I am not into thrillers at all to be honest but rarely, movies like Promising Young Woman (PYW) that actually measured everything in the exact amount that I enjoy watching are released. The post-effect is important for me, as the Iranian movie So Close So Far (by Reza Mirkarimi) which still lingers almost a month later as I'm typing these lines. I think PYW will feel the same, especially in a U.S. context.
Summer 2017, Berkeley: I just moved in a studio where only grad-students were supposed to live (short-term sublets are okay) which was an old but a dream place, a 5 minute walk to the campus and one of my favorite cafes (Strada). However, I had to use earplugs all the time because the building was surrounded with several fraternities and sororities, namely, too many summer parties with loud music and screams.
One morning, I came across a girl who was desperately trying to unlock the main gate to the building. I was inside, paused for a second, then opened the door for her, but she staggered and sat down on the floor. She looked like a typical student, jeans, t-shirt but I then realized they had some stains and dust, yes, very dusty jeans. I asked her if she needed any help, she looked drugged, in haze, and when she said no, I left, something I still regret today. The campus security was only a few minutes walk but I thought it wasn't my place to insist.
After watching the movie last night, I thought about her again, and hundreds of female students who got 'totally wasted' on that summer, and had sex without even knowing it. I also remembered my friend, the head of 'one department' at U of Michigan who made her son promise her to ask for 'consent' to any potential girlfriend, which he did despite (once) being teased about it by one girl after a date. Better to be teased than to regret or be remembered as the 'jerk' even years after that forceful kiss or touch.
The balance in the movie was superb: There was no blood, not a one-sided or blinded revenge. Cassie is wickedly smart and attractive: She never harmed the women who sided with the men in power, who didn't believe her best/closest girlfriend in med-school when she said she was raped. She could have but she didn't, she only made them feel in her friend's shoes, only temporarily. It is easy to say: "Why did she get so drunk?" but that question is cruel and should be avoided. The other one: "We were just kids then" (!) sounds pretty lame in a society where one can drive at the age of 16. Plus, "kids" shouldn't rape or videotape it for fun. When women internalize the distorted patriarchal system and even become some of the most vocal defenders of it (like the Dean, or the third 'good' friend who now have twins and lead a very domestic life), then it hurts. Cassie manages to keep calm with these two in a way that most women in her shoes cannot.
PYW can be a modern feminist classic but only time will tell. I'm very impressed with it in terms of acting, the screenplay (very original), Christian imagery and music choices. I particularly appreciated the types of revenge, that is, by not using the simple and masculine way: reaching out the guns, spill blood or kill men unlike several other women revenge movies (which I don't like, they don't create the intended catharsis in me but this one did). The Asian female officer handcuffing the white pretty boy in suit... is surely not a coincidence.
There is one person who admits wrongdoing and thus he becomes the only person who gets to be forgiven by Cassie: The attorney Jordan Green who made millions at the time 'thanks to' the cases of acquitting boys but now is on 'sabbatical' to put mildly whereas the truth is he suffers from insomnia, which would remind any Turkish woman of the "#uykularin kacsin ben ne zaman ifsa edilecegim diye" (may you lose sleep with the fear of exposing harassments) movement in December 2020 as part of a late #metoo act. The rest of the characters are in denial or defense mode, and thus don't deserve or can welcome forgiveness. Jordan not only becomes the 'forgiven' one but also the one that Cassie (short of Cassandra, think of your mythology class) entrusts the video/the evidence of the past crime. Just for the record: The problem is not the tiny percentage of false accusations (to ruin a 'promising young man's life") but that only 35% of all sexual assaults are even reported (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, BBC Sept.18. 2018).
Language plays BIG in all these cases in daily chat or at courts or the media. Jordan Green says he had an epiphany whereas the doctors told him that it was a "neurosis" and recommended a break from work. I am on the 'epiphany' side as the Humanities person in this humbling world, avoiding easy diagnosis and jargon of the therapists. That one sentence meant a lot to me!
There is so much to say and write about this movie, and mine is only sharing a first impression and scratching the surface. There is genre-bending and mocking (like romantic-comedies) which deserve a whole article by itself. Kudos to all who contributed to Promising Young Woman.
*The Writer-Director Emerald Fennell.
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