I was having a hard time determining how to start my review of Emerald Fennell's film 'Promising Young Woman'. I knew I wanted to make the point that the film captured something of the spirit of a 1970's women's revenge picture but adapted for the era of MeToo. However despite some similarities to past exploitation movies 'Promising Young Woman' is too high brow in it's bearing, and legitimately emotional for that description to really capture it. Then I stumbled upon the 2017 film 'M.F.A.' for which the comparison is more apt.
'M.F.A.' stars Clint Eastwood's daughter Francesca doing her own variation on the 'Dirty Harry' or 'Death Wish' type leads. She is a student in a masters of fine arts program at a California university, she is about to have consensual sex with a fellow student but he starts getting violent and will not stop. Francesca's character is stunned by the rape but eventually opens up to her roommate, who informs her of a friend (who later turns out to the be the roommate herself) who had a similar experience and went to the school administration who simply made her feel guilty and didn't do anything to help.
Francesca tries to just get on with her life but find's she can't, she goes to the school administration which is indeed no help, so she decides to confront her rapist who falls over a railing to his death during their confrontation. Before long the formerly shy wall flower, having found rape something of an epidemic on her campus, proceeds to seduce other rapists so as to kill them in various, often ironic ways. The detective on the case played by Clifton Collins Jr. eventually figures it out.
'M.F.A.' is far closer to the kind of Pam Grier kick ass fair I was expecting from 'Promising Young Woman'. The 2017 film is efficient, though not always creditable in it's characterizations and provides plenty of satisfying feminist revenge action set pieces. There is some pathos here, especially in the relationship between Francesca and her roommate, and the early rape scene is a tough watch.
While 'M.F.A.' is a good film 'Promising Young Woman' is by far a deeper exploration of it's uncomfortable subject matter. It's a smatter, more subtle movie then the earlier film, and while Ms. Eastwood is a good actress Carey Mulligan is a great one.
Mulligan plays Casandra, a women on the verge of turning 30 who works in a coffee shop and lives at home with her parents. Casandra was once a 'promising young woman' a medical student who dropped out to care for her best friend when she had a mental breakdown following a rape. The friend later killed herself and Casandra never recovered, retreating into her self and seemingly giving up on life.
While Casandra may appear to be doing nothing on the surface with her existence she is in fact engaged in a long running project. She will go to a bar or a club, pretend to be extremely drunk, and when a man takes her back to his place hoping to have his way with her she will confront him. It's kind of an odd plan, a form of reeducation effort through guilt, makes for some awkward but effective scenes. While these efforts appear to be about regaining a sense of control in her life, they actually seem to be preventing her from living it.
Cassandra may have found a off ramp from her form of vigilantism when a former medical school acquaintance played by Bo Burnham happens into her coffee shop. He's nice to her, and the two start dating and Cassandra seems to be regaining a sense of joy in life. Then Cassandra encounters some information about her friends rapist, now a successful doctor and about to get married and the stage is set for a kind of final confrontation.
'Promising Young Woman' is a slow burn, a seeming walk towards disaster, a story of pain, and obsession, and of revenge, it's about being lost in a mental place of being unsure how to move on. In the end I felt disoriented, unsure of just what to make of what I had seen and the film stayed with me for days. I still find it hard to get a handle on this film, on exactly what it's message is. It's exceptionally well done, and feels timely, one of the best and most memorable films of it's year.
Promising Young Woman ****
M.F.A. ***
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