Promising Young Woman
Composite Score: 85.5
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Adam Brody, Sam Richardson, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Connie Britton, Molly Shannon, Max Greenfield, and Christopher Lowell
Director: Emerald Fennell
Writer: Emerald Fennell
Genres: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Revenge
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence including sexual assault, language throughout, some sexual material, and drug use
Box Office: $18.85 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Promising Young Woman is Emerald Fennell’s debut feature film, which follows a woman seeking revenge on the men who sexually assaulted her friend in medical school, which resulted in the pair of them dropping out and the eventual suicide of her friend. It stars Carey Mulligan in the leading role of Cassandra, the woman out on a seeming one-woman mission to ensure that no woman ever has to go through what she and Nina experienced by posing as a lonely, wasted woman at various bars and then confronting the men who predatorially take her home, shaming them into repentance. Eventually, a chance connection with her med school past puts her fully on the road to specific revenge on the people who wronged her, leading to dire consequences for all. In addition to its nominations for Best Actress, Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing, the film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, beating out the likes of Judas and the Black Messiah, Minari, Sound of Metal, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
When I first watched this film in theaters with my wife, I remember leaving with a profound sense of frustration with the film’s conclusion and its lack of positive outlook for its protagonist. While I do stand by my viewpoint that the ending could present a problematic solution to the victims of such crimes, I think I understand the point a little bit better – that it wants people who aren’t victims to recognize the pain and trauma rather than waiting for it to reach a point of no return and hopelessness. As such, I think the actual warning that should be applied to this film is an awareness that this film deals with situations that could be emotionally and mentally triggering or difficult to deal with for some audiences. It raises much awareness for the plight of those who have become victims of sexual violence at the hands of anyone, but especially men, and it should encourage you to listen and be sympathetic and perhaps even empathetic when someone you know brings something like this to your attention – that, even if it sounds unbelievable or problematic or complicated, listening and believing and acting are always going to do more than denial and suppression.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Fennell’s writing and Mulligan’s performance have made this one of the best films of the decade so far, and the way that they work in tandem toward the end of eliciting a response from their audience, which then actually works, is brilliant. Fennell has given her audience a tragedy within the trappings of an intense revenge comedy/thriller, drawing them in with witty needle drops, obvious jokes about misogyny and problematic men, a little bit of romance, and just enough of a sense of injustice before hitting them full in the face with the reality of sexual assault and the modern patriarchal society’s belittling and gaslighting of its victims. Mulligan works perfectly as the lead for this story, blending unhinged, optimistic, and despondent so perfectly into a protagonist that the audience roots for but doesn’t fully trust but also can’t help but listen to. It’s a wild performance that carries this film to its unfortunately inevitable conclusion so well that of course you’re going to walk away baffled and upset and wishing there was something better that could have been offered to Cassie and Nina at some point before everything broke so bad. (Also, she probably was robbed by Frances McDormand this year.)
Carey Mulligan’s leading performance pairs perfectly with Emerald Fennell’s script and story in Promising Young Woman to give audiences a film that captures the outrage of victims of sexual assault across the world who have been silenced because of the inconveniences of their plights, making this one of the most necessary and greatest films ever made. It can be difficult to get through because of all the content that it covers and the tone with which it approaches it, but it makes for a truly challenging watch by the time the credits roll, in the best way possible. This film can currently be streamed with ads on Amazon Prime Video if you’d like to give it a shot in the coming days.
