Promising Young Woman (B+ or 3.5/4 stars)
'Promising Young Woman' - the sly, audacious 1st feature of actress-turned-filmmaker Emerald Fennell - is a powerful, sometimes funny/mostly bleak revenge flick that attacks rape culture. Jumping from genre to genre, all of the tonal shifts don't always work and, something occurs with 15 minutes left that may polarize viewers. But on the whole, wow, what a visceral film to experience. 30 yr. old Cassandra 'Cassie' Thomas (Carey Mulligan, fantastic here) lives with her genial Midwest parents (Jennifer Coolidge, Clancy Brown). Though she now works in her friend's (Laverne Cox) coffee shop, Cassie was once a 'promising' med school student who dropped out after her classmate/childhood best friend, Nina Fisher, was gang raped & lost her life.
To this, and unbeknownst to anyone, Cassie spends most evenings being picked up by 'nice guys' in bars while pretending to be drunk & then setting them straight once they're exposed for trying to take advantage of her. Cassie has a putrid view of men, so they're in store for a reckoning. One day, former classmate & pediatric surgeon Ryan (Bo Burnham), happens upon her at the coffee shop. Ryan digs her. And while she lets her icy guard down enough to start falling for him, his comments about some former classmates of theirs makes her want to avenge Nina. Thusly, she meets with former classmate Madison (Alison Brie) & Dean Walker (Connie Britton) -- neither of whom believed Nina's rape allegations against lecherous Alex Monroe (Chris Lowell), who is now a respected doctor & about to get married; fellow d-bag, Joe (Max Greenfield) is his best man. She also meets with the lawyer (Alfred Molina) who got the charges dropped against Alex. To this, Cassie's long-percolated revenge plot planned for Alex could jeopardize her relationship with Ryan. Twists, tragedy & some degree of catharsis ensue.
'PYM' is one messed-up thriller that can easily mess with your head and, its climax makes for an extremely difficult sit -- I was writhing in discomfort. Yet Emerald Fennell's script is clever & compelling enough to thwart the uneasy scenes or some tonally uneven patches. Her direction is astute, with pastel cotton candy colors popping across the screen as an aversion to the dire things that occur. I loved the soundtrack; all of which enhance mood & characterizations. The cast is large & capable; with cameos by Adam Brody & Molly Shannon proving effective. But the best part of the film IS Cassie. She is too smart to engage in eye-for-an-eye revenge; instead, deciding to concoct more creative approaches to humiliate the male perpetrators ... or worse.
Carrie Mulligan throws herself into this juicy role; a role that is complex in that - you may not agree with what she's doing, but you understand her odd sense of purpose through tragedy. Mulligan is intensely captivating; reminding me of Natalie Portman's Black Swan. Right from the jump, her luring men into her web by pretending to be inebriated is scintillating to watch. This shtick gets her to the man's apartment, but then she strikes - switching from helpless drunk to menacing, barb-tongued terminator who teaches terrifying lessons to the unsuspecting predators unlucky enough to fall for her ruse. And yet, for as fun & acerbic as Mulligan's Cassie is, her numbing guilt over what happened to Nina + her never ending desire to make things 'right' via revenge is absolutely devastating to watch; because you see how disturbed & shattered she is; a shell of a human being she is because of the trauma. This character walks a tricky landscape & Mulligan traverses it so well.
'Promising Young Woman' will be one of 2020's most talked about films for many a reason: how it attacks rape culture, how fun it is, at times; the lead performance; the colorful Pop aesthetic {which lulls you into thinking this is some kind of frothy film experience ... NOPE!; the jarring climax, followed by a flourish of exuberantly cathartic final moments, etc. I loved the way Fennell kept us on edge as her film slowly unveils Cassie's wicked avenging-angel campaign for Nina. Now, this film is a sometimes bewildering melange of black comedy/revenge thriller happenstance -- not everything works. But I love how deceptive the film is in providing a seemingly straightforward redemptive arc before pulling the rug out from us & twisting the knife in.
To this, and unbeknownst to anyone, Cassie spends most evenings being picked up by 'nice guys' in bars while pretending to be drunk & then setting them straight once they're exposed for trying to take advantage of her. Cassie has a putrid view of men, so they're in store for a reckoning. One day, former classmate & pediatric surgeon Ryan (Bo Burnham), happens upon her at the coffee shop. Ryan digs her. And while she lets her icy guard down enough to start falling for him, his comments about some former classmates of theirs makes her want to avenge Nina. Thusly, she meets with former classmate Madison (Alison Brie) & Dean Walker (Connie Britton) -- neither of whom believed Nina's rape allegations against lecherous Alex Monroe (Chris Lowell), who is now a respected doctor & about to get married; fellow d-bag, Joe (Max Greenfield) is his best man. She also meets with the lawyer (Alfred Molina) who got the charges dropped against Alex. To this, Cassie's long-percolated revenge plot planned for Alex could jeopardize her relationship with Ryan. Twists, tragedy & some degree of catharsis ensue.
'PYM' is one messed-up thriller that can easily mess with your head and, its climax makes for an extremely difficult sit -- I was writhing in discomfort. Yet Emerald Fennell's script is clever & compelling enough to thwart the uneasy scenes or some tonally uneven patches. Her direction is astute, with pastel cotton candy colors popping across the screen as an aversion to the dire things that occur. I loved the soundtrack; all of which enhance mood & characterizations. The cast is large & capable; with cameos by Adam Brody & Molly Shannon proving effective. But the best part of the film IS Cassie. She is too smart to engage in eye-for-an-eye revenge; instead, deciding to concoct more creative approaches to humiliate the male perpetrators ... or worse.
Carrie Mulligan throws herself into this juicy role; a role that is complex in that - you may not agree with what she's doing, but you understand her odd sense of purpose through tragedy. Mulligan is intensely captivating; reminding me of Natalie Portman's Black Swan. Right from the jump, her luring men into her web by pretending to be inebriated is scintillating to watch. This shtick gets her to the man's apartment, but then she strikes - switching from helpless drunk to menacing, barb-tongued terminator who teaches terrifying lessons to the unsuspecting predators unlucky enough to fall for her ruse. And yet, for as fun & acerbic as Mulligan's Cassie is, her numbing guilt over what happened to Nina + her never ending desire to make things 'right' via revenge is absolutely devastating to watch; because you see how disturbed & shattered she is; a shell of a human being she is because of the trauma. This character walks a tricky landscape & Mulligan traverses it so well.
'Promising Young Woman' will be one of 2020's most talked about films for many a reason: how it attacks rape culture, how fun it is, at times; the lead performance; the colorful Pop aesthetic {which lulls you into thinking this is some kind of frothy film experience ... NOPE!; the jarring climax, followed by a flourish of exuberantly cathartic final moments, etc. I loved the way Fennell kept us on edge as her film slowly unveils Cassie's wicked avenging-angel campaign for Nina. Now, this film is a sometimes bewildering melange of black comedy/revenge thriller happenstance -- not everything works. But I love how deceptive the film is in providing a seemingly straightforward redemptive arc before pulling the rug out from us & twisting the knife in.