Promising Young Woman: Garish but gratifying revenge flick
Carey Mulligan shines in an entertaining, imaginative exercise in score-settling
Film Title: Promising Young Woman
Director:
Emerald Fennell
Starring:
Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Connie Britton, Alfred Molina
Genre: Drama
Emerald Fennell’s Fanta-coloured melodrama – or pitch-black comedy? – has profited from the long delay in its release. Promising Young Woman, originally scheduled for the awards-unfriendly spring of 2020, has steadily built up followers to become a serious contender for best picture at the (finally) imminent Academy Awards.
The months of closer attention have also brought some unhappiness its way. A number of negative reviews have wondered if the film, which deals with delayed retribution for a college rape, blanks its unseen victim, relies on too much implausible plotting and, in a Grand Guignol ending (about which we’ll say no more), betrays its protagonist and all her imagined supporters.