Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Promising Young Woman’ on HBO, A Gorgeous, Thoughtful Take on Revenge

With Promising Young Woman now available to watch on HBO, the wait for one of the most highly-anticipated films of 2020 is finally over.

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Cassie Thomas (Mulligan) is falling-down-drunk. Or at least, the so-called nice guy (played by the epitome of nice-guy actors, Adam Brody) thinks that she’s drunk when he helps her home from the bar. He thinks that she’s drunk when he gives the cab driver his address instead of hers. He thinks that she’s drunk when he pours her another drink, when he kisses her, and when he takes off her underwear, ignoring her mumbled protests. It’s only when she sits up and says, clearly and with confidence, “Hey. What are you doing?” that he realizes Cassie Thomas is frighteningly sober.

Cassie, we learn, does this a lot—goes to a bar, pretends to be wasted and accept the “help” of some nice guy, who inevitably takes her back to his apartment in the hopes of getting with her when she’s too out of it to say “No.” What she does next is kept a mystery, but we know she marks each encounter in a book with an ominous tally mark.

Through a chance encounter with an old classmate (Bo Burnham) at the coffee shop where she works, we learn Cassie is a med-school drop-out. She lives with her parents (the scene-stealing Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown), who are desperate for her to do something—anything—with her life. But, as Cassie tells her boss (Laverne Cox), she knows she could have a husband, a career, and a family “in ten minutes” if she wanted it. She simply does not want it.

But that old classmate, Dr. Ryan Cooper, lights a spark in her. He’s persistent in pursuing her, but charmingly so, and the two of them tentatively begin to date. When Ryan casually mentions he still hangs out with their other med school classmates—including a man named Al Monroe (Chris Lowell)—something in Cassie snaps. We follow her through a series of vengeful acts, on behalf of her best friend Nina, who accused Al of raping her while they were at school. Cassie’s revenge is less violent than it is psychological, and it’s not just the accused that she’s after—it’s everyone that helped him get away with it.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Promising Young Woman acts as a commentary on the far less nuanced “rape-revenge” films that have come before it. I wouldn’t, therefore, compare it to, say, I Spit on Your Grave or The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Think more along the lines of a brilliant satire like Cabin In The Woods, a slasher film that both indulges and critiques the tropes of its genre.

Performance Worth Watching: While this is, of course, Mulligan’s movie, I also must say: Every. Single. One. Each and every performance goes above and beyond, no matter how small the role, from Laverne Cox as the supportive coworker to the brilliant Clancy Brown as the concerned father. (Brown, incidentally, was the one who made me cry, when he awkwardly thanked his daughter for bringing her boyfriend over for dinner.) There is not a single weak link in this impeccable cast. But Mulligan is fantastic—the best she’s ever been—particularly in the moments where Cassie lets her guard down. We can actually see the moment when she decides to trust Ryan, only to see that guard go back up again when he disappoints her. Now that’s acting.

Memorable Dialogue: “Do you want to go to dinner, you miserable asshole?” Bo Burnham infuses this line with the perfect combination of romance, exasperation, and just a hint of anger. I adore him as a romantic lead, and his chemistry with Mulligan has you rooting for them every step of the way.

Sex and Skin: The refreshing lack of the male gaze in Promising Young Woman is one of the things that makes it so good. Nothing in this movie—not even the near-sex scenes—is intended to be a turn-on. Fennell could teach the long list of male directors behind female revenge movies a thing or two about how to engage thoughtfully with rape culture.

Our Take: Never have I ever been happier to have been misled by a trailer than in the case of Promising Young Woman. Without giving too much away, this is not the violent thriller you might expect from those opening notes of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” The misdirection is intentional, and all part of the thoroughly devastating takedown of rape culture and everyone who upholds it. And when I say everyone, I do mean everyone. In a stroke of genius, Fennell surprises audiences by having Cassie punish two women involved in covering up the rape of her friend—a mutual friend (Alison Brie) who laughed off the accusation and the dean (Connie Britton) who dismissed the case for insufficient evidence—before any men get their comeuppance. And, though others have said otherwise; this is just as much a movie about letting go as it is about getting even.

Speaking of Brie and Britton (both excellent), a paragraph of this review must be devoted to the precise, inspired casting. Fennell has assembled a team of lovable male comedy actors—Brody, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Sam Richardson, Max Greenfield, Chris Lowell—to play her not-so-lovable sexual predators. We trust these men: Seth Cohen from The OC, Schmidt from New Girl, Piz from Veronica Mars. When Cassie tells us that it’s often the nice guys who are the worst, we don’t just hear it, we see it with our own eyes.

Then there’s the costuming and make-up, helmed by designer Nancy Steiner. While it’s true the word “iconic” is overused, it’s hard to think of a better term to describe Mulligan’s pastel rainbow nails, later matched by her pastel rainbow wig. During the day, Cassie dresses like the ’50s girl-next-door trope; at night, she’s a ’90s party girl. Her predilection for candy—peppermint sticks, Twizzlers, gum—is a suberbly specific character detail, paving the way for the next decade of cosplay.

The script is structured like a five-act play, complete with roman numerals on the screen at the start of each act. It builds like a masterful epic. It’s also incredibly efficient; despite the wealth of characters and backstories we need to get through, the film is under two hours. Behind the camera, Fennell creates a world of pastels to match Mulligan’s many outfit changes. She uses centered and aerial shots sparingly but effectively, to create the same darkly quaint tone of a Wes Anderson film, though one more grounded in reality.

The finale is deliberately intended to get you talking, but personally, I loved it. (For more on why read my spoiler-laden defense of the Promising Young Woman ending.)

Our Call: STREAM IT. Promising Young Woman is a once-in-a-decade triumph that will keep the conversation going for years to come.

Where to watch Promising Young Woman