Promising Young Woman (2020)

Promising Young Woman (2020)
Directed by: Emerald Fennell
Written by: Emerald Fennell
Starring: Alison Brie, Bo Burnham, Carey Mulligan

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Directed by Emerald Fennell

So far 2021 has been like how many envisioned 2020 – a steady stream of good but not great films I’ve been hoping I won’t need to put in my top ten. Through it all, though, Promising Young Woman has been at the back of my mind. The Americans I know, along with the regular festival-goers, have been bigging this one up for a year now, and I can see why. Promising Young Woman is the feature debut of Emerald Fennell, an actress best known for Call The Midwife and The Crown, and immediately marks her out as one to watch. It’s an empathetic, angry piece about sexual politics, meeting one’s potential and consequences. Promising Young Woman doesn’t fit neatly into any genre. Where it should be horrific, it’s surprisingly funny, and where it should be sweet, it gives you the middle finger for believing it. Still, to the extent it can be categorised, it’s a rape-revenge by proxy.

Cassie (a brilliant Carey Mulligan) was a top achiever at medic school, effortlessly telling people all about organs they never knew existed. However, her life went into a downward spiral following the rape, and what we can infer was the suicide of her then best friend Nina. She reported the crime, but her rapist got away with it, safeguarded by a whole system of people to protect him. Afterward, Cassie dropped out and now spends her day as a barista, much to her parent’s frustration, and her nights in bars pretending to be drunk, so that predatory guys pick her up. Then, when they’re about to rape or take advantage of her, she reveals her sobriety to teach them a lesson about consent – changing the world around her one scumbag at a time. Then, one day she learns Nina’s abuser is getting married and sets out to write the longstanding wrong. Only it isn’t just the rapist she wants to take down but the broader social structures that both empowered and protected him.

An argument that comes up every few months in the horror community is if movies should be didactic, with some fans arguing there’s something inherently wrong with working a message into the material. Often it simply comes down to a personal discomfort people have with the Black Christmas remake: a movie with which Promising Young Woman shares much of the same thematic DNA. For me, it’s not about the message per se – most movies address political themes whether they intend to or not. Instead, it’s about how well it’s worked into the story and character journeys. Do the parts exist beyond being mere conduits for the writer’s worldview? Here they definitely do. Cassie is a nuanced protagonist, capable of doing some pretty nasty things to teach life lessons. Scenes involving ex-classmate/ victim blamer Madison and the dean’s daughter are deeply uncomfortable to watch. But because we understand the pain behind them, Cassie’s actions take on an undeniably cathartic quality. We know that no revenge could heal her scars, and that’s the film’s tragedy, but we can have fun as she tries.

Shot to a soundtrack that knowingly jumps between horny bubble-gum pop and ominous synth, the presentation is a masterclass in handling a serious subject with equal respect and irreverence. It’s tonally mixed, but that’s not a bad thing – trauma is complicated. We also get to know a softer side of Cassie through her budding relationship with ex-classmate turned favourite customer Ryan (Burnham). He and Cassie have an easy chemistry, and I like that Fennell allows their courtship to play out slowly and organically. As many fans of his comedy will attest, Burnham has a magnetic presence, and it’s hard not to be charmed by him as Mulligan is. As an audience, we know this movie will eventually build into something dark, and romantic moments give us welcome glimpses of lightness. Cassie isn’t a trusting person, particularly with men, and it’s tough for her to open up and be vulnerable in this way. So, it’s a rewarding moment for viewers when she does let him get closer, as well as her parents. They clearly love their daughter, even if they are unsubtly trying to encourage her to move out, but are worried she’s wasting her life.

Elsewhere, the supporting cast have similarly rich material. Among others, Laverne Cox Alison Brie, Alfred Molina. Where some will understandably berate the aforementioned Black Christmas for painting the boys in broad strokes (something I’d argue it does with the girls, too), Promising Young Woman has a much less surface-level conversation about sexual consent. We’re never not positioned on Cassie’s side, but it’s to the script’s credit that it takes time to interrogate male attitudes along with whether or not people can change, what counts as complicity, and where these ideas come from. I know Fennell has written on big shows before, including Killing Eve, so she’s no stranger to the typewriter. Still, it’s challenging to think of this film as a feature debut. Everything in it seems so purposeful, with the deceptively simple plot being masterfully constructed, building to a bold, subversive climax. Some will love the ending, and others will hate it – but few will feel indifferent. For me, I’ll be surprised if I see a better sequence all year. To go further, I may not see a better movie either. It’s been annoying, though good things come to those who wait. And there’s now less chance of something as pedestrian as A Quiet Place Part 2 entering my top five.

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