REVIEW: Promising Young Woman

by Samantha Caracoza, Staff Reporter

image courtesy of SAPORTA REPORT

**Warning! Spoilers!**

The movie “Promising Young Woman” revolves around a female protagonist who works in a coffee shop during the day, and becomes a hunter for sexual predators at night. Don't be fooled, this movie is no regular rom-com. It has dark messages as well as a powerful revenge story.

The movie begins with the young girl named Cassie (played by Carey Mulligan) fighting her demons over what happened to her best friend Nina in medical school. Nina dropped out of school, leaving Cassie to take care of Nina up til her eventual suicide. Cassie then decides to seek revenge.

At first she pretends to be blackout drunk at a bar waiting for a guy to offer to take her home only then changing their mind and taking Cassie to hers instead. She baits them into consensual intercourse, but right before they get what they want she stops acting drunk and asks them “What are you doing?” in a very sober voice.

The plot continues as Cassie seeks revenge for Nina when Ryan (Bo Burnham), an old classmate from medical school, stumbles into the coffee shop where she works and mentions that Al, the man who raped Nina, is getting married.

“Promising Young Woman’ is a rare revenge movie that crosses several genres with one sharp sweep” film critic Matthew Brady said. “Some parts are funny, other times it’s romantic, but it can get DARK really quick.”

Cassie realizes it’s not all worth it as she gets into a healthy relationship with Ryan, but soon everything changes when she is told there was a video of the night Nina was raped. And Ryan appears to be holding the video recorder.

Cassie threatens Ryan to tell her where Al’s bachelor party is or she’ll ruin his medical career by leaking the video. Cassie disguises herself as a stripper at the party and takes Al upstairs for a “special dance.” It is there that she confronts him and tries to carve Nina’s name into his chest until he gets one hand out of the handcuff and suffocates her with a pillow.

“The ending honestly threw me off. I never expected her to die, it was very shocking,” senior Raquel Rudd said.

Al and his best friend Joe (Max Greenfield) then burn her body in the woods before the audience is flashed forward to Al’s wedding where the cops show up to arrest him. It turns out Cassie had emailed the video to an old lawyer who worked on Nina’s case.

With its outstanding performances and shocking twists, the movie successfully explores the topics of sexual assault, the failures of the justice system, and the psychological struggles that may never go away.