93rd Academy Awards (2021)
Nominations: 5
Wins: 1
If you don’t mind, let me jump us forward now all the way to the pandemic, that ghastly period which, among the many, many tragedies, snatched away a normal release for Emerald Fennell’s feature debut after a successful premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Denied its scheduled April theatrical run, Promising Young Woman ended up limping into theaters on Christmas Day and went onto VOD a couple weeks later. You might think that was a tough go for a low-budget indie, but actually I think this worked out great because I can’t imagine a better time for a movie like this than a year after Joker.
Med school dropout Cassie (Carey Mulligan) spends her days bitterly working at a coffee shop and her nights getting revenge on men who take advantage of women. Years ago, her friend Nina was raped at a party and, unable to successfully prosecute the perpetrators, dropped out and committed suicide. Now Cassie has no friends or prospects and has moved back in with her parents (delightfully played by Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown). The only thing she’s got going on is vigilante justice: every week she pretends to be drunk in clubs and then takes revenge on the men who attempt to assault her (it’s implied this runs the gamut of just freaking them out to… cutting stuff off). But Cassie’s knocked out of her routine when her former classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham) shows up in her coffee shop one day and asks her out.
Ryan is a friend of Al (Chris Lowell), the man who raped Nina, and informs Cassie of Al’s upcoming wedding. This inspires Cassie to put together a Kill Bill-style master plan to go after everyone connected to Nina’s assault, complete with a notebook with their names written down so they can be dramatically crossed off. Her targets: Madison (Alison Brie), another classmate who denied the rape; Elizabeth Walker (Connie Britton), the dean who dismissed Nina’s case; Jordan Green (Alfred Molina), Al’s scummy lawyer; and finally Al himself. There’s just one problem: her relationship with Ryan starts going pretty well. And if we know anything from Batman movies, you can’t be a vigilante and in a happy couple.
So like Joker, this a a story about a fucked-up person who’s given up on society because she’s tired of all the injustice. There are even scenes of Cassie putting on makeup in mirrors and the final act has her dressing as a performer. And like Joker, Promising Young Woman doesn’t really offer much by way of hope. This is more of a “yeah, shit sucks” kinda movie. That said, I feel a lot less conflicted about this story than Joker since it doesn’t present a despicable villain as a down-trodden hero. Cassie is instead a much more ambiguous figure who behaves in complex ways – sometimes I really did root for her while other times I was scared of her, and I think that was Emerald Fennell’s intent. This story is an actual tragedy, not a bizarre metaphor for Trump’s election.
Also, don’t let the big, memorable scenes make you forget that this movie is funny and stylish and sometimes really great. This is maybe more of a note for me than you, the reader who probably already saw this movie three years ago.
Anyway, Emerald Fennell is an English actor who, like all English actors, is maybe best known for her role in The Crown. She’s also the second showrunner for Killing Eve (they had a different one every season) which got her Emmy nominations for both drama series and writing for a drama series. And, just to prove what a badass she is, Fennell shot Promising Young Woman while she was seven months pregnant. It earned her the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Actress, Editing, Picture and Director, making the 93rd Oscars the first time ever two women were up for the directing award (Chloé Zhao won that year for Nomadland). And of course Fennell struck back hard in 2023, showing up in Barbie as Midge and releasing another original movie, Saltburn, which didn’t get any Oscar noms but definitely has people talking. For me it’s like Promising Young Woman, because everything I’ve heard about Saltburn has me squeamish about seeing but now I feel like I’ve got to. Wish me luck!