Giovanni Ribisi is concerned that I’m watching Strange Darling, his feature debut as a cinematographer, all by myself in his Atwater Village home theater. Not because he doesn’t know me, or because he’s leaving a stranger there alone while he runs to Panavision to work out an issue with a camera he owns, but because it’s a movie that begs to be seen on a big screen in the company of others, who are all strapped into the same serial-killer thrill ride, proudly shot on 35mm film.
“I was concerned and so was JT about you watching this movie by yourself, because in the context of an audience, fuck, it’s unbelievable. It’s crazy,” he says after the credits roll on the $4 million film, written and directed by JT Mollner.
He doesn’t need to be concerned: Strange Darling is riveting. I’m still stuck in high gear from the ride.
Willa Fitzgerald (The Fall of the House of Usher) takes the lead as “the Lady” fleeing “the Demon,” stoically played by Kyle Gallner (The Passenger), relentlessly pursuing his prey through the Oregon wilderness, armed with a rifle and a desperate motivation that slowly becomes clear over the course of a 91-minute, six-chapter narrative, unfolding perfectly out of order.
Intense is one word to describe the theatrical viewing experience that Ribisi and Mollner have seen work audiences into an audible frenzy, from the first test screening, to the 2023 world premiere at Fantastic Fest, where it received rave reviews.
And starting Friday, audiences across the country can (and should) enjoy a communal experience that would be tragically spoiled by too many, if any details about the movie before taking a seat in a darkened auditorium — a celebrated safe space that became endangered during the Covid years. “Every time I go to the movies now, I’m just so glad I did,” Ribisi says. “There’s something there that you get to experience and you get to say, ‘I saw the same thing that you did, man.’ And there’s something fucking holy about that.”
Unifying self and other to transcend the limiting ego is the very definition of holy in some spiritual traditions. So sitting alongside strangers to surrender ourselves to a flickering flow of motion pictures captured on a celluloid stream of consciousness called film is a religious experience for cinephiles — a class of human that Ribisi embodies.
Giovanni Ribisi on Moving From Actor to Cinematographer
A movie star with over 100 credits (The Other Sister, Boiler Room, Gone in 60 Seconds, Saving Private Ryan, Public Enemies, Avatar and Ted, to name a few), he is also a disciplined student of cinema who spent the last 15 years quietly mastering cinematography after he co-founded 3D conversion company Stereo D, which was acquired by Deluxe in 2011.
“I had a visual effects company about 15 years ago that we ended up growing and selling, and there was this moment for me where I had an opportunity to go, ‘Well, I’ve been an actor since I was nine years old. But what do I want to do as an adult?’ And I kind of just started doing it without even putting any logic behind it or anything,” he says. “I was shooting a lot of commercials and music videos, and cutting my teeth quietly, because you definitely get laughed at or just, ‘Oh, that’s cute.’
“It was really meaningful,” he continues. “It was something that truly I couldn’t help it.
“And then, at one point, I was in New York. I wandered into a camera shop and I bought a 35mm camera with four magazines. And this was like at the low point for Kodak and I called them and bought 1,600 feet of film, loaded the four magazines, drove across the country and shot it, and then never looked back. I sold all my digital cameras and just dedicated myself to film.”
His fascination with the camera began 40 years ago with his acting career. “I think it was the first time I stepped on a movie set and I saw this machine, I was nine years old,” Ribisi recalls. “And this machine said Panavision on it, with these three guys working around it, and it just seemed so mysterious to me. I remember the setting and then watching what had been filmed after that, and it looks completely different. And so of course, whoever’s working that machine was a magician.”
Motion picture magicians who mentored Ribisi include Dante Spinotti (Heat), the late Andrew Lesnie (Lord of the Rings) and Sal Totino (Cinderella Man) — but he also credits “everybody” who gave him guidance when asked.
“Every film I’ve worked on, the cinematographer had to deal with me and my stupid questions,” Ribisi says.
That diehard love of a medium in danger of being swallowed up by a global tsunami of digital content is what brought Ribisi and Mollner together. Years before the latter wrote Strange Darling, the collaborators met at the American Society of Cinematographers Awards through Steve Bellamy, the former president of Kodak Motion Picture and Entertainment.
Ribisi showed Mollner around the Los Angeles filmmaking compound, where he lives, eats and breathes cinema, and they started thinking about collaborating.
“He would send me screenplays… and finally something that he sent me — originally titled One Night with You — I read it and within 15 minutes I was on the phone and we were talking about making it.”
Strange Darling Is ‘a Fairy Tale,’ Says Giovanni Ribisi
Photo by Allyson Riggs
Despite the film’s brutal and bloody hard-R edge, Ribisi says, “the fundamental concept was like a fairy tale.” The essence is enhanced by Z Berg’s enchanting soundtrack, delicate singing over the backdrop of a dreamy daytime glow, contrasting with the vivid violence splattering in the foreground.
“We talked a lot about Little Red Riding Hood,” adds Mollner.
Even the process of getting Strange Darling made was something of a fairy tale. Perhaps once upon a time in Hollywood, studio heads cut checks to make movies in the first meeting, but these days, negotiations drag on for months. Maybe years. Fortunately for Ribisi and Mollner, former Miramax CEO Bill Block bucked that trend when producers Roy Lee and Steven Schneider arranged for a meeting.
“He said, ‘We’re gonna cut a check today, let’s go make your movie,’” recalls Mollner over the phone from his Topanga Canyon home. “And that’s like an old-school thing that you hear happened in the ’70s and the ’90s. Like, old-school Miramax stuff. So, it was really a dream. And Giovanni loving it so much really put so much gas in my tank at the beginning.”
Though the road to financing was smooth, the path through production was, in typical fairy-tale fashion, full of twists and turns: Oregon wildfires shutting production down for days, losing a pivotal location with 18 hours’ notice, and tossing an entire set piece to cut costs. “It was definitely challenging in so many ways. And I guess, at the end of the day, I don’t know what film isn’t,” Ribisi says, and then adds, “There is so much desperation in the cracks of this film.”
“I was sort of directing for my life,” Mollner says when asked about this desperation. “This movie, I think, it’s sort of a reflection of what the general mindset was. And I think probably in some way for Giovanni as well… I just know that I felt that if I didn’t make it great, if I didn’t finish it, well maybe I wouldn’t get another shot. So, it was everything. I mean, this movie was like religion for us.”
Ribisi elaborates: “Any film at this point, this stage of the game, I would argue — even against the ’70s and ’80s — any film really is just an impossibility. It’s a fucking miracle that it happens. And so, in a way, there’s an aspect of it that becomes sort of desperate to get it done and get past the finish line without compromising, or with a compromise still maintaining your voice within that.”
Mission accomplished. Strange Darling’s voice feels sharp enough to cut through the infinite noise bloating the digital void. While I struggle to remember the titles that streamed before my eyes last week, Strange Darling stands out: a breath of fresh air in style and substance, or maybe more accurately, a strong exhalation from a bygone era captured on Kodak — one that Ribisi inhaled on set and in theaters his entire life. It clearly influences the visual aesthetic of a picture that, in the words of Variety critic Michael Nordine, “feels destined to become a cult classic.”
And though Strange Darling has been delighting critics and genre fans lucky enough to see this grindhouse throwback ahead of the masses, I manage to spit out an accolade Ribisi hasn’t heard yet after watching his DP debut all alone in the filmmaker’s lair: “This movie makes me want to make movies.” As a steady stream of computer-generated, star-studded $150 million dramas bombard my vision every week, the affordable recipe cooked up on celluloid by Mollner and Ribisi feels refreshingly accessible — like something that could inspire a new generation of filmmakers to call up Kodak.
“Oh wow, amazing,” replies Ribisi. “That’s the best compliment I think we’ve fucking heard.”
Strange Darling arrives in theaters Friday, from Magenta Light Studios.
Main image: Giovanni Ribisi on the set of Strange Darling.
This story originally appeared in the summer 2024 issue of MovieMaker Magazine.