[Review] Promising Young Woman(2020) {7/10}

Written and Directed by Emerald Fennell in her feature directorial debut, the film stars Carey Mulligan (Cassandra "Cassie" Thomas), Bo Burnham (Ryan Cooper), Alison Brie (Madison McPhee), Clancy Brown (Stanley Thomas), Jennifer Coolidge (Susan Thomas), Laverne Cox (Gail), Connie Britton (Dean Elizabeth Walker).

The plot follows Cassandra (Carey Mulligan) who was considered a PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN until traumatic events led her to drop out of medical school several years earlier. Now she works at a coffee shop by day and by night is a vigilante who goes to bars and pretends to be drunk until some "nice," "decent" guy decides he'd better get her home "safely." If only they did.

Emerald Fennell's razor-sharp feature writing and directing debut could do for sexual assault what Fatal Attraction did with cheating: Scare men into thinking twice. Fennell flawlessly improves on Death Wish and I Spit on Your Grave-type films. Cassandra is too smart to engage in straight-up, eye-for-an-eye revenge; instead, she concocts a far more creative approach that makes the perpetrators and maybe viewers realize that they're not as nice as they think they are. Cassandra's method of forced empathy has the potential to have more impact and be more influential for creating change than a basketful of documentaries or Dateline episodes. Promising Young Woman is effective because it's phenomenally entertaining. It's original, shrewd, unexpected, and smashingly executed. Funny, too. The humor isn't silly or slapstick, but acerbic, biting, and wicked. There's not an off note on any element of the filmmaking. And Mulligan's flawless performance as a woman who finds an odd sense of purpose through tragedy leads us to wonder: Is Cassie deeply flawed? Or is she the only one who truly sees clearly?

Promising Young Woman is now available on Digital and Blu-ray.