BLU-RAY REVIEW

Don't Worry Darling 4K Ultra HD

Featured In Issue 264, November/December 2022

Picture5
Sound5
Immersive4
WSR Score4
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
(MPAA Rating):
R
(Rating Reason):
Sexuality, violent content, and language
(Retail Price):
$34.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-66)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
(Running Time In Minutes):
123
(Color Type):
Color With B/W Sequences
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
ABC
(Theatrical Year):
(Theatrical Release):
No
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
11/29/2022
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
(Director):
Olivia Wilde
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD 7.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(Subtitles):

In "Don't Worry Darling," Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) are lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950's societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank (Chris Pine)––equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach––anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia.

While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the "development of progressive materials," their wives––including Frank's elegant partner, Shelley (Gemma Chan)––get to spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community. Life is perfect, with every resident's needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause.

But when cracks in their idyllic liife begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive facade, Alice can't help questioning exactly what they're doing in Victory and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what's really going on in this paradise. (Gary Reber)

Special features include a making-of featurette (HD 17:12), Alice's Nightmare deleted scene (HD 0:54), and a Movies Anywhere digital copy.

The 2.39:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 Ultra HD picture, reviewed on a Sony Bravia Z9D 4K Ultra HD HDR display, was photographed digitally using the Arri Alexa LF and Arri Alexa Mini LF camera systems and sourced from a 4K master Digital Intermediate format. Picture quality is excellent and exhibits a very natural appearance with a rich and warm saturated color palette. Flesh tone are perfectly natural and on the warm side. Nuance shadings are exhibited in the color palette, which enhances realism of the Victory community and the surrounding desert. The black and white imagery exhibits a strong gray scale. HDR contrast is excellent with deep black levels, revealing shadows, and natural white level extension. The imagery is sharp with superb resolution. Facial features are well defined in terms of skin pores, lines, and hair. Clothing fabrics are revealing. Object textures are intricate. This is a beautiful looking picture that will not disappoint. (Gary Reber)



(Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack has a nicely warm feel with good dynamics and strong aggressive surround envelopment. The scene in the nightclub is effectively aggressive in the surround department as are many other scenes. Dialogue is integrated spatially and intelligible throughout, Deep bass to sub-25 Hz serves as a character to some extent to heighten the suspense. The music score is diverse with a wide and deep soundstage that extends to the surrounds.

The Immersive Sound element is comprised of a low-level extension of the music except when it energizes during the end scenes, low-level atmospheric din, background group chatter at pool, wind, rumble sound effect, prop airplane engine sound, a loud voice, sirens, car crash explosion and some other sound effects. Overall, when active the height layer provides greater spherical dimensional depth.

This is a mysterious sounding holosonic® spherical surround soundtrack that sounds dynamic and warm. (Gary Reber)




(Gary Reber)