However, the one place where Fennell could stand to improve is her editing.
The shots of this film are also excellently composed, with one particular scene (involving a confrontation between Cassie and Alison Brie’s Madison) noteworthy for how far the camera is from Cassie, isolating her and swallowing her in mise-en-scene. In particular, Fennell’s soundtracking is inspired, with cleverly ironic deployment of pop songs like ‘It’s Raining Men’, ‘Toxic’ and (ingeniously) Paris Hilton’s so-bad-it’s-good single ‘Stars Are Blind’. Like almost any debut feature from a talented filmmaker, there is an element of technical showoffiness to Promising Young Woman that borders on being too much – it’s the unmistakeable bullhorn call of ‘hey, look what I can do!’ That is not to say that these stylistic tics are not enjoyable, because they very much are. Fennell’s sense of style (beyond the art and production design) also shines through in a number of camera moves and editing. One of the sharpest ideas in Promising Young Woman is about the insidiousness of how sexual assault is often justified and rationalised in society, ( 1) and as such, it makes sense for Cassie to be so explicitly coded feminine, to disarm her prey before tearing their flimsy facade of being a ‘nice guy’ to shreds.
Jumpcut rape revenge movie#
The violence in this movie (well ok, for most of it) is not physical, but intellectual and emotional. While the prototypical rape-revenge movie like The Last House on The Left (1972) or even new spins on the genre like Revenge (2017) relies on guns and various bladed accoutrements, Cassie is armed with nothing more than her wits and her words. This aesthetic not only serves to make it clear that this is a story told from a feminine perspective, but also signals the movie’s desire to be different from its ultraviolent progenitors. Aside from that, Fennell and costume designer Nancy Steiner deliberately style Cassie in a Madonna-whore manner, with Mulligan wearing soft florals and girlish pastels in the day while clad in monochromatic office and club wear at night (think pencil skirts and little black dresses). The film is awash with all types of feminine design, from the old-fashioned chintz of Cassie’s parents’ house to the sterile ‘live laugh love’ modernity of the coffeeshop Cassie works in. The first and most obvious element of Promising Young Woman is how feminine its aesthetic is. While there is plenty to recommend – its sharply incisive satire, a killer lead performance, its confident and assured sense of style – Promising Young Woman‘s relatively glaring flaws means that it, as the title suggests, never goes beyond simply being promising. Such a pity then, that Promising Young Woman cannot quite reach the heights it aims for, thanks in large part to how it stumbles in its final act. Fennell and her protagonist do not carve up flesh and blood, but instead the sorry excuses that ‘nice guy’ predators and their enablers use to justify their bad behaviour, which makes the film not just appropriate for its times, but a much needed corrective as well. Writer-director Emerald Fennell’s debut feature diverges sharply from the usual rape-revenge tropes, most obviously in focusing its fury not on the stereotypical ‘violent psychotic stranger’, but instead on the system that coddles, protects, and excuses sexual assaulters. In this less than grand tradition arrives Promising Young Woman, which might be the first rape- culture revenge movie I can think of.
The rape revenge movie has a sordid history, with the grimy exploitation flicks of the 1970s tap-dancing on the line between titillation and catharsis, often using the traumatic event as an excuse to lavishly portray sex and violence. However, when Cassie sparks up a connection with ex-classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham), another way of life might open itself up to her.ġ. In reality, Cassie is an angel of vengeance, wreaking havoc against supposed ‘nice guys’ who prey on drunk girls, in the memory of her best friend Nina, who was raped in medical school only to be disbelieved by everyone else. A medical school dropout who gets blackout drunk at bars, she is an easy target for predators … or at least that’s what she wants you to think. Synopsis: Cassie Thomas (Carey Mulligan) is a mess.
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