‘I guess it feels different when it’s someone you love...’
Revenge is a dish best served cold. But if you can’t serve it cold, serve it up on a cinema screen instead. Revenge movies have been around since the dawn of cinema, and at their best (Kill Bill, Oldboy, John Wick) they have provided some of cinema’s most visceral moments. Emerald Fennel’s Oscar nominated Promising Young Woman has inspired pages and pages of tedious debate online. Is Carrie Mulligan ‘hot’ enough to play this role? Is it too dark? Is it too unfair to its male characters? As ever, all of this misses the point. Promising Young Woman isn’t a feminist manifesto, nor is it an attack on men. It’s a damn good revenge movie, and that, dear reader, is literally all that matters…
Cassie (Mulligan) is so traumatised by the events of her past that she trawls seedy clubs and bars pretending to be drunk in order to expose sleazy men. If you have an issue with how often and how breezily the men approach Cassie, then you have never been in a nightclub on a Saturday night. The grim reality of this situation is that if a woman ever did actually do what she does, men would flock to her week after week like a grubby moth to a lightbulb. Exposing this uncomfortable truth is just one of the ways that Promising Young Woman delivers its powerful message.
If it feels like I’ve been vague in my plot synopsis, that’s because I have. You should go into this knowing as little as possible. Don’t watch the trailer, don’t (for the love of God) read all the think pieces currently circulating online, just watch the damn thing.
One thing to be clear about, for all the buzz surrounding the gender politics of this movie… the premise is really nothing new. The plot is pretty thin, even predictable in places, and the concept is something we have witnessed many times over. Whether we have seen this story played out with such panache and style is another matter entirely. Aside from the smart script and assured direction from Fennell, this is an extravaganza performance from Carey Mulligan. A true once-in-a-lifetime showstopper that should win her every award going. An Oscar, the Nobel Peace Prize, a Barracuda swimming certificate, give her everything. Her performance has been compared with that of Joaquin Phoenix in Joker, but honestly, she is better. Believe the hype.
The supporting cast are incredible also. Alison Brie elevates any project that she puts her name to and she is suitably explosive here, Bo Burnham delivers a career best performance as Cassie’s potential saviour Ryan, and that’s without mentioning Laverne Cox, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Clancy Brown and all the others that make up the planets that orbit around Mulligan’s shining star. It’s a team effort, but truly, her performance is a joy to behold.
Promising Young Woman is one of those rare moments in cinema when everything fits together like clockwork. The perfect director, the perfect script and the perfect star all aligned at the perfect time. It’s a tragedy that nobody has been able to see this film in a movie theatre.
An utter masterpiece.