Nestled among new originals like the romantic comedy The Life List and the true crime documentary Con Mum on Netflix’s list of most-watched movies right now is a rather unexpected film.
After debuting on the platform on Wednesday, the 2023 psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling is currently its third most-watched movie, at the time of writing.
Given the film features leading performances from Oscar nominee Florence Pugh and global superstar Harry Styles, it’s perhaps not a massive surprise that people might be curious to check out Don’t Worry Darling for themselves.
Before being cast in Don’t Worry Darling, Harry had only one major film credit to his name, after landing a supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s war epic Dunkirk, so intrigue was understandably high about whether the chart-topper’s musical success and on-stage charisma would transfer to the big screen.
Unfortunately for him, though, the general consensus was that it did not.
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Don’t Worry Darling holds an unenviable 38% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviews singling out the As It Was singer’s acting as one of the film’s biggest flaws (although it’s worth pointing out that it has a much healthier Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 74%, not to mention a satisfyingly precise score of 3.0 stars on Letterboxd).
Harry was met with a much similar reception not too long later, when his second of two films in 2023, the romantic drama My Policeman, hit cinemas.
If you’ll excuse the minor spoiler, what’s interesting is that Don’t Worry Darling winds up touching on the radicalisation of men online and the rise of incel culture, and its arrival on Netflix comes at a time when these themes are being widely discussed thanks to one of the platform’s original offerings, the four-part drama Adolescence.
Don’t Worry Darling also features supporting performances from Olivia Wilde (who is also its director, and was dating Harry around the time of was made), Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll and Chris Pine, who Harry definitely did not spit on, despite what you might have read elsewhere.
