Promising Young Woman was one of my most anticipated 2020 movies since its Sundance premiere a year ago; its cast was excellent, its premise interesting, and the buzz it generated exciting. I kept an eye on the release date, which went from April to unknown (COVID!) and, finally, to December. Sitting down to watch it felt like a prize, a reward for my (im)patient waiting.
Did it live up to my high expectations? Not entirely. But even as I followed the discourse around this so closely, listened to many reviews and interviews with critics and cast members, the film still managed to surprise me, both with allusions to one of my favorite films and with a twisty yet divisive plot. The Night of the Hunter, Charles Laughton’s 1955 masterpiece, is referenced twice in the film, once by showing the film on television and again by using audio from it during a key scene. Hunter is not the film many would jump to compare Promising Young Woman to, yet the similarities are intriguing and tell you a lot about Woman’s intentions. Both movies are about people who “hunt” the opposite sex: in Hunter, Harry Powell murders women he marries, takes their money, and falsely claims it is for God, while we see the motivation as misogyny. In a monologue, he says the lord hates “Perfume-smelling things, lacy things, things with curly hair,” all stereotypically feminine traits that he wishes to rid the world of (this is the clip playing on TV, by the way). In that way, Promising Young Woman plays on the film by reversing it; the film follows Cassie (Carey Mulligan), a med school dropout who hunts men, albeit in a different way. Instead of murdering them, she tricks them into thinking she’s vulnerable; she acts blackout drunk at bars and clubs, waiting for a guy claiming good intentions to “drive her home,” before her home turns into their home turns into a bed or couch as they disrobe her. Once this happens, she suddenly acts normal, freaking them out as she calls them on what they were doing and challenges the “nice guy” persona they use as an excuse. But her motivations, like Powell’s, are not what they appear to be; we initially think it’s about challenging these men’s morals, making them think about consent and power dynamics, making sure they never do anything remotely like this again. But as she begins to trick and hunt a whole other cast of characters, we realize it’s about revenge, not for anything that’s happened to her but for something that happened to her friend Nina, whose death Cassie can’t get over. Cassie is certainly more sympathetic than Powell, as her cause is something audience members can actually get behind, even if she goes further than most would be willing to do. But the way that both films tell their stories is also similar, not in tone or themes but the fantastical feel both films capture while still being grounded in reality. Night of the Hunter is filled with haunting, expressionistic images, too perfect to be realistic but beautiful nonetheless, that root you in a childlike perspective and make the story at the heart of Hunter feel immense and allegorical. Promising Young Woman’s more fantastical moments serve to remind you of a similar purpose, in a somewhat more obvious way; that while these characters are all real, they are also representations of different systemic structures which play out all the time in real life, indicative of a rape culture which makes it hard for victims of sexual assault to do anything but seek retribution elsewhere. Take Madison, a character played by Alison Brie. The central crime committed against Nina is one Madison doesn’t even think of as a crime, only as “drama” which she dismisses and doesn’t believe because her friends may have been involved. Madison says Nina slept around all the time and implies she may have deserved what she got, that she cried wolf one too many times. She’s a victim blamer, in other words, complicit in the system for reasons that feel genuine (it’s easier to think of your friends as innocent rather than heavily flawed). And while the character of Madison feels real, she’s also representative of the women who are complicit in the system at large. Every person that Cassie takes revenge on is a similar construction, a character to genuinely believe in who is indicative of a different archetype in larger rape culture: perpetrators, bystanders, enablers. These aren’t the most complex characters, but each one has dimension, meaning we still feel grounded in the story and care about Cassie while getting to understand the broader implications of what the story holds. What also grounds the movie is Carey Mulligan’s fantastic performance, which allows her to be sardonic and funny like she never has before while still allowing for dimension. The girl boss performance Cassie puts on when confronting various characters is an aspect of herself, but one that’s idealized and bursting with coolness; vulnerability is revealed to us as she interacts more with her love interest and friend, Ryan (Bo Burnham) and Gail (Laverne Cox) respectively, who bring out a softer side of her character that exists when her guard is down, when she isn’t thinking about Nina every moment. As the film goes on, you actually see her realizing how broken she is and how much she doesn’t realize it, how much she needed help but didn’t get it. You want her to get better, but her dispirited view of the world leaves Cassie doubting if she’ll ever heal. Her romantic interactions with Ryan feel complete, but unfortunately the character of Gail feels a little left behind. The movie wants their relationship to be a deeper friendship, but never goes past the feel of co-workers that enjoy each other’s company. Whenever the film requires a connection between them, it doesn’t quite hit home because of how thin Gail feels (although Laverne does what she can with the character). If writer-director Emerald Fennell (in her directorial debut) isn’t always concerned with building lots of three-dimensional characters, she is concerned with the tone and detail of the world. This comes through in the bright color palette, filled with vibrant pastels that are traditionally feminine but are treated with respect instead of ridicule. It’s also in the tinier things; the soundtrack features many female pop artists like Charli XCX and Britney Spears which add to the bright aesthetic, while stranger choices like Something Wonderful from The King and I manage to poke fun at the hurdles many go around to justify shitty men (“You’ll always go along / defend him when he’s wrong”). Her dialogue is strong most of the time, especially the way she inhabits Cassie, although its wittiness doesn’t always feel genuine or as clever as it intends to be. Fennell also channels a fast pace which makes the film roll by, earning key moments along the way and driving you towards an unusual and slightly controversial ending… I’ve read takes by those who hate this movie. Some think the movie hates men (a take I simply find lazy) while others find it, and especially its ending, contrived, uninteresting, borderline offensive (warning: the reviews I linked to have spoilers). It didn’t feel that way for me, and I think it’s because those who hated it found the ending as one looking for relief; I found it entirely bittersweet. For me, the film switched from allegorical to satirical in the last twenty minutes in a way I found surprising and challenging, and that has stayed in my mind. I didn’t find the ending as one reaching for a round of raucous applause, but as a mixed bag, with some joy and lots of darkness still present. That’s the way life tends to be, even if I don’t think Promising Young Woman is entirely emblematic of the real world. And as a result, I found it satisfying, even if I get why others don’t. I find it fantastic that those who’ve seen it are talking about it so much, that it is attacked and maligned simultaneously by smart people on both sides of the debate. Although I don’t think it manages to get across all the complexities it talks about, I don’t think any piece of art will ever be able to manage that. Woman is exciting, confident, and while maybe a bit obvious in the issues it talks about still entirely unexpected in other ways. Promising Young Woman raises interesting questions through an idiosyncratic, glittery lens, one which, hopefully, will inspire others to expand upon it in the future.
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