Nominations: Academy Awards 2021
- Best Picture
- Best Director (Emerald Fennell)
- Best Original Screenplay
- Best Actress in a Leading Role (Carey Mulligan)
- Best Editing
“Can you guess what every woman’s worst nightmare is?”, Cassie (Carey Mulligan) asks. You probably don’t need to watch Promising Young Woman to know the answer to that question. And it is fueled by that fear, combined with a lot of anger, that Cassie has been living her life lately, after dropping out of medical school. Every night she goes to a bar and pretends to be drunk. And, every night, a man shows up under the pretext to help her to get home, but with other intentions in mind.
Cassie has a notebook where she keeps track of how many men have behaved that way and she has no intention of stopping. After all, she has way too much grief after losing her best friend Nina, whose name she has on her necklace, and she’s seeking revenge.
Carey Mulligan’s performance is excellent. She manages to capture Cassie’s ambiguous determination and hesitancy, as well as her sarcasm and her deep sorrow. Most of all, she channels her anger, and the audience really believes her.
Her character’s complete with the help of a very smart choice of wardrobe, hair, and makeup. Cassie dresses differently depending on her intent but, as we see throughout the movie, it really doesn’t matter what she’s wearing: she’ll be harassed on the streets either way.
The soundtrack is also full of great choices, setting the tone and the mood for each moment of Cassie’s story. The highlight is a creepier and more eerie instrumental version of “Toxic”.
The cast also deserves praise, with Laverne Cox, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Adam Brody, Chris Lowell, Molly Shannon, and many others, all with great performances.
It’s a very timely movie, since it embodies the #metoo movement from many perspectives: the woman who isn’t believed, the people who turn a blind eye for sexual assault reports on college campuses, and, mainly, the men who think they’re doing nothing wrong.
Written and directed by Emerald Fennell, who is nominated in both of those respective categories, Promising Young Woman is a rollercoaster of emotions. It is a mix of thriller and drama, with some funny moments. It is, most of all, the story of a young woman who had a promising future and had it taken from her. It could be Cassie, but it could also be Nina or so many others. That’s the beauty of the title and the sadness of the movie.
