Carey Mulligan's PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is the Dark Rom Com You Didn't Know You Needed - Sundance Review
I’ve been a big fan of Carey Mulligan for awhile now. From Pride and Prejudice to The Great Gatsby, she’s always managed to impress me, and she still continues to blow my mind with the projects she takes on. This new film of hers, Promising Young Women, couldn’t be a more topical and important film for her to star in.
Promising Young Woman follows the story of a woman named Cassie whose close friend was sexually assaulted by a person in college with them but no one believed her. Years have passed and Cassie spent that time tricking “Nice Guys” into thinking she’s too inebriated to stop them from assaulting her, but then ends up stopping them and making them aware she’s sober. Now she’s given a chance to have a normal life with a good guy or enact revenge on the people from her past.
I don’t want to spoil too much of this movie, because you should just go see it when it comes out. It is just as funny as it is important in its message. It has a line up of fantastic actors that you’ll recognize like Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Adam Brody, Alison Brie, and Alfred Molina, who all give stellar performances, to name a few. Bo Burnham plays a guy who is interested in dating Cassie (Mulligan) and their chemistry is amazing. I’ve never been a huge Bo Burnham fan, but he just knocks it out of the park. A large part of this has to do with great writing. It feels like a dark comedy mixed with a rom-com… a dark rom-com. Fun for a date, until, ya know… it’s not.
The film has some great cinematography that shows how broken a person Cassie has become since her friend is assaulted, while never getting too indulgent. And the story does a good job at not overly glorifying the heroine and her actions. She’s not an angel. She is definitely an antihero, like Punisher, or V from V for Vendetta, and punishes people who may or may not deserve it, but she has a purpose for what she does and still has certain lines she won’t cross.
It could be easy for a film like this to become revenge porn, with her going off the rails and killing lots of people who deserve what they’re getting because they’re evil, but she doesn’t do that. She makes people really reflect on the consequences of not believing someone who has claimed they have been assaulted, as well as the consequences of sexually assaulting a woman in any way or form. There’s a line that I absolutely love that features a guy explaining that being accused of assaulting a woman is every guy’s worst fear, to which she responds with, “you want to know what a girl’s worst fear is?” It really makes you think.
This movie addresses a major problem in our society (yup, I said it) specifically and appropriately to the crime. It reminded me a lot of the recent Joker movie, but this film did it better. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Joker, but after a second watching, it made me feel like his targets are too broad and punishment is too severe and it glorifies the protagonist and his actions a little too much. Cassie is making the punishment fit the crime, and even as she does it, you still feel like she should probably get some real help. It makes me want to see Carey Mulligan in more action or superhero films.
This is a great film that people should see, but my one fear is that the people who should see it, probably won’t for whatever reasons. I hope people see this movie because this film is really good. Seriously. Prove me wrong. Go see this film and tell me I’m an SJW snowflake who worries too much and the Joker movie is the most important film of the decade, or some variation of insults. Do it! This movie rocks.
Here’s the synopsis:
Suspiciously unambitious Cassie (Carey Mulligan) leads a quiet existence as a barista who lives in her parents’ house since dropping out of medical school. She and her friendly boss, Gail (Laverne Cox), gab away days at the cafe. The way she spends her evenings, however, reveals a boiling vendetta. Men who cross her path are in serious danger, as beautiful and brutal Cassie seeks to heal from past trauma by doling out scathing lessons. When Ryan (Bo Burnham), a former classmate, re-enters her life, so does the possibility of healing—until new details about the death of her best friend infuriate Cassie and inspire her most potent confrontation yet.
Killing Eve’s Emerald Fennell brings her debut feature to the Sundance Film Festival after premiering Careful How You Go in the Shorts Program in 2018. Her signature bite, wit, and re-imagined femme fatales make Promising Young Woman a daring but dark inspiration. Fennell and her team paint a perversely heroic portrait and a eulogy to the loss of potential that occurs when male cruelty claims yet another promising young woman.
