As Promised

I fell several movies short of watching all the 2020 Oscar nominees for Best Picture. But I recently did catch up with one of the movies I missed, Promising Young Woman.

The debut of writer-director Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman is part thriller, part revenge flick, part black comedy. It follows Cassie, freshly turned 30 and living with her parents since her life unraveled in college. The exact story of her past remains for the film to reveal to us in time, but it's quickly clear that she's full of rage toward predatory men who would take advantage of vulnerable women. She's decided to teach guys a lesson one "date" at a time, feigning drunkenness at bars, going home with the first guy to hit on her, and making them regret their actions.

This is one of those movies that you just know within the first few minutes is going to end badly somehow. Some would call it a "car crash in slow-motion," but it's hardly a slow-paced film. The audience's relationship with the protagonist is tricky; you're meant to root for Cassie at times, wish better for her at others, and recoil at still others. After a punchy opening I feared might set up a repetitive movie, I was pleasantly surprised that the story did have interesting places to go.

Not only did this movie get a nomination for Best Picture, it won for Best Original Screenplay. Both of these things are a rather remarkable barometer of where the tastes of the Academy membership have moved. The branch of writers has sometimes been edgier than the rest of the Academy voters; nevertheless, this doesn't feel like typical "Oscar fare." It almost feels like a summer blockbuster without the expensive visual effects, a John Wick movie with no gun play or martial arts. You could argue that it doesn't feel particularly novel... except that putting a young woman at the center of a story archetype that's historically been reserved for a brooding man is a difference (and it makes a difference).

In any case, I really enjoyed it -- and that's largely due to the great cast. Basically every role here is filled with "someone you know from somewhere." Often, they're better known for comedy, but they're dialing it down and in for a more serious turn here. Somehow, a first-time director assembled a cast including Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Alfred Molina, Laverne Cox, Molly Shannon, Connie Britton, Chris Lowell, Adam Brody, Max Greenfield, Sam Richardson, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. And in the lead, Carey Mulligan gives a great performance as self-appointed avenging angel Cassie.

I'd heard not to expect much from this movie from a friend who saw it, and perhaps those lowered expectations set me up to instead enjoy it. However it came about, I found Promising Young Woman to be a solid B+, earning a slot in my COVID-compromised Top 10 Movies of 2020 List.