Promising Young Woman is a twist on the rape-revenge genre that was a mainstay of exploitation cinema. Cassie (Carey Mulligan) goes to clubs and pick-up spots, acts inebriated, and just waits for a guy to swoop in and take her home, maintaining the act until the big reveal.
It’s an immensely assured debut: a pastel-coloured shocker that blends tension, social commentary and dark humour with disarming confidence. “The main surprise about making this film is that there’s nothing in this movie at all – a single thing – that hadn’t been a joke in a movie or TV show in the last 15 years,” says writer/director Emerald Fennell. “Everything that we find shocking in the film – it’s stuff that is in every raunchy comedy movie, or in even family sitcoms.”
The idea is a film like this could shine a spotlight on a subject that too often goes unacknowledged. “I hope that making it an enjoyable movie – at least to some people – will enable that conversation to be easier for people to have,” says a self-deprecating Fennell. “It’s a dark comedy and it’s also a sort of horror movie, and I think with those two genres, you do really benefit from watching it with other people...”
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Promising Young Woman is scheduled for release on February 12 in the UK. For more on the film – and a massive preview of all the biggest movies heading your way in 2021 – pick up a copy of the new issue of Total Film magazine when it hits shelves (real and digital) this Friday, January 8.
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