Film: Promising Young Woman

GENRE: Drama
RATING: R for strong violence & sexual material, drugs & language
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 53 minutes
PLATFORM: Online rental
STARRING: Carey Mulligan (An Education, The Dig, Great Gatsby)
Bo Burnham (The Big Sick), Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black)
DIRECTOR: Emerald Fennell (newcomer)
WRITER: Fennell (Killing Eve)
PLOT: A young woman seeks vengeance against those who traumatized a friend of hers.   

FULL DISCLOSURE: Watching for the Oscars.

STORY STUFF: Well that was sure dark. Fennell tells a compelling story but it is hard to watch at times. I both wanted to know and didn’t want to know how this would conclude. I did find it interesting that they never utter the word ‘rape’ or ‘sexual assault’ but we clearly know what they are talking about. I liked the romantic portion of the movie but knew I couldn’t get too comfortable. This film has important things to say. I’ll just leave at that.  

ACTING STUFF: Mulligan is intriguing. She is one of the reasons it’s hard to watch this film; she is so unpredictable and on edge, but in a good way, kinda. At times I’m rooting for her but other times find her too crazy. I liked the dorkiness of Burnham as the love interest. The casting that didn’t sit well with me was Max Greenfield who was acting too much like Schmidt from New Girl. A moment of shock turns sitcom-y in his hands. Not sure if this is what Fennell intended but I thought it was handled poorly – completely took me out of the moment.    

ARTISTIC STUFF: There’s some nice cinematography here and there. I like the framing of angel wings on Mulligan from time to time. The music was a times off-putting and other times interesting (like an eerie strings version of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’). The set design was weird at times. There’s a scene in a Pharmacy where there’s too much neon which looked random to me. Nothing is clear cut in this film which is probably the point.  

VERDICT: Three and half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You’re not squeamish about dark sexual situations.
UPCOMING REVIEW: More Oscar films