Director: Emerald Fennell
Writer: Emerald Fennell
Stars: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie
If there’s one film that you should venture to the local theatre for in 2021, this should be it. “Promising Young Woman” stars Carey Mulligan as an avenging heroine for our time, and it’s hard to think about our heroine and not hear the classic orchestral rendition of Britney Spears “Toxic. ‘Promising Young Woman’ has a lot of gut-punching twists that promise to gather big audience reactions.
Mulligan is Cassandra, a 30-year-old whose life has been mysteriously derailed. A med school star student who suddenly dropped out, she’s moved back in with her parents (Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown), works a dead-end coffee shop job, and has seemingly no relationships or friends other than her kindhearted boss (Laverne Cox).
Cassie’s sole mission is going to bars, playing the drunk, then dropping the act just as she’s about to be preyed on by a self-proclaimed “nice guy”. Carey Mulligan gives a powerhouse performance, coating Cassie’s white-hot anger in silky sarcasm. From the devious mind of Killing Eve show-runner Emerald Fennell who acts here as writer-director, we see a film that feels quite as female and quite as well-rooted in the conversations we’re still somehow having to have to this day. The classic one liner from the men also seems to come up over and over again — “But I’m a nice guy!”.
A who’s who of cinematic dudes feature in this film from; Adam Brody, Chris Lowell, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Sam Richardson and Max Greenfield. Comedian and director Bo Burnham though plays Ryan, a different sort: He’s an admirer of Cassie’s from med school, who some how manages to spark the heart of a femme fatale. But as the story unravels we begin to learn nothing is as it seems.
Carey Mulligan is sensationally good as Cassie, it’s the kind of performance that never relents, it just builds and builds until finally it explodes. She’s always been good but never this floorless with her headlining almost every scene, the film is forever compelling as a result as it’s impossible to drag your eyes away from her.
“Promising Young Woman” is one hell of a feature writing/directing debut, distilling the experiences of disbelieved, discarded women throughout history into one character’s obsession.
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