“Promising Young Woman” is arriving in theaters on Christmas Day via Focus Features. This is a gamble since we don’t even know how many theaters will be open nationwide by then, but, don’t fret my friends, a digital release is also in the books on that very same day. The film, which I saw this past January at the Sundance Film Festival, has a 74 on Metacritic and a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. No, it’s not the second coming of cinema, as some have over-excitingly pointed out, but it is a delightfully slick B-movie with an effective performance from Carey Mulligan.
Here’s what I had to say about it on 01.31.20:
“Emerald Fennell’s debut feature, “Promising Young Woman” plays like a feminist “Death Wish.” This thought-provoking movie has been the talk of the town ever since its premiere last weekend. Carey Mulligan stars as Cassie a barista and med-school dropout, haunted by her best friend’s dorm-room rape and ensuing suicide. Cassie spends her evenings, however, in clubs and bars, exacting revenge on any man who dares go over the line with her. However, as she hops from one brutal encounter to the next, details emerge about her best friend’s death, inspiring Cassie to exact revenge on every single person that took part in the rape. Fennell, who directed the second season of “Killing Eve,” shows some real skill in her stylish, neon-infused direction. Although none-too-subtle in execution, “Young Promising Woman” is perversely heroic, a scathing indictment of male cruelty that doesn’t mind being over-the-top. Mulligan delivers another great performance as a woman unafraid to cross the line, even when it means compromising her own moral compass. The biblical saying an eye for eye is used here to the nth degree here.”
I also had this to say in a recent podcast:
“I wouldn’t use the word ‘restrained’ when describing Promising Young Woman. There’s nothing subtle about this movie, and it’s not realism at all. It’s a post-#MeToo fantasy, a feminist version of Death Wish…a justifiably angry woman (Carey Mulligan) punishing filthy men. Mulligan is depicted as heroic without any real-life consequences or police investigations or social media gotchas. It gives you a lot to chew on and talk about post-screening — in a sense it’s right at the forefront of the post-#MeToo conversation — but then again it’s not saying anything new. And it’s definitely a world apart. It charges into extreme realms.”
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.