Written by Andreas Babiolakis

We are playing catch up by reviewing films that are a part of the current awards season.

Warning: The following review involves possibly triggering discussions of varying degrees of sexual abuse, in relation to the film’s subject matter. Reader discretion is advised.

The twenty first century has developed a series of unforgiving satirical statements on society, ranging from the racial injustices found in Get Out, or a country stymieing its inhabitants in Dogtooth. Joining that lineup is the directorial debut by actress Emerald Fennell, whose Promising Young Woman is daring conceptually, and mostly effective with its execution. Another set of fingerprints all over this film — which I don’t think gets pointed out enough — is those of producer Margot Robbie, whose LuckyChap Entertainment company has specifically distributed a number of sugary coloured, eccentrically intriguing, and sharply witted films with something to say (so far, LuckyChap has produced only Robbie pictures until Promising Young Woman, but some key examples include I, Tonya and Birds of Prey). It feels like LuckyChap allowed Fennell to take full control over Promising Young Woman, and the end result feels completely like the work of its primary mastermind; Emerald also wrote the screenplay, and helped produce the picture.

The film features Cassie Thomas, who has devoted the last few years of her life towards being a societal vigilante as a means of protecting women and stopping the ongoing problem of toxic masculine behaviours, ranging from rampant misogynists, to men who feign a “nice guy” act and assume that a woman that’s under the influence can consent. Cassie pretends to be drunk out of her mind, is lured home by predators known as “gentlemen”, and then confronts them with their awful decision making skills; Cassie lets them off the hook a bit more easily than other women that do this kind of thing, but Fennell leaves those possibilities up to our imagination. When Cassie is approached by her past (in the form of a university classmate Ryan, who fancies her), her duties begin to take on a whole new form. She does all of this work in memory of her friend Nina, who was raped by another classmate of theirs, and committed suicide afterwards. Cassie learns that Nina’s abuser is due to get married, with Ryan having been invited. Cassie takes it upon herself to go the distance.

Before I continue with the film’s premise (involving spoilers), I want to discuss the build up to this point. Promising Young Woman is one of those motion pictures that allows your brain to jump to all possible conclusions, by leaving you with little pieces of information each scene. Fennell’s slow revelations of Cassie’s life, goals, and current predicaments make up so much of the film’s successes, especially when it comes to the creation of this satirical-yet-serious commentary; everything here is told with a hint of a wink, but otherwise Fennell means everything. The cast is built up mostly of recognizable faces from youthful productions, likely from our own teen years: Alison Brie from Community, Adam Brody from The O.C., Christopher Mintz-Plasse from Superbad, Bo Burnham from his YouTube days, and so on and so forth; older names like Molly Shannon and Jennifer Coolidge operate the same way, but as the parents and/or adults of our youths. To me, this is intentional: to make you recall these faces, as if you’re experiencing a blast from your past (or a reconnection with your former stomping grounds and from university, if you will).

Carey Mulligan delivers some of her best work in years as Cassie.

Cassie is played by Carey Mulligan, in a show-stopping performance. Mulligan leaps from Cassie’s drunken act, to her act of vengeance, as if it were as easy as being operated by a switch. Mulligan otherwise makes Cassie so real, which helps with a premise as unique as this one; this provides Promising Young Woman with a much needed heart to identify with. Even though you know what Cassie is doing is dangerous, you can’t help but root for her, which is essential for the film’s message on rampant misogyny; maybe Cassie’s methods are questionable, but I certainly don’t have a problem with what she’s doing or why she’s doing it (outside of her own safety, of course).

Building up to the mind blowing and heart shredding crescendo of the film, we have an aesthetic candy jar of colours, jokes, and songs. Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet pop songs. I usually don’t include this kind of stuff in my grading, because me not liking a song is completely subjective; I don’t care for “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealers Wheel, but find its use in Reservoir Dogs effective. I cannot stand Paris Hilton, but her song “Stars Are Blind” being featured in Promising Young Woman is with enough meaning that it doesn’t bother me.

However, we otherwise have something I call the “Auteur Playlist Effect”, where a director’s personal song selections can possibly get in the way, or enhance a film, depending on your personal tastes. A current director who plays by these rules heavily is Xavier Dolan; in Mommy, I find the song selection a bit on-the-nose but effectively (plus I’m a sucker for Lana Del Rey); in The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, the song selection is insanely distracting to the point of irritation (concluding with “Bittersweet Symphony” is as clichéd as the filmmaking medium can get). Promising Young Woman is a bit of the latter, where noisy songs can strip some scenes of their immersion; a frantic string version of “Toxic” by Britney Spears pulled me out of a very important part of the leading moments to the film’s climax (twist: I like “Toxic”, but found its use here to work against the film). I can imagine all of the neodisco stuff in Drive can bother people similarly, whereas I could eat those songs up for breakfast, so critiquing this kind of thing isn’t exactly my favourite thing to do, because we’re here for the film and not the little things like song preferences; I do find the selection to be detrimental enough.

The remainder of the review involves spoilers. Reader discretion is advised.

Outside of the playlist, Promising Young Woman is stronger and weaker in a number of parts; for every bold decision, there’s a narrative convenience, for instance. However, Fennell’s treatment of the film in its final moments is a staggering achievement of 2020 cinema. When she got nominated for Best Director at the Golden Globes, I can see why. Again, not every choice she makes is great, but her best decisions are monumental. Firstly, this film doesn’t bring up the words “rape” or “assault” at all, so there’s a film for survivors that works around any possibility of triggering those that wish to watch the film. Otherwise, there’s the massive decision to have Cassie murdered with over twenty minutes of film to go. The way Fennell has Nina’s abuser fighting against Cassie is actually a nauseating revelation, particularly because of the long shot of the latter’s suffocation, as if we are witnessing a similar assault without actually seeing a rape happen. It’s an effective sequence that’s still very mindful of whom may be watching, and Fennell’s consideration — without any removal of the scene’s intentions — is a golden achievement of filmmaking this year.

All in all, I find Promising Young Woman to be a film made by an upcoming filmmaking sensation. Again, I don’t agree with everything Emerald Fennell does here, but there are enough glimpses of a triumphant vision with many important things to say that I can only await to see what she will make next. Besides, let’s be real for a second: if these minor — but important — things were tweaked (like the supernatural timing of Cassie’s texts-from-the-dead in relation to the police arrival at the concluding wedding, for instance), we could have had a potential best film of 2020. Even with a score of four out of five, Promising Young Woman is the kind of work that has stuck with me ever since I saw it, and its strengths warrant a flurry of revisitations from here on out. Besides, how many directorial debuts are perfect? If this amount of potential is what Promising Young Woman possesses, then Emerald Fennell is a top director to follow (I guarantee it).

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.