Promising Young Woman

“From visionary director Emerald Fennell (Killing Eve) comes a delicious new take on revenge. Everyone said Cassie (Carey Mulligan) was a promising young woman…until a mysterious event abruptly derailed her future. But nothing in Cassie’s life is what it appears to be: she’s wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs of the past in this thrilling and wildly entertaining story.”

Promising Young Woman paints a bleak picture of the behaviors of men in our society towards women, and how those behaviors are overlooked or attributed to the ‘boys will be boys’ mentality, leaving them blameless for raping women. The film focuses on Cassie, who coasts through life with one goal: to punish men who take advantage of drunk women, the same thing that happened to her best friend, which ultimately resulted in her death. While the film definitely presents itself in the trailer as a revenge-type film, it’s not exactly the type of revenge you’d expect going into it. The trailer makes it seem as though she’s keeping track of all the people she’s killed who try and rape her, and the film even plays to that assumption at the beginning, when she leaves her next victim’s apartment with red running down her shirt, only to pan up and see it is ketchup dripping from a hotdog. While I was a bit taken aback by my assumption being wrong, I quickly respected the choice, as it makes it much more thought provoking, and most importantly, real. This is a real issue that doesn’t deserve to be muddied by over-the-top theatrics of a woman going on a killing-spree, and with that quick introduction to the tone of the film from the opening on, you get a good sense just where the film is headed.

After dropping out of Medical School and skating by working at a coffee shop and living with her parents to focus on her nightly ruse of feigning intoxication, a fellow med student, now doctor, Ryan (Bo Burnham) enters her life and asks her out. She reluctantly agrees to go out with him, eventually getting a glimpse at being happy again, and it seems like she could be putting all of this behind her, until something happens that pushes her over the edge with an opportunity to face the man who raped her friend.

I was never a huge fan of Carey Mulligan before this film, but that sure has changed. Her performance is mesmerizing as her characters changes from the morose revenge-seeker, guilt, to having a glimmer of happiness, and coming full circle back to what she started out as. Her journey is an intensely emotional one, and Carey Mulligan is exceptional. It’s no wonder that recent Oscar nominations came out naming her as a candidate for Best Actress. I just flat out don’t like Bo Burnham. His character is basically the same of any he plays, which in my mind is just himself. Sarcastic and awkward while attempting to be funny. It’s a good distraction from the heavy themes in the film, especially for Cassie.

I think most people are going to focus on key words like revenge while going into this film. While that does have a part to play in it, the most important aspect is how it highlights masculine behavior and how it’s deemed acceptable, especially in the minds of the ones doing it. Even when the Dean of the school where it happened praises the man who was accused, making excuses for him, admitting that they deal with many accusations per week, who also feels sorry for the men accused because it ruins the rest of their lives. The film works to highlight that horrific irony, worrying about the damage caused to reputations but not the long-term psychological damages of being the victim of rape. At times, this was a hard film to watch, but that’s what makes it so poignant, sending a powerful message to the audience. The ending wasn’t like anything I expected, and one of those types that stay with you for days after. The entire film, while not perfect, has a perfect message, one that we all should pay attention to.

Video

Promising Young Woman is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.39:1. This film looks stunning, the most noticeable portions taking place during the nightlife scenes, with bright and vivid colors lighting up the darkness of their surroundings. The film has a lot of neon colors in it, not just in nightclubs and whatnot, but the general hue and color scheme revolves around that. These can look quite stunning contrasted with the backgrounds. Picture is clear and detailed, with no issues noted.

Audio

The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1. This is a superb track. Dialogue is clear and concise coming through the center channel, with a nice balance from the surrounds. The surrounds is where you’re going to hear the excellent score chosen for the film, with some really unique covers of songs done in ways you’ve probably never expected they could sound good.

Special Features

There are a couple short featurettes on the disc, but it does feature a commentary track, which is probably the most worthwhile thing to take a look at.

• A Promising Vision
• Two-Sided Transformation
• Balancing Act
• Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Emerald Fennell

Promising Young Woman presents some dark themes that deserve to have more light shined upon them. Filled with some excellent performances, writing, and unexpected turns, this film may be hard to watch, but very entertaining and worth the Oscar attention it’s getting.