TW// Rape and Sexual Assault.
Emerald Fennell’s feature debut Promising Young Woman has created quite the stir, winning her the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Described by IndieWire as a, ‘#MeToo rape revenge thriller with bite!’, everything about this film seems to have been created by women for women. From the neon colour pallet to the impeccable soundtrack (who knew Paris Hilton’s Stars are Blind was such a romantic song), the film’s aesthetic is comforting, in a stark contrast to its subject matter. It is very rare that you find a film that can be compared to both John Wick and Eat, Pray, Love but Fennell manages to do just that.
The film stars Carey Mulligan as Cassie, a medical school drop-out seeking revenge for an incident that occurred years before we first meet her. We see her methodically creating a list of names; ‘nice guys’ who she has lured into showing their true colours. The film’s starting point shows Mulligan focusing her energy on random men in clubs but later shifts to a more targeted focus. The brilliance of the writing is that we achieve some hope for Cassie to return to the titular ‘promising young woman’ she once was, as she becomes reacquainted with an old friend.
Bo Burnham stars opposite Mulligan as her leading man, if you will. His comedic timing and the subsequent rhythm of their scenes is extraordinary, and you find yourself waiting for their scenes together. Whilst their chemistry is obvious, the true relationship that shines through the film is that of Cassie and Nina – a testament to the bonds that women make through female friendships.
Fennell’s decision to cast traditional ‘boy next door’ actors was a calculated move. Seeing men, like Seth Cohen from The OC (Adam Brody) or Schmidt from New Girl (Max Greenfield) relaxes an audience. You see familiar, likable faces and feel at ease – only to have this crushed by the harsh reality of what the ‘nice man’ actually is. But it is not only the men that are challenged in this film; Alison Brie and Connie Britton, playing Cassie’s old friend and the Dean of the Medical School respectively, reinforce the idea that society would rather give a boy the benefit of the doubt than believe a girl. Fennell’s obvious wit and command of her craft manage to explore, not only how the perpetrators of these acts are responsible, but how society as a whole must reconsider the way these sensitive issues are dealt with.
While the film manages to expertly deal with the subject matter, a warning may have been necessary at the start – in order to allow people to prepare themselves for what they are about to watch.
In a world where we are debating whether it’s ‘not all men’, Promising Young Woman forces everyone to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask the question – am I a part of the problem? As for Fennell she is clearly a force to be reckoned with, like the song, just call her angel in the morning.
4 stars
Image Credit: The MovieDB
