PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
OUT TBC CINEMAS
Spoiler alert: the film turns out to be very fulfilling.
Iam a nice guy!” pleads Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s not-so-nice Neil in writer/director Emerald Fennell’s blistering feature debut. He’s one of dozens of men to have failed Cassandra Thomas’ test. Carey Mulligan’s Cassie spends her evenings in bars, feigning legless inebriation until a ‘nice guy’ picks her up. How far they go is up to them, but consent is never given and if they ignore Cassandra’s repeated protests… well, that would be telling.
Billed as a “delicious new take on revenge”, the first thing to note about PYW is it probably isn’t the film you think it is. Look past the cupcake-coloured aesthetics and darkly comic tone and you’ll find a film rooted in trauma – both the act itself and the scars that refuse to fade in the absence of justice.
Mulligan is electric throughout. From intimidating to vulnerable, confident to crisis-stricken, the star nails the contradictions that make Cassie so compelling. Because she’s ultimately a good person, Cassie so often is denied the catharsis she desperately craves, and so too is the audience, Fennell challenging expectations at every turn.
Striking styling and a distractingly cool soundtrack can get in the way of the ultimately serious story Fennell is telling. The ending takes an admirably huge swing but doesn’t quite hit the mark. But on this evidence, Fennell is a promising young filmmaker indeed. Jordan Farley