Review: Carey Mulligan mesmerizes in ‘Promising Young Woman’
by Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press
Posted Dec 22, 2020 10:11 am EDT
Last Updated Dec 22, 2020 at 10:14 am EDT
Is it a #MeToo-era revenge thriller? A 21st-century “Fatal Attraction”? A candy-colored feminist polemic, to strains of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears? A black comedy? A comic tragedy?
None of the above — and all of the above. Which is to say: a film as bracingly original as Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” defies labels.
Here’s a couple good adjectives, though: Startling — the only way to describe Fennell’s vision and execution in this, her directorial debut. And, sensational — a word that only begins to capture Carey Mulligan’s lead performance.