Well I can say my wife thought the women in question looked really old. Nothing young about it. So she was kind of confused by the title.
I think the title refers to the fact that both the women, Nina and Cassie, were, before the incident, promising young women, only to have their lives derailed by the actions of promising young men.
I actually really enjoyed this movie, watched last night on HBO Max. Carey Mulligan’s performance is great, and I really do enjoy a lot of the script up until the 3rd act. The music is great, I really appreciated the string quartet version of “Toxic”.
I actually thought the ending was going to be that she died, and the guys got away with it. I think that would have been a more powerful ending to the film. A real gut punch. A consequence of her deciding to delve back into the past rather than move on.
The ending just gets a little too happy with itself, squad cars rolling up etc.
This is probably in my top 5 for films of the year despite how I disliked the ending. The direction, colors, set pieces and performances really made this one for me. Bo Burnham is also perfect as the “innocent” boyfriend.
Though, people have called this “Joker” but for women. I think that is wrong. “Joker” but for women is Gone Girl.
Don’t forget playing a soaring rendition of Angel of the Morning, in case you didn’t know how you were supposed to feel. Gah! The song has been forever ruined thanks to It: Chapter 2’s incongruous drugstore basement scene.
I agree with Tom. If you want pure rapesploitation comeuppance, Revenge, by Coralie Fargeat, is so much more satisfying. If you want ambiguous, The Nightingale has that covered.
I’m not even following how someone would rationalize that. Joker was about mental illness. How is that related to Promising Young Woman? Or is there some other angle on Joker that I’m missing?
Ha, Gillian Flynn wishes! :)
-Tom
Oh, I agree, I think that comparison is made in bad faith.
Though, I would definitely agree that the main character in Promising Young Woman is suffering from some mental illness.
Man, I really wanted to like this film a lot more, I still think the first 75% of the film is good enough. Hell, the scene with Alfred Molina basically already being broken before she got there was superb. The power dynamics in that scene are just amazing, especially when she realizes that even with a person who has understood their crimes, she has not received any joy. The gut shot that is the reveal of the video, and Bo Burnham’s involvement genuinely hit me in the face. I really think of how much better the film would have been had it ended more abruptly, with maybe the marriage going off without a hitch, and a slow show of a partially unburned hand.
The whole film spends a lot of time showing how awful men are (which is true) and how they get away with everything (also true) but in the end goes into fantasy.
I’m rolling in really late to this discussion, having just watched the movie. I’m not sure I understand the complaints about the ending. It’s a revenge fantasy, but you don’t like the “fantasy” part of that??
Maybe I need to watch Revenge and The Nightingale to get some points of comparison, but I really enjoyed it.
The Nightingale is way better than this, but also way more bleak and depressing. Holy shit. Good luck!
My wife commented when I was watching this how The Promising Young women looked really old. LOL. Like easily mid 40+. Was this some intentional reverse psychology or something? I’ve seen the actress in other stuff, where she looks a lot younger.
I am generally all about bleak and depressing. I will rewatch that sort of thing as it is oddly comforting to rewatch things like The Killing and Breaking Bad. Into the Night is a movie I have watched three times.
I watched The Nightingale at a film festival. It was wonderful, but I don’t know that I would go back to it and I’d be careful in recommending it. It is brutally effective and the fact that it affected me so uniquely probably means Jennifer Kent did her job and remains brilliant. Sure wish she had something in the works outside of an episode of 10 After Midnight.
I liked Promising Young Woman. I had a minor issue with the ending only in that I wanted it to be more revengier. Carey Mulligan, as many have pointed out, made it as good as it was.