Promising Young Woman

Big Magilla
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Re: Promising Young Woman

Post by Big Magilla »

I haven't seen McDonald yet. I'm sure she'll up to my expectations, but she already has two Oscars. Kirby is fine, but an also-ran in my book. I actually prefer Clare Dunne in Herself among the relative unknowns in contention.
Reza
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Re: Promising Young Woman

Post by Reza »

I found the whole premise quite prepostrous and just didn't buy into the scenario. Too many potholes in the plot. The film has an important message but says it in such a hysterical way that the whole film seems quite ludicrous. Carey Mulligan is not bad but clearly miscast.

I prefer both McDormand and Kirby in their movies. I'm rooting for Kirby to win the Oscar.
Last edited by Reza on Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
Big Magilla
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Re: Promising Young Woman

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I copied the comments from the Official Review Thread of 2020 over because I think this one deserves its own thread.

There's a lot to unpack here. It's not a perfect film, but it's perfect entertainment for our time. Carey Mulligan is an actress who her herself has been a promising young woman for a long time, but I've often found her disappointing. Here, though, she is pitch perfect - a combination of Charles Bronson in Death Wish, Diane Keaton in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, with touches of Sissy Spacek in Carrie and Jodie Foster in The Accused. That's quite a lot to carry on her slim shoulders, but she does it with aplomb.

The problem with the film is the screenplay. It's full of holes. Without getting into spoilers, we're led to believe that this brilliant young woman, who drops out of medical school because she is traumatized by the death of her friend, works in a coffee shop at a minimum wage, and lives with her parents, spends what little money she has on fancy clothes and makeup to fool men at what appears to be the same bar into thinking she's a different helpless blonde week after after week. "Men are such fools" as they would have said in the 1920s and 30s, but they're not that stupid.

She keeps a notebook on her conquests. It's full of checkmarks. How long has this been going on? Why haven't her parents caught on? They occasionally see her going out, but it's only when she's dressed nicely and she wants them to see her.

That's just one part of the scenario. The other is the revenge she takes out on the individuals she blames for the death of her friend. Have these people - the man who raped her while his friends watched, those friends, the woman who knew about it but kept quiet, and the college dean who failed to take action - who have moved on and are now all highly respected members of the community, really changed? Were the rapist and his friends "just kids" or do they deserve to have their deeds exposed and their lives upended now? This part is handled very well, as it comes to its unexpected conclusion and its aftermath.

Mulligan's performance is the best of the year. In a perfect world she would win the Oscar hands down, but this is not a perfect world. It's hard to believe but Sissy Spacek failed to get a Golden Globe nomination for Carrie even though Piper Laurie was nominated in support. They actually thought Sarah Miles in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea and Glenda Jackson in The Incredible Sarah deserved nominations more. The following year, Oscar, and just about everyone else at the time, thought Diane Keaton was more worthy of an award for playing herself in Annie Hall than she was for giving the performance of her life in Looking for Mr. Goodbar. On the other hand, they did give an Oscar to Jodie Foster for playing a rape victim in The Accused, so there's hope. Mulligan could well be the odds-on favorite she deserves to be by the time the nominations are announced.
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Promising Young Woman

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anonymous1980 wrote: PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Jennifer Coolidge, Clancy Brown, Laverne Cox, Chris Lowell, Molly Shannon, Connie Britton, Alfred Molina, Adam Brody, Max Greenfield, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Sam Richardson.
Dir: Emerald Fennell.

A med school dropout goes around pretending to be drunk in bars until a "nice guy" picks her up and tries to take advantage of her, then she turns the tables and teaches them a lesson. All to avenge her best friend who was a victim of rape. This is a dark comedy thriller made in the post-#MeToo era that asks some difficult questions to not just men but society in general. It is indeed a bit of an uncomfortable sit but its twisted sense of humor keeps it from being unpleasant even as it makes you chew on unpleasant questions. This is all anchored by Carey Mulligan's superb performance. She handles the dramatic, comedic and thriller aspects of the film expertly and grounding it, keeping it from going off the rails. The ending of this film is quite controversial and I have to admit I was taken aback by it. I couldn't believe it when it happened. I'm writing this almost half a day after seeing it and upon reflection, I think it was the appropriate ending. I think this may be one of the best films of the year.

Oscar Prospects: I wouldn't be mad if Carey Mulligan outright wins Best Actress for this. Deserves an Original Screenplay nomination too.

Grade: A-
flipp525 wrote: I was thinking that I would be mad if she DIDN’T win! She’s simply fantastic in this movie.

I would support a screenplay nomination as well. Bo Burnham sneaking into Best Supporting Actor would be a lovely surprise.

The movie somehow is even better the second time.
Sabin wrote: I think Carey Mulligan could win. I think the impossibly dark ending doesn't help. The film has a pretty great hook and it all revolves around Mulligan and her character's arc in a role that plays to almost all of her strengths (she's a very guarded actor) and only showcases a few of her weaknesses. Mulligan is so strong-willed that occasionally she can undermine the films that she's in. It's hard to buy that even playing a sixteen year old, she wouldn't see through Peter Sarsgaard's bullshit in a second in An Education. Similarly, it never quite feels like she's letting herself be vulnerable in a relationship with Bo Burnham. I'm hit and miss on Carey Mulligan and this movie reminds me why of both.

I'm a little bit mixed on Promising Young Woman. I've been trying to sort through it on the board and put it into words but here it is:

SPOILERS...

We're made to believe that Carey Mulligan is a serial killer who lets these men take her home and then kills them, but she doesn't. She just sort of scolds them and leaves. But it's more than that. She returns to the same bar again and again, occasionally picking up men from the same clique. I was really thrown by that reveal at around the twenty minute mark but I would be happy to engage with that if by subverting our expectations we learn something deeper about her. But we don't. So, instead of subverting our expectations, it felt like a cheat. Like "Yup, this is what was going on the whole time." To be frank, I didn't buy her status quo. I never totally got past it.

I could buy into it though if we learned something more multi-dimensional about her but we never do. We're given no window into her soul. Put aside the fact that what she does to women in the second act of the film is substantially worse than the men in the first act. Yes, it's fucked up but so is The Piano and I'm not going to pretend that I'm that bothered by a movie going after the whole spectrum of date rape and getting its hands a little messy. I actually like the fact that the best defense one can muster for the film is "Yeah, isn't it fucked up." But we're never given a window into her soul. She speaks to her dead friend's mother who promptly tells her to move on and that's it. She never becomes totally vulnerable with Bo Burnham. From beginning to the end of the film, she feels like performative misandry personified. And I got bored with never understanding more about her. It's all attitude.

What the film does incredibly well is in its depiction of men. These men all think of themselves as heroes of their own story. They think of themselves as nice guys and the film depicts them as nice guys who get off on opportunity but are ultimately always going to be self-protective of status and achievement. This is done as well as I've ever seen. None of them look or act like monsters so there is no ability for the male viewer to say "At least I'm not that monster." Very strong.

The rest? I can't shake the feeling like I was watching a put-on.
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