Carey Mulligan stars as “Cassandra” in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features
Carey Mulligan gives a fearless, powerhouse performance as a once-promising young woman who now spends her nights prowling bars, posing as a drunken woman to exact revenge on would-be rapists, in PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Director Emerald Fennel’s smart, clever, darkly-funny film is an equally fearless take down of rape culture and its enablers, a film that straddles the lines between thriller, dark comedy and drama genres. The surprising, and surprisingly entertaining, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is at once a highly entertaining experience, a hard-hitting attack on rape culture, and an impressive showcase for Mulligan. The film calls itself a comedy, but while there is dark humor, it is more complicated than that. A bracing but unexpected mix of dark humor, thriller tension veering into horror, pointed but indirect social commentary and powerful drama, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is hard to categorize, but the whole thing is propelled by Carey Mulligan’s remarkable performance.
We first meet Cassandra (Carey Mulligan) – Cassie for short – as a predator hunting predators. She hangs out in bars and clubs, acting as if she is so drunk she can’t stand. The drunken act draws in a certain kind predator, a man who appears to be a nice guy at first, compared to his openly sexist friends, who seems kind in offering her a ride home. But once they are out of the bar, there is a detour to his place and more liquor for the already-soused woman. But once he gets her on the bed and starts removing her clothes, Cassie suddenly reveals she is not drunk at all – and the would-be predator is now her prey.
By night, Cassie prowls the bars, dressed in low-cut tight dresses and sporting bright red lipstick, on her mission of revenge. By day, Cassie is all little girl innocence, dressing in pink and wears braids, living in a pink and frilly bedroom in her parents’ house. After her nightly outings, she writes in a pink diary, but it is filled with red and black Xs, the meaning of which is left to our imagination.
Her name is a tip-off, a reference to the Greek myth of the oracle whose prophetic warnings are always ignored. But this revenge thriller is tricky, turning tables on us in scenes where we expect graphic sex or violence, cutting away from a presumed bloody revenge to jump forward to Cassie sauntering home in the morning light, with a stripe of red dripping down her arm as she dines on hot dog bun filled with….something. The scene is horrifying and darkly funny at the same time, with a comic book twist.
This is a revenge thriller for the Me Too hashtag era, an intelligent and hard-hitting satire. The darkly comic switch up seems to point us towards horror/comedy but while PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN bills itself as a comedy, albeit a very dark one, there is more going on here than just humor – far more – with a swerve towards psychological drama and damning commentary on rape culture. PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is hard to categorize, but the whole thing is grounded by Carey Mulligan’s striking performance.
Cassie dresses like a teenager but close-ups of her face show she clearly is not. Her parents are puzzled by what their brilliant daughter, once a “promising young woman,” is doing with her life. She is working a coffee shop since suddenly dropping out of medical school, after her best friend, and fellow med student, was raped by another student, an event that devastated the friend. Cassie’s parents have no idea where she goes at night or her secret revenge missions. For her thirtieth birthday, her parents give her a suitcase – pink, of course – a not-so-subtle hint about what they want to happen.
Cassie’s one friend appears to be her boss (Laverne Cox) at the coffee shop, where they engage in rounds of sarcastic humor with little concern for customers.
The candy-colored, little-girl life Cassie lives by day and the “bad girl” disguise she adopts by night, donning black leather and red lipstick, are part of the satirical feminist commentary on this bold film, which was also written by director Fennell. It is a brave performance by Carey Mulligan, whose face is lit to emphasis that she is no longer as young as Cassie acts, yet Mulligan pulls this off brilliantly, in a perfect mix, as she sarcastic blends the little girl world of pink bows with the seething anger of a woman bent of revenge. Besides its lists of red and black marks, her pink diary also has a list of men’s names, fellow med students who were there when her friend was raped or were complicit in the cover-up.
Mulligan is perfectly cast, with her sweet face and deep well of talent, and delivers a tour-de-force performance that mines the depths of this character and squeezes out every nuance and detail. By turns, Cassie is terrifying and heart-tugging, someone so broken yet so human. It is no mean feat for any actor to pull off, yet Mulligan does so brilliantly.
Director Fennell has a lot of fun with the art direction, filling the screen with shades of pink and little-girl themes, used in ironic fashion. At one pivotal point in the story, when isolated Cassie reconnects with Ryan (Bo Burnham), a former med school classmate who seeks her out at coffee shop and a tentative romance begins, the color shifts from pink to a mix of baby blue and pink, and becoming more blue, as Cassie seems to relax her focus on vengeance. At times it feels as if the colors are struggling for dominance, the angry pink versus the peaceful blue, as Cassie struggles with her inner demons and past betrayals.
Fennell also makes good ironic use of the soundtrack, peppering it with tidbits like “It’s Raining Men,” musical choices that either sharpen the humor, the heartbreak or the horror. From time to time, the film does seem headed for familiar horror film territory, only to swerve away and take us somewhere unexpected, then veer back. It all makes the ending all the more shocking.
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is on the year’s best, a complex film that is both entertaining and thought-provoking, with a strange but hypnotic mix of satire, social commentary and human drama. It is in theaters and streaming on demand on Jan. 15.
Review
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN – Review
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Carey Mulligan gives a fearless, powerhouse performance as a once-promising young woman who now spends her nights prowling bars, posing as a drunken woman to exact revenge on would-be rapists, in PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Director Emerald Fennel’s smart, clever, darkly-funny film is an equally fearless take down of rape culture and its enablers, a film that straddles the lines between thriller, dark comedy and drama genres. The surprising, and surprisingly entertaining, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is at once a highly entertaining experience, a hard-hitting attack on rape culture, and an impressive showcase for Mulligan. The film calls itself a comedy, but while there is dark humor, it is more complicated than that. A bracing but unexpected mix of dark humor, thriller tension veering into horror, pointed but indirect social commentary and powerful drama, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is hard to categorize, but the whole thing is propelled by Carey Mulligan’s remarkable performance.
We first meet Cassandra (Carey Mulligan) – Cassie for short – as a predator hunting predators. She hangs out in bars and clubs, acting as if she is so drunk she can’t stand. The drunken act draws in a certain kind predator, a man who appears to be a nice guy at first, compared to his openly sexist friends, who seems kind in offering her a ride home. But once they are out of the bar, there is a detour to his place and more liquor for the already-soused woman. But once he gets her on the bed and starts removing her clothes, Cassie suddenly reveals she is not drunk at all – and the would-be predator is now her prey.
By night, Cassie prowls the bars, dressed in low-cut tight dresses and sporting bright red lipstick, on her mission of revenge. By day, Cassie is all little girl innocence, dressing in pink and wears braids, living in a pink and frilly bedroom in her parents’ house. After her nightly outings, she writes in a pink diary, but it is filled with red and black Xs, the meaning of which is left to our imagination.
Her name is a tip-off, a reference to the Greek myth of the oracle whose prophetic warnings are always ignored. But this revenge thriller is tricky, turning tables on us in scenes where we expect graphic sex or violence, cutting away from a presumed bloody revenge to jump forward to Cassie sauntering home in the morning light, with a stripe of red dripping down her arm as she dines on hot dog bun filled with….something. The scene is horrifying and darkly funny at the same time, with a comic book twist.
This is a revenge thriller for the Me Too hashtag era, an intelligent and hard-hitting satire. The darkly comic switch up seems to point us towards horror/comedy but while PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN bills itself as a comedy, albeit a very dark one, there is more going on here than just humor – far more – with a swerve towards psychological drama and damning commentary on rape culture. PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is hard to categorize, but the whole thing is grounded by Carey Mulligan’s striking performance.
Cassie dresses like a teenager but close-ups of her face show she clearly is not. Her parents are puzzled by what their brilliant daughter, once a “promising young woman,” is doing with her life. She is working a coffee shop since suddenly dropping out of medical school, after her best friend, and fellow med student, was raped by another student, an event that devastated the friend. Cassie’s parents have no idea where she goes at night or her secret revenge missions. For her thirtieth birthday, her parents give her a suitcase – pink, of course – a not-so-subtle hint about what they want to happen.
Cassie’s one friend appears to be her boss (Laverne Cox) at the coffee shop, where they engage in rounds of sarcastic humor with little concern for customers.
The candy-colored, little-girl life Cassie lives by day and the “bad girl” disguise she adopts by night, donning black leather and red lipstick, are part of the satirical feminist commentary on this bold film, which was also written by director Fennell. It is a brave performance by Carey Mulligan, whose face is lit to emphasis that she is no longer as young as Cassie acts, yet Mulligan pulls this off brilliantly, in a perfect mix, as she sarcastic blends the little girl world of pink bows with the seething anger of a woman bent of revenge. Besides its lists of red and black marks, her pink diary also has a list of men’s names, fellow med students who were there when her friend was raped or were complicit in the cover-up.
Mulligan is perfectly cast, with her sweet face and deep well of talent, and delivers a tour-de-force performance that mines the depths of this character and squeezes out every nuance and detail. By turns, Cassie is terrifying and heart-tugging, someone so broken yet so human. It is no mean feat for any actor to pull off, yet Mulligan does so brilliantly.
Director Fennell has a lot of fun with the art direction, filling the screen with shades of pink and little-girl themes, used in ironic fashion. At one pivotal point in the story, when isolated Cassie reconnects with Ryan (Bo Burnham), a former med school classmate who seeks her out at coffee shop and a tentative romance begins, the color shifts from pink to a mix of baby blue and pink, and becoming more blue, as Cassie seems to relax her focus on vengeance. At times it feels as if the colors are struggling for dominance, the angry pink versus the peaceful blue, as Cassie struggles with her inner demons and past betrayals.
Fennell also makes good ironic use of the soundtrack, peppering it with tidbits like “It’s Raining Men,” musical choices that either sharpen the humor, the heartbreak or the horror. From time to time, the film does seem headed for familiar horror film territory, only to swerve away and take us somewhere unexpected, then veer back. It all makes the ending all the more shocking.
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN is on the year’s best, a complex film that is both entertaining and thought-provoking, with a strange but hypnotic mix of satire, social commentary and human drama. It is in theaters and streaming on demand on Jan. 15.
RATING: 4 out of 4 stars