason they couldn’t think of a better punishment for Chris pine’s character so they decided to leave it
But just whyyyyy it's such a dumb decision to screw over your movie like that
I’ve really started to dislike Chris Pine. Lately every movie I find him in, it’s terrible lol. Next time I see him in something, I’m changing the movie.
THIS!!!!!!
So much of this movie’s plot would have been solved if all the people forced into the simulation were digital copies of the originals. No questions about bodies or death rules, really heavy stakes when it comes to Chris Pine’s character, the glitches can be a software issue (or Harry’s failed career being a programmer and his poor attempts at hacking his Florence-bot gives her extra abilities), and the escape from the simulation can be hijacking the bodies of the husband maybe (leaning into themes of SA, control and bodily autonomy). Ending the movie with Alice-in-Jack looking at Alice coming home tired in her scrubs would have been _haunting_
omg i got chills
I want a movie like this so bad! What a unique take.
UGH that would of been great
Wait that's so smart you shouldve directed this movie
That's basically the plot of the USS mcCallister episode of Black mirror: after a pretty normal interaction with a neckbeard colleague, a young woman wakes up in a parody of original star trek where neckbeard is the captain everyone has to fawn over. It's quickly confirmed though that the people in the simulation are virtual copies, and the original copies are actually still living their normal lives in the real world, but the copies are held hostage in a creepy scenario.
actually, it's pretty lighthearted for black mirror.
I've never seen the movie, but hearing people describe it leaves me with so many questions.
Who gives Florence her eyedrops when Harry is away? Does she ever go to the bathroom? How is she able to escape the virtual simulation so easily? How much money does Harry have to make so he can pay for the apartment and the VR?
I feel like their are so many issues with this film related to olivia wilde and other writers for the film not understanding technology/not having a very strong imagination of how this tech would have to work to actually exist.
I may be wrong but I think it’s implied that Jake now works for the Victory project, like Victory pays for everything and the men have to make it back by working for victory in some way. About Alice’s upkeep - I don’t know, maybe she’s just living in her waste while he’s working
@@KD-ou2np I feel like a lot of movies (and writters in general) have problem with their high concept stories because they usually will explore it just enough for you to like it and want to learn more about it and then either drop it immediately or give it some out of nowhere, reminds me of those edgy kids that say ash is in a coma and all your favorite characters are dead because they don't want to indulge in the fantasy
how is she physically able to escape irl? shes still strapped to a bed with eye lid holders.
@@jordanplayz5637 that’s the cliffhanger
This would have really been a thriller if they didn't make Jack an incel. If he had been a charismatic, popular, and conventionally handsome person who had a good job who still took Alice and put her in this program, it would have sent absolute chills up my spine.
Ironically a movie with the term "Don't Worry" in it had my mind wondering a lot and left me even more anxious and confused in the end!! 😞😞
This movie felt like Olivia Wilde watched Stepford Wives and then thought she could do it better. But then didn’t
Imagine if Jack had put as much effort into actually having a good relationship with his girlfriend as he did kidnapping her and shoving her into a simulation where they had a good marriage, he wouldn't have needed the simulation at all. Especially since he apparently landed a good enough job to support the household plus however much it costs to have a kidnapped girlfriend shoved into a simulation so the job hurdle was already covered.
The part about him having to need to leave the simulation to go back into the real world and make money to keep being in the simulation was so dumb like if he could get a job back in the real world and take care of such a big complicated thing, then why go to all this trouble about being in a fake world at all? I know, I know, it also gave him a new much cooler identity and all but that was also something he could've achieved in the real world - I mean once he had landed a good job to support his household and felt ''good enough'' (because as we saw, obviously the problem was that she had a job while he stayed rotting at their house glued to a computer all day) as his girlfriend then he could've only progressed to better things from there. It just didn't make sense to me at all, I mean I get the bit about wanting to live the dream like we all fantasize about being someone better, prettier, richer, successful etc but we always have to come back to reality at some point and it's no different in this case at all, I mean since he already had to leave the simulation every day to make sure that he keeps being in it then why not just give it a go outside of it too? I mean if you think about it he didn't even really get to enjoy the simulation that much since he had to get in and out of it all the time lol so what was even the point of it.
@@jisookomblackpinkkru256 maybe I know too much about alpha/incel culture but this was never a question for me. Its much easier to work a job that only pays for the "basics" than trying to have everything he can in the simulation. On top of that I cant help but remember all those dudes that sell this mindset to men that essentially pay their viewers to promote them and get more people on board, I wouldnt be surprised this might be how he pays for the simulation. Like yes, its correct if he actually put in the effort in their relationship and life they would probably have a good life together. BUT they dont. The mass shooter that even had a manifesto, essentially openly admitted it, he never put any effort into meeting women. He would sit parked in his car for hours and get mad because women didnt just approach him. This is incredibly common in incel spaces.
Im not sure if we find out what his job/profession is, my bet is that there was little to no chance he would be able to get a job that would carry better "social prestige" or salary than a surgeon. By laws of the manosphere this means hes a failure and his wife will leave him for a "higher value male" sooner or later. So to him the simulation is the only way he can actually have the life he wants. Which in those cyrcles is the imaginary version of the 50s from coca cola ads with a traditional hot wife at home and an amazing house, job and prestige.
@@jisookomblackpinkkru256 That the dude was whining about her always working and really just complaining about the concept of a surgical resident having a busy work schedule while he watches YT videos all day, told me it was more about making sure her entire existence was focused solely on him than any financial motivation.
@@jisookomblackpinkkru256 When I first watched the movie I assumed he's able to find a job but unable that find a good enough job to have the life he wants, big house, stay at home wife, fancy dinner every night, etc. I think somehow keeping himself and Alice alive in that thing is cheaper than we imagine and he can barely manage that
@@BambiLena666 Yesss thanks to my knowledge about incel culture and right before reasearching about kidnapping of Colleen Stan, I did not have problems with "coherence" of the plot. I can perfectly see how this would happen if it was possible in the real world. Keep on going in real life instead of living in an artificial world where you have the authority as a MALE and your ex girlfriend is under your control, that would be more easy and approachable for a healthy person, not for an insecure incel.
Th drama surrounding this movie is much better than the actual movie itself
I really hope that in a few years they will make a documentary or a film like The Disaster Artist.
@@Ratchet2431 - I won't rule that out.
Imagine this as a mini series where they could go in depth with all the unanswered questions and plot holes.
You have to read the original script before Olivia Wilde ruined it. Jack was supposed to be Alice’s stalker and at the end you realize she doesn’t actually know him, he kidnapped her from the hospital. In the real world people were looking for her but she was in a secret location. There’s a part in the movie where she’s supposed to try and escape but they catch her and stick her back in the simulation. All the women in there were supposed to be kidnapped, and the Jack was supposed to be mean and abusive and very 1950s mean husband.
Olivia Wilde took over and ruined the whole script, Harry Styles also did not want to portray and abuser because it would be bad for her image. Literally it would have been such a good movie if they had stuck with the OG script
I think it would've made more sense if they made the Victory Project bigger. Maybe it's not just a simulation, but a physical building with the program running inside. Instead of Jack having to care for Alice, they have care centers in the building for the wives, like coma patients in a hospital. Maybe the town is laid out exactly like the building, so instead of a car chase at the end, Alice breaks the simulation and her real world self has to escape the real world building based on her knowledge. She kills Jack in real life when she comes home, and maybe the other wives physically wake up too, so the ending is all of them coming home and killing their husbands in the real world.
this idea could also explain how Jack is even able to afford this program, maybe they're like test subjects used for some study on how minds are affected by simulations, while the whole 50s setting is essentially a byproduct. And the husbands could be leaving to the real world to participate in some real world tests... Heck, make it so that they both agreed to participate for some reason but Alice's memory of it was erased - maybe it would add complexity to the whole "women good men bad thing". I don't know, this idea would need a lot of polishing but at least it could be made into a semi-coherent movie
this idea would have been so much better omg
while I was watching the movie that's kind of what I tought the plot twist was gonna be! I was convinced it Project Victory was a real place and Alice was kidnapped and had her memory erased
I also thought the project extending to the real world and the jobs were for the victory program in some way depending on their skill, recruitment sure but also programmers and medical people who took care of the women stuck in the program in some sort of facility so that
Victory is maybe so insidious they can fake deaths and make people go missing without question
So their whole lives depended on Frank and The Victory Project
Like they had so much to work with and they did so little with it in the movie
No
I interpreted the plane crash as something Alice imagined, like her mind telling her something is wrong with the reality she’s living in. There’s the toy plane she saw with her friend who lost her son and that manifested into a warning sign, leading her to the place she knows she’s not supposed to go (and also where the little boy wandered off to), which is why no one else saw it or heard it.
Yep, exactly.
I think the red plane is also because the lasers are red in the control VR device
Let's not forget that when Alice wakes up, she will still be restrained. 😬
And even worse, next to a dead body
Well he did loose her restrains while giving fluid soo
With the eye things
A really dystopian version of the ending could be her waking up, and because she is restrained and her muscles have (probably) atrophied, she starves to death, or just dies. would have made this movie more unsettling and more like the aesthetics the movie was aiming for, it wouldn't make the movie not bad, but it would be cool..
I’m still confused why she hadn’t been found yet since she was a surgeon and her disappearance would be like super important.
The quakes, Alice wrapping her head, etc… were glitches or changing in the program. Alice wrapping her head was basically her mind coming through trying to get herself out of this made up matrix, subconsciously. A better written script would’ve explained this. Also, all of these women aren’t married to these men. Some of these women were basically kidnapped by these men and put into this simulation.
Honestly the whole idea of the twist is such an amazing idea and it’s a literal crime that they didn’t perfect the idea to make it make sense.
I actually really liked this movie, and that's probably because I don't normally judge my enjoyment according to the structure and the actual factors that go into making a film, I just decide based on how I was affected emotionally. Overall, I found myself terrified with the fact that all these men thought they could decide what made these women happy and take their lives and trap them in this world. I think the reason I became more and more afraid as we started to unpack the reality of Victory was the fact that their entitlement isn't actually fictional and is the mindset of a lot of people. All in all really great video you put out and it's really interesting to see another perspective
I agree. I really enjoyed the movie and I loved the twist. I just wish we could have seen more “real life” bits during and at the end of the movie
I think it's great that some people enjoyed the movie, I didn't, lol.
I think it depends on how you interact with your media. I like to analyse and get a logical/full answer at the end of the movie (funnily enough, that's why I like romcoms!), but if that's not what you looking for, like for you, you're going in with a view of "how am I going to feel?" you are going to enjoy different things than me.
It's fun and interesting that people see movies in different ways :)
I like the idea and absolutely love the 50s aesthetics, but the lack of substance and loose ends makes it a bad film overall
@@gabia.575 i feel the same
That's totally fair. We're all different in how we experience things. However, I believe most viewers didn't even hate the idea of this movie at all. Like, we do see people acting like this irl. There are "movements" that encourage these types of mindsets and it's horrifying how quickly they gain traction now that the internet's such a huge part of our lives. Many men don't want to "lose" their power in society and wish to regress for one reason or another. And it's not always who you'd expect to fall into these holes, because these group "leaders" and voices often prey on a commonality or relatable circumstances instead of just one type of person with a singular belief.
I think the emotional kind of audience member is what Olivia depended on for this movie, and why it fails beyond its concept. It has the workings of a good film and even had the means, but its execution is what flopped for most. It's refreshing to see someone say that they actually did like it, though. I didn't hate it as much as others, like it mostly made sense to me, but it didn't do enough. Like others have said, it would've been perfect for a mini series.
This is like a darker take on "Wandavision" but the one who goes nuts and creates a whole new reality is Vision
Wandavision, get out, stepford wives
@@alfie6441 idk how stepford wives is like 50 years old and this movie couldn’t make a smarter take on the story
@@alfie6441 @Al fie Oh shit you're right, my bad,
ruclips.net/video/VDN7YTBuaNY/видео.html
I paused it at the awards ceremony scene to go switch some laundry over and I was flabbergasted that there was still an hour left lmfao. It had so much potential
they NEEDED to reveal the twist about halfway through the film or at least 3/4 of the way because i believe they did it in the last like 20 minutes which obviously didn't work...ugh this movie had SO much potential
I was super excited for this as well. At least Florence’s performance is amazing as always. You guys should check out the Pitch Meeting for this after. It’s a good laugh.
"Yeah, I need you to get wayyy off my back" alot vibe
I will do that now, thanks for the tip lol
Checking out the Pitch Meeting is super easy, barely an inconvenience
Space ninja never misses with his timing and video content
Yes
Facts right here, he never misses
common space ninja W
This just sounds like someone wrote a movie by only listening to descriptions of Wes Anderson and M. Night shyamalan movies and mashing these two together
Noooooo.... That so True
Mind you that's not a bad thing... what's bad is making us think this movie has actual substance hence the misplaced hype💀💀
it reminded me a lot of The Village
i appreciate you shouting out the show Humans, severely underrated
"A succession of sequences" is the hands down best way to describe this movie. The next time i want to watch a near future pocket dystopia pseudo romance thriller about women's bodily autonomy, ill just watch Fresh again.
They wrote off so many key scenes from the original script that could’ve solved a lot of the problems people have with this movie. I was genuinely pissed off when I read it after my screening.
I will literally watch anything you upload. Even when I don't know whatever movie/series you're talking about. The amount of work you put into each video can really be felt on this side of the screen
SAAAME
I feel like you missed some of the plot and symbolism 1. You see Margaret in the yard holding a red plane that was her son's, later you see the same red plane crash. The plane crash didn't happen, it's Alice's subconscious leading her to the exit. 2. The visions (walls closing in, Margaret in the ballet studio, wrapping her head with saran wrap) were essentially nightmares where the real Alice felt trapped and was conveyed with claustrophobic imagery 3. The earthquakes could have been anything to do with the simulation like updates, bugs etc. 4. Alice is being taken care of by Jack IRL with an IV 5. Shelley and Frank were working together, you can hear her voice when the husbands enter the simulation. She turns on Frank because he was foolish for keeping Alice and Jack in the simulation instead of removing them and now the whole Victory Project is compromised. Shelley was also hypnotizing the wives during ballet class so she might have even been the mastermind of the whole project but lets Frank be the figure head because potential husbands would likely listen to a man over a woman. 6. There is Alice in wonderland symbolism with the main character (Alice) and Bunny (white rabbit)
Some of these helped, but my word, #4 is a miss. An IV comes no where close to providing full time 24-hour care to a bedridden invalid. Two words friend: bed sores. Bedridden patients need to be rotated every 2 hours. Bonus points for diapering and a feeding tube! It's a huge amount of work, and there's a reason nurses do it in shifts, it's never just up to one person.
And that’s why the closer she gets to reality her clothes start looking more and more like the nightgown she’s trapped in. Not trapped because last time he went in he untied her. The earthquakes are up to our imaginations but he does ask the dr if he knows of any “bugs” going around when dr is checking Alice.
@@sitcomchristian6886 that’s true but we only saw a short clip of the IV and him dripping water into her mouth, maybe technology has improved to where she can get nutrients via IV now or Jack just takes out the feeding tube or she has one directly into her stomach that’s not shown. I only brought it up because the video creator said “how is Jack keeping her alive” when it was shown that he does some medical stuff to her in a short clip. I appreciate your insight though, nurses do a lot!
@@laurent.52 yes great catch! This movie doesn’t spoon-feed the audience explanations, a lot of it is subtle and you may even have to watch the movie twice to realize some of the symbolism and story.
@@cheetodust745 Exactly!!! I watched it 3x and I tell everyone, once you finally see the very ending you’ll want to go back and rewatch all the subtle clues and foreshadowing and sybolysm you missed if you pay very close attention, like Olivia said “ if you blink, you may miss a clue “🤫😉
Jack wants to be Harry Styles for a few hours a day, that's his motivation.
With the elderly couple jumping off the cliff in "Midsommar" and the plane falling from the sky in "Don't Worry Darling", could we say "Florence Pugh looking up and seeing something tragic" is its own genre by now?
No? Takes more than two occurrences? That's fine, thought I'd ask just in case.
Was SO excited to see Chris Pine, Florence Pugh, and Gemma Chan in a psychological horror movie together, and then we got... this :(
the last scene where gemma chain stabs chris pine is the biggest head scratcher for me. we are never told why she stabs him. what is she probably gonna get out of it.
it made no sense, we don’t know enough about either character nor how the victory project runs to understand why she did that. she proclaimed it was her time now (i believe) so what is she gonna do? take over the project… for the women?
@@tiffanywardrop that is exactly my point.
@@aonsayss i interpreted it as a corny “feminist” sex revenge line. there’s so much focus on sex in the movie, and she says it’s her turn right as she stabs (ie penetrates) him with a knife, with the camera focused on her shoving it into him. i groaned out loud in the theater at it, so i’ve been surprised no one else really took it that way. the original script apparently had alice shove something up jack’s ass in “revenge” so that interpretation isn’t coming out of nowhere.
Right! One minute she’s defending the heck out of him, the next - gutting him. So silly.
@@SalveRegina8 i think she was waiting for the perfect moment to kill him. like as soon as all hell broke loose, she was able to gain the upper hand. she just played along so he wouldn’t suspect a thing.
From what I'm seeing, this movie is trying to be an updated version of The Stepford Wives, but misses the point about what made that story creepy. The scariness wasn't "Ohhhh look at these creepy things happening!" It was from the dissonance of Joanna, as a newcomer, finding the behavior of everyone a little off and not knowing if it's really weird or she just doesn't get the local culture. Then, as things get weirder, we have her husband, someone she thought she could trust, gaslighting her by insisting everything is fine and she's the one being weird.
And while the whole conspiracy and twist is frightening, there's also the underlying premise that the men in the town really only see their wives as sex objects and maids. They don't want actual companions with opinions and feelings and hobbies and lives of their own. And Joanna's husband apparently agrees with this, raising a whole host of other fears. Did he always feel this way about his wife? Was he easily swayed? Could anyone's seemingly loving, supportive spouse do the same? Do all men secretly resent having to accommodate their wives having things of their own to do?
The movie tries for that, but it looks like it just falls on "LOOK WEIRD VISUALS ARE WEIRD"!!!
& the novel was made by Ira Levin think about it.
Yeah the potential was so promising that seeing end up this way is just hilarious x) ...all the ingredients are there....tales special talent to screw it up like this
YES! The Stepford Wives has so much to unpack and discuss. I did a short group project on it in college. I love the question of "did Joanna's husband know the full story about Stepford before they moved?" Because after he went to his first "men's meeting" he seemed really disturbed and troubled. It's such a great movie.
Yeah both Stpeford Wives movies have great social commentary. First one have horror feeling, second one is comedic, but both do great job on social commentary. First one is "you think being housewife is bad?" and 2004 one is "ok I get you are succesfull, but can you be, at least sometimes, femine at house?". While DWD whole social commentary is "men bad", like why?
I just watched this movie and all I can say is yeah, it's ridiculously convoluted but I stayed with it since Harry Styles is so easy on the eyes I didn't care whether he could act.
This video is a frustrating mix of good complaints (there are definitely weird things that seem to just happen for the sake of being weird, like the eggs and the plane crash) and places where the movie did actually address those things, such as:
• The “woman standing mysteriously in her backyard” is the person before Alice who realizes something is off about the town.
• Ditto with the “strange phone calls from her neighbor”.
• The distant shaking is supposed to sell that the men are working on something big and dangerous enough to warrant telling people to keep away.
• Her hearing Frank's voice in her head (and having visions) is part of the system of repetitive messages and images designed to keep her brain in a state where it can be kept in the simulation (fairly common with horror media that involve hypnosis).
• Frank's speech does not mean anything because the Victory Project is not real, so he is just improvising something that sounds inspirational.
• Alice is exceptional to Frank because she has resisted the hypnosis more than anyone else who has been put into the simulation, which tests the limits of his system. The response of an engineer who found a really good QA tester mixed with the sadistic tendencies of someone who would trap people in a simulation.
• Alice is shown to have an IV, presumably giving her what fluids and nutrients her body needs.
• There was allegedly an earlier version of the script where we found out there was a missing persons report filed for Alice.
• There are myriad reasons someone in Bunny's position might choose to staying in and stay aware, and a plethora of sci-fi media have explored those sorts of responses to grief.
• IIRC, we were never told the women are fine if they die. We never see what happens to Margaret, and no one who tells Alice that Margaret is fine is trustworthy.
• Alice can drive at the end because she regained her memories from the real world.
• It is shown more broadly that Alice regaining her memories also caused the other wives to start to “wake up”. I agree the movie never explains why/how (or why/how that also causes streetlights to explode), but it does explain why Shelley suddenly turns on Frank.
To the issue of the meaning of the movie, it read very much to me like a heavy-handed metaphor for living in a patriarchal society, and Wilde specifically talked about the focus on how “MAGA” men idealize the 50s. Far from your complaint about a lack of any meaning in the movie, my complaint after watching it was that it was *too* heavy-handed 😄
what Don't Worry Darling attempts to say with its plot, The Stepford Wives did better nearly two decades ago (some of the jokes aged poorly but the main plot line of intimidated men turning their accomplished wives into subservient underlings is still relevant)
Exactly
And the 1975 version did it even better.
Not only that but it’s like white women have been trying to write their own version of get out since that movie came out and they’ve failed every single time.
@@alfie6441 What other movies have tried it?
@@AstoricaArt the one that comes to mind every time I think about it is Fresh.
I’ve watched it twice now, and I think I can explain one thing!
The scene where Alice wraps her head in the plastic wrap comes after she witnesses the girl slash her own throat, and after she’s told that the girl is somehow just fine now - so I think that scene is her intentionally trying to suffocate herself to see what happens to her? (Like maybe to see if she’ll just wake up in bed again, just like she did in the plane crash sequence?) We just see of course that she ultimately can’t go through with doing it, when she tears the plastic off.
Thank you! This actually makes sense.
This movie feels like Olivia Wilde just watched Hereditary and Black Swan and said, “oh my gosh, I should make my own!”
Some people on insta even referred to it as "get out, but for white women" 💀
They hired one of the same people from black swan. Stop being so negative and judgemental
@@batool2000rox oh my God that's perfect
Throw The Stepford Wives in there too!
I truly don't understand how you were so lost during the movie. And as someone who is reviewing something I can't believe how many concepts you didn’t catch or couldn't understand
Thank you for bringing up Humans. It's amazing and I LOVED Gemma in it!!! Really underated
Me and my friends all had the same response to this movie. “I want those two hours back” it was so pointless😂
We love watching your reviews. It seems like you’re definitely passionate when it comes to film and filmmaking. Keep up the good work. God bless you.
Yes
I think’s it tacky (in a lowkey funny way) that Olivia Wilde gave her character be the 3rd lead in the film behind the two main stars😂😂 Kiki Layne should of been the 3rd lead
especially since learning that Kiki got most of her scenes cut,
exactly like without kiki's character it would literally be no movie LMFAOOOO
I think everything about this movie shows how tacky she is, especially in how she tried to market the film (showing women having sex they enjoy is automatically empowering, even if it’s under false pretenses??)
@@Blue.1889 I was about say there was something off about it. They’re pointless and drag on. Yet both scenes are of only Alice being pleasured?. Tf is wrong with Olivia Wilde?.
As a woman who has men trying to control her body, thoughts, and beliefs on the daily, I understood the movie. Chris Pine's character watching them have sex is him showing his power and control. He watched them have a deeply personal moment that Florence Pough's character didn't want him seeing, but ultimately was powerless to stop him.
I don't think she could have stopped even if she wanted to. I interpreted all the sex scenes as her being programmed to give Style's character sex whenever he wanted it. Some men with old-skool mindsets think wives should always be submissive like that.
Are those men here with us? Move your head if you see them
@@Halfort57 weirdo.
Are you pinnochio?
if people actually were trying to control you, just get away from them. If you can't because you're financially reliant on them, you're a leech. However, we all know the truth is you're just a wanabe victim.
12:28 - Given that he is supposed to be a alpha male podcaster who runs a cult then it makes complete sense that he would talk like this.