OSCARS 2021: Promising Young Woman (2020)

I remember seeing the first trailer for “Promising Young Woman,” in the Before Times. I think it was attached to “The Invisible Man,” the last movie I saw in theaters before the lock down. At the time, the film was set for a humble April release date. Focus Features seemed to be positioning the film as a low-stakes thriller. This was even obvious in the initial marketing, which included a poster design that wouldn't be out of place on a pulp novel cover. At some point, somebody realized “Promising Young Woman” could actually be an awards contender. You'll notice everything about the marketing completely shifted after that, with a classier trailer and poster. That intuition was obviously correct, as the film has wracked up several Oscar nominations in most of the big categories.

Cassie once had a profitable career in the medical profession ahead of her but she dropped out of college after something terrible happened to her best friend, Nina. Now, she's living with her parents and working in a coffee shop... And, at night, she goes to bars and pretends to be sloppy drunk. Every night, some guy tries to take her home. Every time, he tries to take advantage of her. And every time, Cassie confronts them on their bullshit. Soon, a face from Cassie's past emerges and gives her a chance at a normal life again. At the same time, the chance appears for her to have true revenge on those who wronged Nina and wronged her.

“Promising Young Woman” is a movie that filled me with a lot of complicated thoughts that I'm not exactly sure how to parse. But I'll say this much about the movie: It looks great. Emerald Fennell's direction and Benjamin Kračun's cinematography is gorgeous. The colors are bright and plentiful, fluorescent blues and pinks characterizing many scenes. The shots are beautifully constructed, the sets symmetrical, the camera movements poetic and meaningful. Everything about the movie is fantastically put-together to create as visually scrumptious and memorable an experience as possible. On a technical level, this is A-plus film making. 

This is true about most aspects of “Promising Young Woman.” The acting is largely fantastic. Carey Mulligan's performance is not an act of realism. It's exaggerated, as big and bright as the movie's color palette. You see and hear this in the particular cadence she brings to her voice. Every movement she makes is like a comic book superhero pose, designed to make an impression. Yet Mulligan also imbues this larger-than-life character with honest emotion, the pain and rage that she feels informing everything she does. Most of the rest of the cast takes a similar approach, Alfred Molina especially striking the same sort of balance between over-the-top and focused.

As much as I admire the filmmaking on display in “Promising Young Woman,” there's something about it that rubs me the wrong way. The film's sense of humor can only be described as “smarmy.” The men who pick up Cassie in bars are cartoonishly terrible, which is most obvious in a scene with Christopher Minz-Plasse at his most Christopher-Minz-Plasse-y. These aren't real people she's taking down, they're caricatures. That feeling extends into the romantic subplot. Bo Burnham plays an old college friend that slowly wins Cassie's heart. They trade overly witty banter, that feels way too clever. You know from the minute this romance begins, that it's going to end badly. Because the audience knows what kind of movie “Promising Young Woman” is. Naturally, it does, the fallout being as bitterly sarcastic as you'd expect. This sense of above-it-all snarkiness plays out in the climax, when Cassie enacts a revenge scheme that would put the Jigsaw Killer to shame and punctuates it with a winky face emoji. 

Even though “Promising Young Woman” bugs me in a way that's hard to pin down, it is a brilliantly assembled film. As the pieces of Cassie's master plan fall into place, the audience can't help but feel thrilled. As the movie moves into the last act, an orchestral version of Britney Spear's “Toxic” kicks in on the soundtrack. (The score and musical choices are, in general, excellent.) It's masterful movie making, an incredible sequence that works exactly as intended. This leads towards a climax that is truly unexpected, bolstered by an unbroken two minute shot. It is a shocking moment that is audacious, if nothing else, even if it leads to a denouncement that isn't exactly satisfying. 

Ultimately, the way “Promising Young Woman” communicates with topics like rape culture and the #MeToo movement is way above my paid grade. Needless to say, it's a film motivated by an incredible anger directed at the injustices of the world. Fennell's decision to address this important, distressing topic as a blend of neon-soaked throwback thriller, a pitch black dark comedy, and a superhero origin story is a knot for people smarter than me to untangle. (Though it's fitting that Fennell has already scored her post-nomination gig in the DC Universe.) Either way, it's gorgeous filmmaking that presses a lot of the right button but doesn't entirely hang together due to the smugness baked into the script. [7/10]