Watching 'Promising Young Woman' Should Be #1 On Your List Of Things To Do This Weekend
I included that Rotten Tomatoes score as a way to prove that I'm not just blowing smoke over this movie. It's actually so, so good.
Before I get into it, here's the preview:
Just your typical Woman-Hates-Men movie, right? WRONG. SO WRONG. Well, it's not that wrong. She hates men. But only the men who are fucking creeps, and think that they can manipulate/rape/gaslight a bitch without any consequences.
There might be spoilers here. I won't do like, the real ones I know, but I gotta describe the movie so. Click away if you're a JESUS CHRIST KELLY, SPOILER ALERT MUCH??? kind of person.
Cassie is a bit of an empty shell after we find out her best friend, Nina, has committed suicide. Nina went through an awful sexual assault experience in college, and Cassie feels guilt for not being there for her friend. After Nina passes away, Cassie becomes this kind of…reverse super hero? She'll go to bars/clubs, act drunk, and when some loser creep tries to take her home and take advantage of her (which happens every time, despite her pleas to go home, be left alone, etc) she flips the script on them. Trash men include Adam Brody, Christopher Mintz-Passe (credit to me for not calling them Seth Cohen and Fogel). But, she doesn't just stop at the men. She wants every bitch (Alison Brie being one of them) who didn't believe her friend, and slut shamed her for "just being embarrassed about having sex." No, she was raped homie! Get it through your head!!!
Oh yea, and Bo Burnham is in it too, being the only actual good guy…mostly. He's a gem for the majority of the movie, but I won't say any more.
The character of Cassie is very tragic, not only because of her palpable depression, but because her perception of people is so warped. She can only see the bad in everyone. But, when the world only gives you bad, that's all you start to see. It's very sad.
Another cool thing about the movie is that it's directed by Emerald Fennell. She's a fucking G. She was the show-runner for Killing Eve, another masterpiece, and besties with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, an icon.
The message of the movie is what's most important, and it brings up the conversation that is NEVER had enough: shaming women who have been victims of rape, just because they were drunk. It takes a special kind of monster to do that, and unfortunately it happens all the time. I implore all of you to watch, it's extremely entertaining and the ending twist is unreal, and you will also learn a message we've all known for a long, long time. (Most) Men Are Trash.