Alleluia! Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell’s gloriously purgative revenge fantasy, is finally in Malaysian cinemas. Nominated for five Oscars, including best picture, director, screenplay, actress, and film editing, Fennell’s directorial debut is a marvelous feat that draws from the defining issues of our time and crafts from it a story of female empowerment that is fresh, smart, and rightfully judgmental.
Baby, It’s Cold Outside…
Carey Mulligan is Cassie, a medical school dropout who leads something of a double life. By day she is a barista at a coffee shop, by night she seeks out predatory men by pretending to be drunk at bars and clubs, only to reveal her sobriety once they’ve taken her home, and deliver a cold, hard message that would make them think twice about their predatory behavior.
That is all I will tell you about this movie. I don’t want to spoil anything by giving too detailed a synopsis. Promising Young Woman is best experienced with fresh eyes. For there is a dark delight in the way this story is told. Emerald Fennell unfurls Cassie’s history and lays out her motivations with the confidence, skill, and restraint of someone who has been making movies all of her life. It is thrilling, and ironic, and funny, and horrifying in equal measure. It defies genre by constantly upending your expectations.
(There is a brilliant and beautiful moment that takes place in a pharmacy, one that plays into typical rom-com tropes, but serves as an incredibly clever subversion in a movie that is anything but.)
Emerald Fennell’s script takes everyday platitudes and cleverly transforms them in a way to create genuine discomfort. It is truly unsettling. But also a joy to watch. Words, when lifted directly from the zeitgeist, have a tendency to come off as trite, hacky, even clichéd. Here’s where the performances in this movie do all of the heavy lifting. No one is winking at the camera. It’s satire played straight. And it’s so very powerful.
There’s Something About Carey
Carey Mulligan is utterly convincing as she navigates the multiple personalities of her character, be it aloof friend, distant daughter, loving girlfriend, or unrepentant vigilante. She moves gracefully between hapless drunk and femme fatale. The way her lips curl into a knowing smirk provides all the catharsis you need. Her performance is a tour de force.
I have no idea what Emerald Fennell and Carey Mulligan’s working relationship was like on set, but watching Promising Young Woman reminded me of the kind of chemistry that Saoirse Ronan and Greta Gerwig have. There is a sense that both director and actor are so in sync that one’s intent is effortlessly executed by the other. So much so that I genuinely believe that nothing was lost in translation. This might be as seamless an interpretation of a director’s vision that I have seen in a long time.
Should You Watch Promising Young Woman In Malaysian Cinemas?
The answer is an unreserved “yes.”
Now I know what you’re thinking. There is no way a movie like this would have passed through our hyper-moral and overly protective censorship board without being cut to shreds. God knows I went in to the press screening thinking the same. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised.
I counted one noticeable jump at the very start of the movie, and maybe two other minor snips during the first 15 minutes. None of the language was cut. None of its darker themes were redacted. And my experience of the movie was not compromised in any way. Shocking, I know, but Promising Young Woman seems to have escaped the clutches of the LPF largely unscathed.
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