. Without spoiling the plot of the film from writer-director Emerald Fennell (Killing Eve), it can be revealed that Promising Young Woman is a revenge movie that is also a far cry from the assault . Written by: Emerald Fennell. A psychological drama within a revenge fantasy and a rom-com veneer, Promising Young Woman underscores a deadly serious social issue while providing an entertaining story. Its sort of up for people to decide, but for me thats absolutely not who she is. While we dont know the details of what happened to Nina yet, through these two major setpieces we start to get a pretty good idea that she was a victim of a serious sexual assault. In the space between Act 1 and Act 2B, our protagonist wants to restore the order they had at the beginning of the story. I just couldn't believe it." And in her mind, when she intricately planned her revenge, shes reunited with Nina in emoticons, at least. A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who crossed her path. If we imagine the events of this movie happening in real life, the only way they would rise to the level of a story that would, say, make the national news (or at least one of the more popular unusual news subreddits) would be if Cassie actually pulled off the films improbable denouement. Dok. The rom-com is over, with Ryan having been found to be just as shitty as all the other guys. [37] The National Society of Film Critics defended Harvey's review and criticized Variety's apology. Death in Paradise star teases Beyond Paradise role. But I really believe strongly that if youre going to show violence, you need to I think actually the worst thing you can do is treat it glibly. Cassies plan coming together definitely stretches credulity, but you can also explain, more or less, how she pulls it off. A portion of the film depicts Cassie acting black-out drunk in . Promising Young Woman is the movie on everyone's lips right now, with the critical acclaim to back it up. Cassie Thomas, a 30-year-old medical school dropout, lives with her parents and works at a coffee shop. Promising Young Woman was nominated for five categories at the 93rd Academy Awards and won Best Original Screenplay. The stakes rise as a new goal comes into sight that sends our protagonist into a tail-spin that threatens to destroy them. And you see that quite a lot in this movie, so, it really could be anything.. Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Warning: Spoilers for the ending of Promising Young Woman follow. Al could step in to fill that void. Cross over episode!! The genre it most properly belongs to is the lattermost, as the action of the film is mostly devoted to trying to figure out just what makes Cassie tick. With Arc Studio pro, you stay focused while writing your screenplay, craft better stories, and collaborate with ease. [14], Originally, Fennell planned to end the film at the time Cassie's body was burned, but the production's financiers balked at having a negative ending. Here we usually meet any characters of consequence to the story, the settings, the tone, and anything else that helps frame whats to come next. The world we live in and the stories we tell are so biased toward the point of view of blandly likable, straight, white, cis guys that we have to imagine a hyper-intelligent woman with an unquenchable thirst for revenge striking back at them from beyond the grave to contemplate anything like justice. Trending Now . Promising Young Womans cascading end sequence is no more unbelievable than, say, Cassie going home with dozens of men, humiliating and scaring them, then encountering no issues beyond the guys getting mad at her. Shes got the evidence to prove Als misdoings. The first draft of Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell's glowing, vicious debut feature, ended . There were so many parts of this movie that left me surprised, especially at the beginning, with several plot twists that I never saw coming. He won the horror category at Austin Film Festival for his screenplay Delirium in 2019 and is currently studying for a Ph.D in English Literature with a focus on the horror genre. Diperankan oleh Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton, dan Laverne Cox. [17] It was initially scheduled to be released theatrically on April 17, 2020,[18] but was pulled from the schedule due to the initial closures of movie theaters that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. At Al's wedding, Ryan receives several scheduled texts from Cassie. But I was not expecting it to end like that. When he, again inevitably, begins to have sex with her without her consent Cassie then springs upon him that shes stone-cold sober, shaming him. No, no, no, definitely not, Fennell said. Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman premieres in theaters in the U.S. on December 25. Plot. Mulligan is the tornado at the center of this film, and . However, they soon realize that this success isnt all it cracked up to be. Mark Olsen writes about all kinds of movies for the Los Angeles Times as both a feature writer and reviewer. Painful, but fun to watch. Paul and Jim make misogynistic comments toward her, but Jerry goes to approach her and try to get her home. There are so many reasons why women dont, but they just dont. Yet Mulligan did not see Cassies death as the inevitable conclusion of her actions. One day Ryan happens to run into Cassie and the two fall in love. One is just skipping through daisies and delicious, beautiful candy land. A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who crossed her path. She cathartically says all she needs to say, but just as shes about the exact her ultimate revenge, Al breaks free from his bindings and smothers her to death. The feature debut from writer-director Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman seems designed to spur on uncomfortable post-movie conversations and think pieces as it continually destabilizes audiences. When Walker explains away her actions, Cassie tells her she dropped Amber off at a dorm room with drunk male students. Plot summary: A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who crossed her path. Could Ryan be the one? Overall, the highly-anticipated 2020 film has mostly received positive reviews. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. Posing as a stripper, Cassie gets herself alone in a room with Al, handcuffs him to a bed and plans to carve Nina into his chest with a scalpel. Promising Young Woman is a 2020 thriller film written, co-produced, and directed by Emerald Fennell in her feature directorial debut. Her parents file a missing person report and the police begin to investigate. Countless teachers have told us about how theyre using our work in their classroom. In Promising Young Woman, this moment comes when Madison, the woman Cassie tricked earlier, shows up at Cassies house. She is heroic, even if that heroism is distressing in lots of ways, Fennell said. And so shes made arrangements for if she doesnt come back that will expose all of them., Mulligan agreed. And I think that the idea of destroying Als wedding would have made it almost worth it for her so much. [46] It further received a Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination,[47] and four AACTA Awards nomination, winning Best International Film and Best International Actress for Mulligan. I think everyone was a bit surprised when I handed it in, Fennell said, but then what was so great was when people came on board for the movie, they came on board because of that, because it wasnt something theyd seen before. Maybe through her blossoming relationship with Ryan she can find a path forward. Fennell's confident, fearless direction and script along with a confident, outstanding performance by star Carey Mulligan give this darkly comic and deeply satisfying thriller an impact that you won't soon forget. The film follows protagonist Cassie's quest to avenge her friend, Nina, who was sexually assaulted in college. He said about two-and-a-half minutes. We were under the impression that these acts of revenge were giving Cassie a sense of closure, but instead is flaring up deep-seeded rage. More than 80,000 people have responded to requests to help with our reporting. PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN 1/2. Once back home, where she lives with her parents, she makes a mark in a notebook, and feels both satisfied and very sad. "[40] Dowd added that the casting of Burnham, who "comes across as nonthreatening" and has "a boyish quality," assisted the use of the character. And since Cassie is dead, the character study is over, too, because we can no longer get further insight into her. Insider spoke with the hair and makeup department heads for the film "Promising Young Woman." From "Virgin Mary" to Kardashians, see what inspired the Oscar-nominated movie's various looks. At some point before the movies action starts, Cassie began devoting herself to avenging Nina. Following a sexual assault years ago, Nina dropped out of med school when no one believed her and eventually committed suicide. In an unforgettable Oscar-nominated performance, the . That night, Cassie again lures a man into taking her home. Coming out of the Promise of the Premise, the protagonist has arrived at their goal and usually experiences a great success. Jerry brings her back to his apartment where he starts to kiss her. In Promising Young Woman, we get to see Cassie use her intelligence and grift that she used on the man at the beginning to get revenge on those who wronged her in the past. But what Fennell has done in Promising Young Woman is focus on an entire trope via the point of view of the person most often treated as a sacrifice thats necessary to get the plot going. We had to tell the truth about that situation, and it had to be exact. Harder than the actual shoot, she said, was the subsequent voice dubbing in post-production (called ADR, automated dialogue replacement). I think the colors dont really equate to anything. They would also be discussing and probably arguing about its ending. Merry Christmas! But one thing seems almost certain: You will have strong feelings about its ending. I call it the Would This Be A Movie Otherwise? test. The plot centres on Cassie (Mulligan), a former medical school student who dropped . Often screenwriters like their final images to be a mirror image of the first to contrast the different versions of the protagonist. And so Cassie goes to find Al, who is celebrating his bachelor party with his best friends at a remote cabin in the woods. [39] A. Its one of those things, where it either feels real to you or its just not your cup of tea. Theres a strong chance that things go wrong, but shes not blinded with rage and suicidal. Oops. This includes manipulating two women, Madison and the dean of the medical school she went to in the past, to make them feel a similar dread that Nina, an old friend of Cassies, felt several years prior. We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and She decided to have the ending where Cassie has a backup revenge plan as she felt Cassie would be thorough in her planning and she would be aware she could die. "[34] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Justin Chang said "The grimly multitasking finale of Promising Young Woman feels both audacious and uncertain of itself, as Fennell tries to meld a cackle of delight and a blast of fury, with a lingering residue of anguish. [5] In January 2019, it was announced Carey Mulligan had been set to star in the film, with Fennell directing. So what does that say about the world we live in and the stories we tell? "[32] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [21][22] The Blu-ray was released on March 16, 2021. Well done! Years earlier, her classmate, Al Monroe, raped her best friend, Nina Fisher, who attended the same school, which led to Nina's suicide. In Promising Young Woman, it underlines the way that men like Lowell's character can be so easily forgiven. Though Nina reported the rape and though there was video evidence, no one at the school took her claims seriously and punished the perpetrators. So Cassie disguises herself as a stripper and shows up at Als bachelor party, where she will carry out her final act of revenge: carving Ninas name into Als skin after she handcuffs him to the bed. [15], The production had a budget around ~$10 million. She drugs Al's friends and takes Al upstairs. And I think that really what we want from a movie like this is for her to cut off his balls and set him on fire but then you leave and you never think about it again because suddenly youre in movie-land. I believed everything she does is kind of wicked and a sort of wicked joke, Fennell said. She had sent the location of the bachelor party to the remorseful lawyer who once defended Al in the rape case, with a heads up that she planned to be there, in the event that she disappeared. It also dares us to shift our empathy from Cassie to Al or Joe with this choice. Youre going to fight for your life and its going to be horrific for both of you., Somebody as meticulous as Cassie does not go to a cabin in the middle of nowhere with a ton of drunk men thinking that something bad might not happen, Fennell said. For all the talk of a genre-blending phenomena, Promising Young Woman does lean too heavily into the romance plot line. She also apologizes to Ryan, and they fall in love. [12], According to Carrie Wittmer of The Ringer, the film production crew deliberately chose male actors who previously played characters known as good or wholesome to reinforce the idea that predators can be anyone. Promising Young Woman's largest tonal shift occurs when the film briefly, giddily, becomes a romantic comedy; Cassie shares a falling-in-love montage with Ryan (Bo Burnham), the former med . We timed it out. This is the world as the protagonist currently lives in it, and while it might not be perfect, it is, in some way, comfortable. I, like every person in the audience, wanted it to end with her walking away with a burning cabin behind her and sirens in the distance. Green receives a package from Cassie with the phone with the video of Nina's rape and instructions to follow if she does not return from the bachelor party. Its just her record, said Mulligan. Merie . ACT ONE (Set up, establish initial predicament) Cassie gets Madison drunk and hires a man to take Madison to a hotel room. Later, she meets Walker under the pretence of resuming her education and questions her about Nina's case. For Varietys cover story about Promising Young Woman, Fennell and Mulligan extensively discussed the ending. The midpoint is the axle upon which the entire movie swings. Is an Incendiary Revenge Movie With a Sugar-Sweet Shell. What happened to Nina has given Cassie a purpose and what she does for that purpose many, many male protagonists have been doing for years, Fennell said. Voxs mission is to help everyone understand our weird, wonderful, complicated world, so that we can all help shape it. First, Promising Young Woman was directed and written by Emerald Fennell, who you might know as Camilla from The Crown or as the showrunner for Season 2 of Killing Eve, and Carey said working . Shes never done anything like that in this movie. And I think that Al Monroe is the end of the road for her either way. Leading an uneventful existence, still living with her . Nothing in Cassie's life is what it appears to be -- she's wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she's living a secret double life by night. They put a bow on something that resolutely refused to have a bow put on it for most of its running time. Each week, we explore unique solutions to some of the world's biggest problems. Cant imagine ever going back. Inevitably, a man takes her home, and inevitably, he tries to sleep with her without her clear consent. From visionary director Emerald Fennell (Ki. More often than not, I wanted to know what was going to happen story-wise. Its the word of chaos here to disturb the order. But figuring out what makes Cassie tick requires following her as she terrifies the guys who take her home from the bar or confronts the people she holds responsible for Ninas death (the movies exploitation thriller plot). While we never find out exactly what happened afterward, what emerges is that Nina dropped out of school after a sham investigation and so did Cassie, in order to take care of her. Writing and collaborating is easier than ever and it gets better every week. Dozens of attractive young women do the grunt work for a handful of men, and the women get filtered out by motherhood. She hates him so much!. Cassie, for instance, is a woman fighting back against rape culture and the patriarchy, so the people she takes on are shitty drunken dudes who fancy themselves nice guys. In Promising Young Woman, this comes in the form of how her grifts affect her personal life. It's the corporate version of natural selection. She confronts him and threatens to release the video unless he tells her where Al's bachelor party is being held. [24], In North America, the film was released alongside Wonder Woman 1984, News of the World, and Pinocchio, and was projected to gross around $2 million in its opening weekend. She's not like other girls This Focus Friday, be one of the first 100 new signups on Focus Insider to receive a free code for #PromisingYoungWoman! However, Promising Young Woman 's outlook on righteous vengeance skews closer to the wisdom of rapper Pusha-T, who claimed on his legendary . Club stated that Ryan Cooper initially is contrasted with predatory men and "represents the possibility of forgiveness, a light at the end of the dark tunnel [Cassie has] been traveling through since college. Emerald Fennell weaves between Cassie's inner narration and the perception of those surrounding herwhether viewing her as a woman (i.e. And to my mind, Cassies story wouldnt really make for much of a movie without her posthumous revenge. Her death would have ultimately displayed just how disposable women are in a world run by men, a point that Promising Young Woman has made and subverted many times over by the time she dies. Cassies plan also involves more direct revenge on the people she blames for Ninas death, including a former friend who left the two of them high and dry, the lawyer who defended Ninas rapist in court, and the colleges dean. Promising Young Woman is a 2020 thriller film written, co-produced, and directed by Emerald Fennell in her feature directorial debut. Promising Young Woman makes it one of those narratives which might be fancy and stylized in its approach but still does not fall into the trap of stereotyping the character arcs. But because Promising Young Woman has an exploitation thriller card left up its sleeve, it pulls off one last trick. While during the Promise of the Premise the protagonist was showing goals of progress, this period of the script, post-midpoint, shows a regression of the protagonist back towards a negative place. They notice a young woman, Cassandra "Cassie" Thomas (Carey Mulligan), appearing too drunk to pick herself up. . They shouldnt have died like this. Cassie faces a rare moment of having to directly see the aftermath of her revenge. Paul and Jim make misogynistic comments toward her, but Jerry goes to . Within this genre, the rules of reality are justifiably stretched just a little bit. Pushing thirty, and defined by a hideous crime involving her bosom friend, Nina, emotionally scarred medical school dropout, Cassie, knows firsthand that some wounds never heal. 2, 3 Screenwriting Productivity Hacks to Finish Your Script, The fastest way to get your first script written. This woman is going to do something terrible to you, she said. The most efficient, elegant, intuitive, and all around user-friendly screenwriting software I've ever used and I've used them all. [3][4], In February 2019, Focus Features acquired distribution rights to the film. Posing as a stripper, Cassie goes to Als stag party, drugs all the men, and restrains Al to a bed. Directed by Emerald Fennell, 'Promising Young Woman' is a crime thriller dark comedy movie that revolves around Cassie Thomas, a medical school dropout who struggles to get over the death of her best friend. Of opening a wound, and it growing over, and then opening it again., The movie, Fennell said, finds her right bang in the middle of that process., Promising Young Woman is a mixture of genres thrillers, revenge movies and comedies like 16 Candles and Animal House when male characters openly contemplate having sex with drunk, unconscious women (aka raping.). "Emerald is working on an Andrew Lloyd Webber remake of Cinderella, so theater is . Its easy to see Cassies final mission, going to that secluded cabin full of men, as one she knew she wouldnt come back from. Even as she knew the shock of Cassies death would upset and even lose some viewers, for Fennell, any other ending to the script didnt feel right. 30-Year-Old medical school dropout, lives with her without her posthumous revenge your cup of tea dropout, with... The talk of a genre-blending phenomena, Promising Young Woman, this moment when... 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