The Couch Potato’s Guide to Getting Even

Artwork by Michael DiMilo

Film Review of Promising Young Woman

By Geoff Carter

It’s the woman’s fault, right? If they dress provocatively, flirt, drink too much, or go out by themselves, then they get what they ask for, right? 

Unfortunately, this neanderthal mentality still persists in frat houses, bars, locker rooms—and boardrooms—everywhere, and indeed, has been espoused by some of our Republican leaders in Congress. While the #MeToo Movement has helped our society take giant strides toward recognizing and punishing sexual abuse toward women, these crimes still occur with horrifying consistency. The film Promising Young Woman examines the depth and breadth of the terrible collateral damage caused by these crimes. 

The protagonist Cassie, a thirty-year-old who dropped out of medical school to care for her friend Nina–who was traumatized by a sexual assault–and decides to retaliate against men who hurt her friend. A barista still living at home by day, at night Cassie dresses to the nines, goes out, and acts as if she’s sloppy drunk until, inevitably, a well-intentioned guy offers to take her home, but then—somehow–they both end up in his apartment where the noble young man tries to take advantage of the woman he’s coerced into his house. That’s where Cassie gets even.

Her MO is to suddenly start acting completely sober, catching the men in the act(s) of beginning the assault of a helpless drunk. The audience only sees her intimidating these would-be sexual predators—she never gets violent with them. Cassie keeps a tally of her “conquests” with red and black pens in a notebook that looks as if it should belong to a twelve-year-old rather than an intelligent young woman. In fact, much of her persona seems to be mired in a past—a much younger—iteration of Cassie. When not on the prowl, she dresses in pastel sweaters and dresses (Lolita-like, a lepidopterist’s dream) that ring out in sharp contrast to the cunning night stalker seeking vengeance. 

The art production, costumes, make-up, and set direction emphasize this schism. The bars she frequents and her pick-ups’ apartments are seedy dives while her parent’s house is decorated like a 1970’s ad in a J.C. Penney’s catalog, pink and gold and with enough chandeliers to make Liberace green with envy. Her parents are good people, but at a loss to understand what happened to their daughter. She has no friends, no relationships, and a dead-end job. She gave up her dream to be a doctor. Her friend is gone. All Cassie has left is her anger.

When an old med school classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham) shows up and asks her out, she refuses at first, but decides to get in touch with some of the people responsible for Nina’s rape and its aftermath. She begins plotting. Complicating this is the relationship between Ryan and herself which—weirdly—turns romantic. 

Mulligan and Burnham’s on-screen chemistry is remarkable. They come across as a really fun couple, sharing one of the most charming lip-syncing scenes in a drugstore that I’ve ever seen. During a dinner at Cassie’s parents, Ryan’s awkwardness and Cassie’s sly wit are simultaneously cute and patronizing. We hope Cassie may use this relationship to crawl out of her despair and into a normal life, but a sudden turn of events changes everything, turning her back on course toward her final act of revenge. 

Promising Young Woman is a film that balances on the thinnest of boundaries between dark humor, social awareness, and suspense, but it is first and foremost a thriller. Near the beginning, the viewer is kept off-balance, never quite sure what Cassie is capable of. Is she a stone-cold killer or a young woman getting even? 

She’s also unexpectedly whip-smart funny. At the coffee shop, Cassie constantly trades barbed exchanges with her boss Gail (Laverne Cox). The back and forth between her and Ryan is lightning fast and hilarious.Their banter is friendly, and funny, but it’s easy to see that Cassie’s resentment is never far under the surface. The story pinballs between these two poles of Cassie’s character until she decides to wreak her final revenge upon her friend’s rapist. The scenes leading up to the last confrontation are absolutely gripping.

It is a film of measured contrasts. Cassie dresses like a nice girl during the day but pretends she’s a hooker at night; she has a sterling wit, is genuinely charming, but puts herself at risk to exact vengeance for her friend. Her actual acts of revenge are peculiarly passive aggressive—her attack strategy is to simply wake up and make eye contact and then to berate her would-be attacker. A shot of Cassandra sitting in a dark girly bedroom gazing at childhood photos of herself and her beloved friend serve as a bitter counterpoint to the emptiness of her present life. 

Carey Mulligan is outstanding as Cassie. Even in her most disarming moments, she conveys a sense of inexorable will and determination. The essence of her performance lies in this deliberateness. Her mission is to embarrass and humiliate the men who would do the same to her—perhaps even to educate them, but she is not an activist. She is motivated by grief and anger. It’s all personal to her. The rape culture took away her best friend, her career, her dream, and her heart. 

In her screenplay, Emerald Fennell has veered away from the revenge story stereotypes we see so often in Hollywood. She has created a protagonist who is not consumed by rage, but who carefully tends and stokes it, using it carefully to wreak a complicated—and carefully controlled—revenge. Fennell’s directorial debut is also remarkable. The movie itself is beautiful, the ensemble acting remarkable, and the story-telling compelling, and, at times, jolting. The plot is a roller-coaster ride that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Promising Young Woman is a study in contradictions. It is a revenge movie, a sort of a rom-com, a dark comedy, and a cautionary tale—not a warning directed at women, but at those who abuse them. It is brilliant at times and well worth watching.