Formula: The Hunting Ground ^ The Count of Monte Cristo
There's the old saying that all war movies are pro-war movies, because no matter the angle, they always end up glorifying war. Sometimes I wonder if that could be said about most or all film genres. Romance movies are pro-romance. Adventure movies are pro-adventure. Revenge movies are pro-revenge. No matter how many characters tell a person that revenge won't make them whole and no matter how poorly the revenge plot goes, I'm always rooting for the revenge in some way. Even if it's excessive. And that's what makes Promising Young Woman so interesting.
Promising Young Woman is about Cassie (Carey Mulligan). She's a 30-year-old barista who dropped out of med school seven years ago and still lives with her parents. Secretly at night though, she becomes a sort of date-rape vigilante. She pretends to be blackout drunk at a bar until a "nice guy" comes over to make sure she gets home alright. Often, this instead leads to the guy bringing her back to his place where he convinces himself that she's able to make a decision that she's clearly not. Right before he date rapes her though, Cassandra turns stone-cold sober and forces the man to explain himself. It's sort of her own Scared Straight program. As the film goes on, we find out that this is all to get back at the world for something that happened to a friend of hers in med school that led to both of them dropping out. In general, Cassie is a sour person who has no interest anymore in what people think or her. In fact, her only delight seems to come from confusing people and playing on what they think she owes them, either with her elaborate game at night, or by day, dressing in artificially friendly or colorful ways only to deny people of the pleasantness they've been conditioned to expect. A chance meeting with a charming doctor from her class who she soon starts dating convinces Cassie to, still in secret, turn her focus from strangers to the people who did her wrong in med school.
This isn't just a revenge story. It's a revenge fantasy. It's playful. The film is painted with a bubble-gum color palette. It uses pop music or remixes of pop songs throughout. Carey Mulligan is perfect for the role. Dressing down people has been a specialty of hers for a while. Just think back to her IDGAF energy in Wildlife or her foul-mouthed folk singer in Inside Llewyn Davis. But, let's be honest, this role doesn't work if she doesn't also have the looks to play a Daisy Buchanan. The role needs someone who can be intimidating enough that her games at night don't end badly for her. Instead, in those scenes, I swear she's three feet taller than any of the men. Another stroke of genius is writer/director Emerald Fennell casting nothing but nice guys. I mean, Adam Brody, Sam Richardson, Bo Burnham, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Max Greenfield, and Chris Lowell are all in the room for casting calls of sweet, best-friend types, and this film uses that marvelously. Hell, it even goes after Connie Britton and Alison Brie. This is a "kill your darlings" movie if I ever saw one.
The movie is deeply unsatisfying though. And it's meant to be unsatisfying. I don't know what to do with that. Several characters make compelling arguments for why Cassie should move on and let herself be happy, yet the movie comes alive the most whenever she's getting revenge. The movie is about tearing down the "nice guy" image, but it implies that there are no actual "nice guys", which gets a little too nihilistic for me. It manages to both show why Cassie's obsession is the worst thing for her and gives her a darkly crowd-pleasing win. Despite the edge to the movie, it still is a fantasy in a lot of ways. For this movie to work, the men all have to be impotent. This is a very different movie if it does more than imply that the color-coded tally system she has for her nightly traps means that she doesn't get out of all of them unscathed. The film seems to be more focused on the damage caused by one night of abuse than by years of it. And, once I start noticing those punches pulled, I wonder why this revenge fantasy couldn't work out even better. I just want Cassie to find some peace.
I appreciate how torn I am about this movie. That means I'll be thinking about it longer than I do for most films. Overall, Promising Young Woman is a surprisingly good time, which feels weird to say. It's darkly comedic throughout. Carey Mulligan is captivating. It's probably too nasty and confrontational to actually get an Oscar nomination, but I don't think she's ever been better. The film played with my emotions throughout, so it never got boring. Emerald Fennell brings the same playfulness to the darkness that she did when she was the showrunner for Killing Eve - Cassie is sort of a cross between Eve and Villanelle, now that I think about it. I love the discussion the film is trying to have and how it brings a bullhorn to have it. I just really need to be ready to follow it up with something more simply satisfying whenever I watch this again.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment