If The Assistant is the movie that brilliantly dissected the system that fuelled what the #metoo movement strove to dismantle, in a subtle and ingenious drama of manners and the micro reflecting the macro - Promising Young Woman is the sensationalised louder cousin, turning its #metoo tale into a dynamic and visceral, frequently darkly comedic revenge drama. And for as in regards to quality, The Assistant certainly takes it, Young Woman definitely deserves a lot of the credit that it is receiving, albeit I do have to say I personally feel that it doesn’t deserve all of it. The film is a deeply disturbing, wild ride with many excellent elements along the way, with Carrey Mulligan delivering one of the undisputed finest performances of the year, along with Emerald Fennell (writer and director) more than making a rightful name for herself as an intriguing creator to watch – However, all in all I have to side with the pull quote “very promising debut” over the “game-changing masterpiece” line that the poster boasts.

Credit

The tale of Cassandra is a very interesting one as she traverses swathes of terrible men and women to achieve some form of revenge against her friend who befell a tragic event that led them to both exit from medical school. Promising Young Woman is in part a gripping tale of pshyclolgical vengeance whilst also taking immense time with our lead beyond her path of revenge to really examine the effect her past and present is having on her. Let’s talk about the films biggest success, with Carey Mulligan’s sensational turn as Cassandra – a tremdously complex figure filled with pathos, humour, delicacy of pain and a deep power rooted in intelligence, all of which Mulligan manages to convey with reality and a human touch, making her witticisms and extremely convoluted plans believable, for the most part. Although Mulligan and Fennel both struggle to make some of these overly constructed ruses feel natural or even considerable in the slightest in the world that the film has shown us up until those points. Beyond Mulligan the film is filled to the brim with incredible actors in interesting smaller roles and although many of these are sensationally realised encounters brought to life by Mulligan and an excellent ensemble, more than once plausibility factors into the equation removing certain credibility from  the scene in the realism department. Alfred Molina, Alison Brie, Jennifer Coolige, Laverne Cox and Connie Britton all feature in scenes that showcase their immense range in a limited space of time. Bo Burnham appears as a form of romantic lead and genuinely taps a very interesting vein, to great success, that we haven’t really seen him from him before beyond his usually performative pretences. Many of the supporting male roles beyond Burnham are intentionally caricaturish and although this is very clearly the point, it also removes all power from the final burst of violence we get in the film as it is made to be wholly unbelievable.

Credit

The film greatly enjoys taking its subversions into its soundtrack, reconceptualising multiple “guilty pleasure” standards from the world of female pop to great effect in its sound track, along with a brilliant use of a Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic, and a truly exceptional strings orchestration of Britney Spears Toxic arranged by Anthony Willis and Steven Baker. These are frequently utilised to underscore Fennel’s wonderfully taut and frequently vibrant aesthetic of directing, however despite Fennel’s clear talents in directing being very exciting, her talents in writing are a more divided affair. In regards to interesting and realistic dialogue exchanges that are usually either filled with dread or deeply funny in their unsettling wit, Fenell has a clear talent. Where Fennell’s writing and the film on a whole unfortunately falters is in its plotting, narrative and ultimately its conclusion, which seriously suffers from a case of one attempting to have its cake and its eat it too. Far too many ridiculous contrivances lead to all momentum and development of character being pushed into the corner whilst the viewer is forced to make excuses themselves for a shoddily structured screenplay. For as much as one could make the easy argument that the film is more so about characters, one can simply not ignore the scripts faults as it repeatedly forces one out of the film time after time, instead of investing us into the world. A cheap use of intertitles offers a form of episodic chaptering, but then has a far too neat and hammy final note for its climatic use. For me this really was a film that lost its way as it went along and actually is one that I grow to dislike the more that I actually think about it. So my advice would actually be to avoid thinking, watch the film and then don’t think about the script too much afterward.

 -

A pretty great 6/10, whose issues of plotting and scripting and conclusion do halt the film getting serious top marks from me, but do not in the slightest diminish the many great successes that the film has along the way to its shoddy end. Mulligan is sensational and fulfils on a career long promise that I have always noted. Although all of the choices that the film made were in line with its themes and presentation and overall goal, and although I understand why many of these decisions were made, I can’t help feeling that many things were sacrificed to make a point that the film was already making very successfully, only to cement half as effectively.

P.S. I will never complain about Molly Shannon being in a film, nor Jennifer Coolidge, nor Alfred Molina, nor Clancy Brown. However the minimal use of Shannon was shocking to me, truly. Molina was given a great small role with lots to do within his small time, but I seriously felt as if Shannon was underused. I don’t know if anything’s on the cutting room floor, and I’m seriously not saying that Shannon wasn’t superb in the small moment we got with her. It just felt to me like a severe underutilisation of talent when it had been acquired, without any seeming purpose.

-          - Thomas Carruthers