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11 Apr
Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 6:30 pm PT

Description

Carey Mulligan is nothing short of sensational as a one-time med student reduced to slinging coffee in Emerald Fennell’s (Killing Eve‘s executive producer) brilliant pitch-black comic thriller. Cassie’s candy-colored nails and ultra-feminine daywear suggest a budding Stepford wife, but her acerbic wit and a shocking nighttime hobby mark her as a furious femme fatale. Her rage and her diminished circumstances are inextricably intertwined with a long-ago trauma, made fresh when she reconnects with former classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham). The reunion focuses Cassie’s anger, prompting a mission to confront her past. Fennell’s screenplay is ingenious in keeping the audience off-balance, the tone shifting with Cassie’s mercurial moods in a provocative film tailor-made for the #MeToo era.

“‘Promising’ is indeed the word for Emerald Fennell in the wake of her startling debut feature as a writer-director with Promising Young Woman. Starting with what initially looks like a commonplace story of a thirty-something woman who needs to get her act together and then taking it to entirely unexpected extremes dramatically and thematically, the British writer/director/actress shows real nerve and skill both as a storyteller and commentator on contemporary dynamics between women and men.” –Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

Director Emerald Fennell

Emerald Fennell began her career as an actress, most recently appearing. in Vita & Virginia (2018) and as Camilla Shand (the future Duchess of Cornwall, wife of Prince Charles) in The Crown (2016-). As a writer, she is both a novelist whose most recent book Monsters (2015) received a Carnegie Medal nomination, and a scriptwriter who served as the head writer on the second season of Killing Eve (2018-). Her screenplay for Promising Young Woman was on the 2018 Black List. She is currently collaborating with Andrew Lloyd Webber on a new musical version of Cinderella, slated to open in September 2020.

“Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful, because life is a horrendous, beautiful nightmare, isn’t it? I wanted [Promising Young Woman] to be fun and a popcorn movie that also turns the thumbscrews on every single person watching it. And I just want them to like it. I want it to be kind of a horrible, beautiful experience.” –Emerald Fennell, MovieMaker Magazine

Film Details

Language English

Year 2020

Runtime 113

Country USA

Director Emerald Fennell

Producer Margot Robbie, Josey McNamara, Tom Ackerley, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell

Writer Emerald Fennell

Editor Frédéric Thoraval

Cinematographer Benjamin Kračun

Music Anthony Willis

Cast Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie