08 LEAD REVIEWn an interview with The New York Times that ran in February
2020, Harvey Weinstein’s attorney, Donna Rotunno, was asked
by reporter Megan Twohey if she had ever been a victim of
sexual assault. “I have not,” Rotunno replied. “Because I would
never put myself in that position.” It’s not a surprise that the
woman defending Weinstein would have such a misguided view of how
predators operate, but it is a damning indictment of the world we live in
all the same. For all the self-aggrandising award speeches and glittery
placards with catchy slogans yearning for sexual enlightenment, many
people still believe that, sometimes, women deserve to be assaulted.
To be clear: that is unequivocal, undeniable bullshit. No matter what
a woman is wearing, how drunk she is, or any other mitigating factor
reported by journalists or argued by lawyers or gossiped about at brunch
by so-called “friends”, she never deserves to be raped.Emerald Fennell’s debut feature, Promising Young Women, comes at a
time when this introspection feels more vital than ever, forcing us to
confront our tendency toward complacency in the face of unpleasant
home truths. It seems ridiculous that we keep having to go over this
basic principle, but the system is fucked from the top down, and we’re
all caught in its web, hopelessly kicking out in attempts to find a way
through. For as long as we have been making art we have been using it as
a means to both process trauma and hit back at the flaws of the society
that has birthed and raised us. The film’s title refers to Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Thomas (Carey Mulligan),
a 30-year-old barista languishing in her parents’ suburban show home,
haunted by an “incident” involving her best friend Nina that took place
seven years prior and caused her to drop out of medical school. Ever
since Cassie has been unable to find peace, caught on the injustice of the
system. Her self-destructive behaviour is intended to scare some sense
into the local contingent of predatory men, but leaves her feeling empty.A chance meeting with former classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham) exposes
Cassie to a hard truth: she’s the only person who cares (or indeed
remembers) what happened back in college. Fuelled by disbelief and
anger, she decides to take more radical action. This may sound familiar, given the long cinematic history of the ‘rape-
revenge’ genre, in which a woman (or someone close to her) claims
vengeance against an attacker. Two notable points of comparison are
1978’s I Spit on Your Grave, in which a young woman exacts brutal
revenge on the men who have raped her, and 2005’s Hard Candy, where
Ellen Page lures a paedophile to his demise; both deemed controversial
on release due to subject matter and extreme graphic content. Many
films belonging to this genre conform to the use of violence as catharsis:
women wield knives and guns; women wreak bloody havoc; women
make evil men hurt as much as they have been hurt themselves. But it
rarely ever goes that way in reality. Promising Young Woman bucks the
trend in its sparing use of violence. It is not satisfying to merely play out
a fantasy, because that’s what violent vengeance is, really. It’s the justice
victims rarely get in real life. Fennell instead opts to contrast the bitter reality of sexual assault
and its aftermath with a hyper-stylised aesthetic. Costume designer
Nancy Steiner – best known for her work on Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin
Suicides – dresses Cassie in whimsical florals and flowing dresses. Her
hair is neatly plaited, her nails are manicured and painted in cutesy
rainbow pastels. This stands in sharp contrast from the blood-soaked
heroines that came before her. When Cassie goes out at night, her
dishevelled make-up and short hemlines invite leering men to criticise
her before they attempt to take off her clothes. “They put themselves in
danger, girls like that,” one man remarks, watching Cassie maintain her
drunken façade at a bar. How many times have we heard that line before?
It’s Fennell’s laser focus on the insidiousness of the subject matter whichPromising Young Woman
I
Directed by EMERALD FENNELL
Starring CAREY MULLIGAN, BO BURNHAM, ALISON BRIE
Released 21 APRILA ferocious lead turn by Carey Mulligan super-charges this
shocking, outspoken debut feature that pulls none of its punches.