CULTURE|Director’s Spotlight
ture-length film. “Wscriptor feels appropriate for Wordinary men like women are shot,” says writ-er-director Emerald Fennell of her debut fea-“instantly iconic” is tired, yes, but no other de-oman’s opening scene. “I wanted to shoot the electronic chirps of Char-li XCX’s “Boys.” The phrase icture this: A dozen or so doughy dulating with jerky abandon to downs and belted chinos, un-male waistlines clad in button- e still can’t turn on the TV Promising Young
so let’s turn it around.” Laugh-out-loud funny, holding client meetings at a men-only golf club. the scene wraps viewers in the cozy embrace of an inside joke before delivering the film’s first line: a scathing “Fuck her” from one of the bros, grumbling about a colleague who objected to without seeing the same old bump-and-grind, “This is how business is done.”traumatic incident involving her best friend. Cas-gan), a med-school dropout still reeling from a sie spends her days semicomatose, going through So begins the story of Cassie (Carey Mulli-
the motions at her coffee-shop job or hiding out in her childhood bedroom. At night, she haunts the local bars, pretending to black out in order to get so-called nice guys to take her home. TheEspring’s buzziest Young WFENNELLMbehind revenge thriller.Meet the triple threat ERALDPromomanising (^) ,
P
By Julie Kosin
her own brand of bitter revenge to right the wrongs of the past. when they were undressing me, would they be freaked out? And if they who tapped Fennell to cowrite season two of the quirky spy thriller many to compare her to her friend and fellow Brit Phoebe WFennell says. “Our dating culture says that picking people up who are really, really drunk is fine. But if I went to a club and pretended to be incredibly drunk and somebody picked me up, and if I revealed that I wasn’t drunk moment they touch her slack body, she reveals her sobriety—and unleashes would, doesn’t that sort of imply that they know—that we all know—that it’s not cool?”The writer-director’s affinity for marrying the witty and morbid has led “[While writing the script], things came to me as little what-would-I-dos,” aller-Bridge, Killing
from countless brunch conversations. On the other, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. it took two-and-a-half years into the #Mfourth season of love letter to a generation that grew up on Paris Hilton and Wing Camilla Shand, now Duchess of Cornwall, in the third and upcoming “just a kid who made a mistake,” and jam-packed with lines lifted straight bigger projects like the film is born of a culture afraid to ruin the life of a young man who was exist, but it’s much more than a timely revenge thriller. On the one hand, Eve. ith pastel-hued sets and a mid-aughts soundtrack, the movie plays like a Fennell credits W(In her ever-dwindling spare time, Fennell also acts, most recently play-The Crown.Promising Young Womanaller-Bridge with giving her the confidence to take on ) eToo movement for such a film to. In truth, it’s astonishing that Dateline reruns,
and it does so without a drop of irony. “A lot of things that are popular with young women are dismissed, whether it’s a manicure, a fuzzy top, or Britney Spears,” Fennell says. “Caring about your nails does not mean you couldn’t strangle someone with your hands if you wanted to.” ▪
FENNELL (CENTER) ON THE SET OF PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN.
ESNNELL:^ DAN^ DOPERALFKI^ FOR^ VARIETY/SHUTT
RYSTOCK;^ PROMISING^ EOUNG^ WOMAN:^ MERIE^ W
EISMILLER^
AELLACE/FOCUS^ FEATURWS;^ FKA^ TWIGS:^ MATTH
WA^ STONE;^ BRODERICK^ END^ PARKER:^ LITTLE^ FA
NG^ PHOTO.^