Movie Breakdown: Promising Young Woman

Pre-Screening Stance:

I love a good revenge film and I’ve always been a fan of Carey Mulligan, so Promising Young Woman looks right up my alley.

Post-Screening Ramble:

Promising Young Woman is a stylistic, sharp film. Its main character is Cassie (Carey Mulligan), and her favorite thing to do is hang out in various clubs around town. Her goal, however, isn’t to find a new partner or whatever, it’s to lure in shitty, predatory men and then teach them a lesson they’ll never forget. These scenes – where Cassie suddenly shifts from a drunk, vulnerable mess into a force to be reckoned with – are delightful, mainly because Mulligan looks like she’s having a blast. I actually would have been happy with a myriad of just these moments, but there’s more to be had, and it comes when Cassie is reunited with a former college classmate, Ryan (Bo Burnham). His presence brings about the realization that her schoolmates have simply moved on and/or forgot about the traumatic event that is the genesis of her evening activities, so she sets out to get revenge on all that were involved.

It’s impressive that Promising Young Woman is writer/director Emerald Fennell’s debut feature. This is a confident film, one that has picked its lane and doesn’t much care if you’re in it or not. I suppose you could say that such brash edginess is something that’s inherent to all rape-revenge films, but Fennell’s has a shiny, alluring pop side to it that sets it apart. So really, in a way it’s just like Cassie, it draws you in and then pounces when the time is right.

The film is out on December 25.

One Last Thought:

Laverne Cox (Orange Is The New Black) should be in more stuff. She’s quite a bit of fun here as the sassy boss/friend to Mulligan’s Cassie. On another note, I had no idea she was 48!