Promising Young Woman Review: A Powerful Movie on Rape Culture!

Promising Young Woman, the Best Picture Nominee at the 93rd Academy Awards, was written and directed by Emerald Fennell and features Carey Mulligan as Cassandra, Bo Burnham as Ryan, Laverne Cox as Gail, Alison Brie as Madison, Clancy Brown as Stanley, and Jennifer Coolidge as Gail in the lead cast.

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The storyline of Promising Young Woman explores the story of Cassandra, who is traumatized by an event in her and her best friends’ lives. From the point of the event, she decides on the best way to get retaliation from those who have done her wrong.

Promising Young Woman is a bastion that makes one wonder why it is so goddamn difficult for men to get consent through their heads. (Not to diminish anyone abused by a woman, but there is a thumb on the scales here.) I will add to the praise for Carey Mulligan because she was phenomenal in this role. Every time she had any action, I never knew what way it was going to go, it was excellent.

I do not want to forget Bo Burnham and Alison Brie, who did a wonderful job with their characters as well. The soundtrack was fit so well with the script each song highlighting the tone of the movie. There will be some discussion on the revenge stories and decisions by Cassandra, but what I’ll say is that for a moment I really started to view Cassandra as a villain; the movie is very clever, however, and by the end, I felt all her actions were wonderfully justified.

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The real message behind this movie, I think, is that what is on display is simply the saddest truth that so many women probably feel that if they ever want justice, then this is what they’d have to turn to. My one main gripe is simply, as soon as a character said one specific line, I could tell where the movie was going. The actual finale surprised me a little, but I, unfortunately, could see it 20 minutes into the film. All in all, Promising Young Woman is a powerful movie on rape culture and why it sadly continues to exist.

Rating – 4/5 | Grade – A

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