Promising Young Woman.

Available on Sky Cinema in the UK.

Written and directed by Emerald Fennel is the wickedly dark Promising Young Woman. Carey Mulligan is Cassie a woman consumed by the drive to seek revenge for a traumatic event that happened at college to her best friend. She seeks it by going out to bars acting drunk and attracting the attentions of predatory men looking for a potential “easy conquest”. However, they get more than they bargain for when Cassie sobers up. Her behaviour comes at a cost, her promising medical career abandoned, still living at home and working in a coffee shop. But when she meets an old college friend Ryan (Bo Burnham) he presents an opportunity to seek a final revenge on those who she feels were most to blame for the trauma that haunts her.

Fennels directorial debut is original, sharp and well crafted. But this is Mulligans film creating in Cassie a driven, smart, witty character, who always broods with an undercurrent of calm menace.

Alongside Mulligan there is good support from Bo Burnham, Alison Brie and Laverne Cox, but in reality there is not a poor performance to be seen.

The story itself plays with multiple genre’s from revenge to 90’s college films, turning each on its head. The story telling feels a tad uneven as after a very strong opening act, where we see Cassie play out her revenge on her predator victims, it drifts a little in the middle, before its surprising, but ultimately hugely satisfying conclusion.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is just a dark revenge story as it’s also smart enough to raise questions about societies differing views of men and women who act the same and about the impact of trauma on both the victims, perpetrators and those who rather than judge could’ve done more.

Promising Young Woman is excellent, Fennel and her cast have created a hugely smart, wickedly dark and very enjoyable film which is well worth a watch.