Why ‘Promising Young Woman’ Is Destined To Become A Timeless Classic
Promising Young Woman is more than just a wickedly clever, confrontational, genre-bending set piece with real shit to say — it’s also an original, contemporary narrative that’s ahead of its time.
As a 34 year-old adult male, I can tell you this: It takes a special kind of fucked up sociopath to make it to the end of Promising Young Woman without the need to sift through their immediate mental index of dating history. Because not until the credits roll, do you truly know if the film was speaking to you, OR just speaking out about you. Guess it all comes down to the men you know and how sensitive they are when complaining about Promising Young Woman’s portrayal of shitty men. OR — if a man were to “interpret” that PYW’s overall message is: ALL men are bad… well, I mean… come on, they’re obviously guilty of something. Or, they at the very least, are just looking out for their bros that are guilty of something. Because from what I gathered, Promising Young Woman doesn’t believe All men are bad (obviously). It believes some men are good, just like it believes some women are bad. Some bad men can become decent, while some will never change. All men make mistakes. Some men can be forgiven, while others can’t — Promising Young Woman knows that sometimes, it can all be very, very complicated.
Promising Young Woman is now officially part of a very exclusive club of award winners, comprised of less than two dozen other major films, including Lost In Translation… Pulp Fiction… Dog Day Afternoon… Chinatown… and Citizen Kane… And it’s only a matter of time until it becomes just as prolific and as culturally significant as those films.
The one big problem that I personally have with Promising Young Woman is that once I start talking about Promising Young Woman, I just can’t seem to shut the fuck up about Promising Young Woman. I guess that would make Promising Young Woman the “baked Pringles of good movies” and the self-indulgent conversations that they seem to ignite. Promising Young Woman is… uh, well… yeah, it’s sort of a masterpiece. Might seem too soon to say such a thing but no. Not really.
If anyone you know says that they saw the ending coming from a mile away, they’re full of shit. Not only are they full of shit but they’re also probably worth trusting alone to pour you a glass of vodka as much as the men of Promising Young Woman are.
For roughly the first half of its total runtime, Promising Young Woman almost feels like an Anti-MeToo film. It’s central character, Cassie, has a way with confrontation that’s unlike anything you’ve seen from a female protagonist in any other film. She’s an anomaly. A social vigilante, who’s motives are carefully revealed through the impressively tight structure of the screenplay. It’s a brilliant setup for an original premise, all leading up to an incredible final act that no one is going to see coming. If anyone you know says that they saw the ending coming from a mile away, they’re full of shit. Not only are they full of shit but they’re also probably worth trusting alone to pour you a glass of vodka as much as the men of Promising Young Woman are.
At times, it’s difficult not to consider that Cassie is more of an antihero than a heroine protagonist. Within the first ten minutes of the film, including opening credits, the character already seems iconic. The way she’s humanized through Carey Mulligan’s performance and Emerald Fennell’s screenplay is what makes the film work as a whole. What could’ve been a standard, violent, one-dimensional rape-revenge film (not that I don’t enjoy those, by any means) about an ultra-feminist — fuck you — fuck everyone — they all must pay— must avenge — must punish — no apologies — no prisoners — no mercy — no exceptions — no logic — no mistakes — seek and destroy — Kill. Everyone. Now.)… is NOT what Promising Young Woman is at all.
Saying that Cassie is a flawed human being is an understatement. Her mental stability is routinely under question. She’s immediately identifiable. She’s easily approachable. On the surface, she’s a girly girl. She works a full-time job that’s beneath her abilities and her intellect. She’s aware of all of this. She’s also both sympathetic and empathetic. She often underestimates her own conscience’s willingness to forgive people that have seen the error of their ways and are capable of change… but she also craves revenge regularly by drawing the attention of potential predators without knowing which— or if they even are — predators, who are at heart, predators… or which/if these men are not really predators but just stupid, shallow, short-sighted, ignorant, easily traumatized fish — taking the bait she leaves/privileged “victims” of circumstance. Cassie never fully addresses on-screen, nor does she come to the realization that what she is doing to these men in her secret life, is in fact, predatory.
Believe it or not, these are deep character traits for a central character of this genre. There are a lot of moving parts and a million different reasons why none of it should work. But it just does, naturally.
The best dark comedies are the ones that can create a scenario where the reality of it all lures you in to react by laughing uncontrollably while at the same time, making you unbearably uncomfortable when your own conscience (or lack thereof) steps in to question exactly what IT is, that you’re laughing at.
Promising Young Woman is now officially part of a very exclusive club of award winners, comprised of less than two dozen other major films, including Lost In Translation… Pulp Fiction… Dog Day Afternoon… Chinatown… and Citizen Kane… And it’s only a matter of time until it becomes just as prolific and as culturally significant as those films.
On April 25, 2021, Promising Young Woman became an Academy Award-winning film. It was nominated in every major category (sans Best Actor In A Motion Picture) but walked away with only one Oscar. Diehard fans of Promising Young Woman might feel compelled to rage that that’s total bullshit and continue to rabble about how PYW was entitled to more wins but — may I point out that the ONE award that it DID win… was and always has been/will be— the most important Oscar of the night, every year: Best Original Screenplay.
For those who believe that Best Picture is the most important award of the night, it isn’t. The award-win for Best Picture is almost always the indicator for — Most Overrated Bullshit Film Of The Night, With Some 50% Likely Chance of Someday Being Hated By Everyone.
A Self-Compiled List Of ALL Films Throughout Oscar History That Were Nominated For Multiple (At Least 3 Or More) Academy Awards But Only Won BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY aka BEST SCREENPLAY WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR THE SCREEN:
*Citizen Kane (1941) (9 Nominations) — 14th Academy Awards
*Interrupted Melody (1955) [“Best Story And Screenplay”] (3 Nominations) — 28th Academy Awards
*Pillow Talk (1959) (5 Nominations) — 32nd Academy Awards
*Divorce Italian Style (1961) (3 Nominations) — 35th Academy Awards
*Father Goose (1964) (3 Nominations) — 37th Academy Awards
*Chinatown (1974) (11 Nominations) — 47th Academy Awards
*Dog Day Afternoon (1975) (6 Nominations) — 48th Academy Awards
*Breaking Away (1979) (5 Nominations) — 52nd Academy Awards
*Dead Poets Society (1989) (4 Nominations) — 62nd Academy Awards
*Thelma & Louise (1991) (6 Nominations) — 64th Academy Awards
*The Crying Game (1992) (6 Nominations) — 65th Academy Awards
*Pulp Fiction (1994) (7 Nominations) — 67th Academy Awards
*Almost Famous (2000) (4 Nominations) — 73rd Academy Awards
*Gosford Park (2001) (7 Nominations) — 74th Academy Awards
*Lost In Translation (2003) (4 Nominations) — 76th Academy Awards
*Juno (2007) (4 Nominations) — 80th Academy Awards
*Midnight In Paris (2011) (4 Nominations) — 84th Academy Awards
*Her (2013) (5 Nominations) — 86th Academy Awards
*Get Out (2017) (4 Nominations) — 90th Academy Awards
*PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (2020) (5 Nominations) — 93rd Academy Awards
And with that SINGLE award being it’s ONLY win — The Oscar for Best Original Screenplay is a precursor to the towering respect that Promising Young Woman is more than guaranteed to receive in both the distant and not-so-distant future.
Needless to say, out of all of the films released in the 2020ish covid-era blob of time that I saw (and I saw quite a few), Promising Young Woman was far and away the best film. The competition wasn’t even close. Not even Frances McDormand shitting in a bucket could make me reconsider my feelings. In fact, Promising Young Woman shits all over Frances McDormand and her shitbucket because that’s the difference in distance and how far Nomadland, Nomadville,Who-Gives-A-Fuck — call it Boomer’s-Guide-To-Livin-In-A-Van-Down-By-The-River because that’s what it is — it squats and poops rabbit pellets far beneath The Film that is, Promising Young Woman.
Point is, NO ONE — and I mean NO ONE — is going to be talking about Nomadland or any other film (well, ok except maybe… Sound Of Metal?) that was competing during the covid-era awards circuit with Promising Young Woman. In 10+ years from now, those films will be nothing more than a handful of useless $200 answers on Jeopardy! iOS while we all try to ignore the next worldwide disaster that has us all living in a friggin’ fallout shelter.
I have absolutely no ability to resist dark comedies of this stature. I’m basically helpless to them.
The best dark comedies are the ones that can create a scenario where the reality of it all makes you react by laughing uncontrollably while at the same time, making you unbearably uncomfortable when your own conscience (or lack thereof) steps in to question exactly what IT is, that you’re laughing at. And not only what you’re laughing at… but what you aren’t laughing at… and why.
And — when the Academy awards a single film solely with Best Original Screenplay despite it’s many other nominations, there’s a dominant chance that said film has something else: a resonating message, in a way that it’s fellow nominees do not, while also being a strong indicator that Promising Young Woman is more than just a wickedly clever, confrontational, genre-bending set piece with real shit to say — it’s also an original, contemporary narrative that’s ahead of its time.
