Promising Young Woman (2020)

In “Promising Young Woman,” writer-director Emerald Fennell crafts a razor sharp, provocative, and visually striking film that cuts deep into the complexities of vengeance, morality, and systemic abuse. At its core lies a searing line that might as well be the film’s thesis: “I’m afraid it’s your day of reckoning.” What follows is a biting and deeply unsettling exploration of accountability, one that forces its audience to reckon with the cultural rot that enables, and often excuses, predatory behavior.

Carey Mulligan delivers a career-defining performance as Cassie, a woman haunted by a dark past and committed to exposing the rot at the heart of this system. Mulligan embodies Cassie with a brittle determination, veiling her inner pain underneath a cool, calculated exterior. Her performance, easily one of the year’s best, brims with nuance. She oscillates between charming, vengeful, and tragic with an effortless precision that leaves you unable to look away. Cassie isn’t just a vigilante, she’s a predator, choosing dive bars and clubs as her hunting grounds and using the same manipulative tactics often employed by the men she’s targeting.

But as her quest for justice intensifies, it begs an uncomfortable moral question: Do these men deserve what they’re getting? And what about characters like her former friend Madison, who failed to protect someone in need? The film refuses to spoon feed its audience answers, instead leaving us to grapple with the blurry lines between justice and vengeance.

The cinematography in “Promising Young Woman,” helmed by Benjamin Kračun, reinforces the film’s unnerving blend of vibrancy and menace. Known for his work on films like “Beast” and “Monsters and Men,” Kračun brings a meticulous visual style to this project, using symmetrical compositions, shallow depth of field, and minimal camera movement to create a world that feels both hyper-controlled and deeply unsettling. His ability to marry bold stylistic choices with emotional undercurrents is on full display here; every frame feels deliberate.

The candy-colored palette juxtaposes sharply with the film's dark subject matter, a technique Kračun has mastered in prior works to convey tension simmering beneath the surface. This mastery of color, tone, and composition provides a visual language that feels unique and haunting. Looking ahead to his work on “The Substance,” one can easily see how Kračun’s gift for visual storytelling continued to evolve. His ability to craft unsettling yet beautiful imagery makes him one of the most exciting cinematographers working today.

The film works as a modern take on the rape-and-revenge subgenre, but it eschews the exploitative tropes that often define those films. Traditionally, this genre has been dominated by male directors, creating works that feel more like voyeuristic fantasies than authentic explorations of trauma. “Promising Young Woman” flips the script entirely, delivering a female gaze that not only subverts the genre but also exposes the ugliness that was always at its core. It’s not interested in catharsis or cheap thrills, it prefers to dwell in the discomfort, asking piercing questions about complicity, culpability, and the systems that protect abusers at every turn.

Bo Burnham, as the seemingly delightful love interest Ryan, is a revelation. His comedic timing and easy charm make his character utterly disarming, so much so that when his complicity in Cassie’s trauma is revealed, it’s nothing short of devastating. This is a film that understands how betrayal often feels worse when it comes from someone you thought you could trust. The audio of the central rape is more disturbing than any visual depiction could have been. Hearing Ryan’s voice during such a devastating moment is a gut punch that lingers, a reminder of the insidious ways people can participate in harm while still convincing themselves they’re the “nice guy.”

This film transcends its genre roots by forcing its audience to sit with the uncomfortable truths it exposes. It’s a film about cycles of abuse, the devastating ripple effects of trauma, and the elusive nature of accountability. Fennell’s script is unflinching, her direction precise, and Mulligan’s performance utterly mesmerizing. It’s no wonder the film garnered so many accolades. It’s a blistering, genre-defying work that will leave you questioning how society allows such atrocities to persist.

Here is a film that doesn’t just hold a mirror to its audience, it forces us to look deep into the cracks and fissures of our collective humanity. It’s a reckoning, indeed, and one we desperately need.