Promising Young Woman

2020 Directed by Emerald Fennell

Payback never looked so promising

A young woman haunted by a tragedy in her past takes revenge on the predatory men unlucky enough to cross her path.

Carey Mulligan Bo Burnham Alison Brie Clancy Brown Jennifer Coolidge Laverne Cox Chris Lowell Molly Shannon Connie Britton Adam Brody Max Greenfield Christopher Mintz-Plasse Steve Monroe Sam Richardson Ray Nicholson Timothy E. Goodwin Alli Hart Loren Paul Scott Aschenbrenner Gabriel Oliva Bryan Lillis Francisca Estevez Lorna Scott Casey Adams Vince Lozano Mike Horton Angela Zhou Austin Talynn Carpenter Emerald Fennell Show All… Alfred Molina

Alternative Title

有前途的年轻女子

crime drama thriller

113 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by brat pitt ★★★★ 18

"I AM AWAKE IN THE PLACE WHERE WOMEN DIE." -- Jenny Holzer
been thinking about what to write about this one for the past couple of weeks. i can see why some hate it and why some love it, and after hours of reflection i've come to the earth-shattering conclusion that... i liked it!
the title "promising young woman" itself is a reference to how the media called rapist brock turner a "promising young man." many know brock turner, but fewer know chanel miller, the woman who spoke out about him (and even wrote a memoir aptly titled Know My Name). similarly, our vengeful protagonist cassie is determined to let the world remember her best friend nina's name. the relationship…
Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★★ 34

this shit got my heart pounding so fucking much for the entire second half i genuinely had to get up and go for a walk in the cold when it ended. good lord!!!!!!!
perfect soundtrack. beautiful framing and set design. carey mulligan’s incredible. honestly can’t think of anything i didn’t like! so much good to talk about. i want to read this script so bad. i wish i had seen this in a theater i can’t wait to watch it again in a theater please god i hope everybody gets to see this in MOVIE THEATERS
Review by Lucy ★★ 24

the outer layer is a bright candy coated shell, but peeling that back reveals the inside as hollow. i don’t have negative feelings about the ending (or the film as a whole) the way some do, actually i enjoyed it until it was almost over. but then the bad taste it left behind immediately started creeping in. as a complete picture it just feels like a bunch of gotcha moments that lack a certain kind of empathy for the subject matter. the ending solidified my problems with it, bringing such potential together for just another bigger gotcha moment. it’s bold, and i dig that, but surely justice can be doled out with a little hope still attached. without that hope…
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★ 21

definitely the best “oh, alison brie is in this?” movie i’ve seen in AWHILE
Review by demi adejuyigbe 9

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The first time I saw this I realized that no one was saying the word “rape” through the entire film and that it was definitely a conscious choice, but I wondered why. As you get closer to the climax with Al Monroe, it starts to feel like she does this so it hits like a brick when his admission is the first time the word is uttered, only to have that moment stolen from you with... you know. As much as it guts you, I liked that choice.
Feels like a little bit of the luster is gone on a second watch, but not so much that I don’t still think it’s one of the best films of the year.…
Review by astrid rose ★ 13

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

a sentient reductress headline, a complete con job, a “rape-revenge” movie where two women are dead by the end but don’t worry the um - the cops will take care of this???? this is a perfect thriller for the #metoo era or whatever indiewire bullshit is out there rn - seeing as metoo was recuperated into an ineffectual marketing tool by a liberal establishment that will brook no threat to its power :)))))
i was physically agitated sitting thru this and that was BEFORE it takes on like a boondock saints tone for a couple scenes at the end ...... i would like to say here & now any random 70s rape-revenge movie is less disgusting. open, frictive misogyny > status quo girlboss…
Review by Jay ★★★ 16

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

she sure had a lot of dependance in the cops considering its implied the cops didnt believe her friends r*pe case
Review by adrianbalboa ★★★½ 9

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

big shoutouts to girlboss carey and her male wife bo burnham! but i must say, it is bizarre to release a revenge film where the police ultimately take care of everything! like........very bizarre!
this is what my brain sounded like while I was watching!
cool fits tho!
Review by holli 38

(i'm sorry this review is so long i had a lot of thoughts)
hmm. don't really know how to rate this. i enjoyed parts of it for sure, but this film is very flawed. very, very flawed - both on a thematic and filmmaking level.
it's a complex film for sure, and i'm glad films about rape culture in this manner are finally being made. portrayals of "nice guys" as some of the most evil, manipulative predators have finally been brought to light in different media this year (see also: eliza hittman's never rarely sometimes always and michaela coel's hbo series i may destroy you). this is a truth known to all women: that most of the self proclaimed "nice…
Review by Stephanie ★★ 5

girlbossing sexual assault in this way is my joker moment and I'm not even kidding.
had a very in depth conversation with friends after this so I don't feel like putting it into words here but this was very frustrating.
Review by Rhonda Nebiyou ★★ 3

respect of female personhood should not be rooted in fear of female retribution!! alternatively, ‘men are pigs’ and girlbossing sexual assault is a cheap facade of empowerment.
sexual assault demands an elevated conversation, and this was not it.
Review by Tara ★★★½ 17

A film for The Nice Guys.

Recent reviews

Review by youarebymyside ★

I was waiting for this movie for a while and it is really underwhelming to see it end like that. I laughed a few times, there were a few sweet moments, too. But in the end, was it worth it?
Not at all. And it is really sad, but I don't have much more to say about. The acting isn't very believable. The movie doesn't work as a whole; I wanted to get invested & I just couldn't, I kept falling out of it. The editing is meh: one angle this second and another angle/actors' position the other.
I'm sorry to say this, but you can easily skip this movie. People were talking about an amazing end, but this should have ended in a very different way, in my opinion.
There should have been A LOT of therapy invested, and again, what she did? It is not worth it. I'm very sad and disappointed.
P.S.: "It's not your fault." Sure, Jan.
Review by kat ★★★★★

another shitty feminist film 🤮🤮🤮
Review by LeGhost ★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I had no idea about this movie. This is a weird one.
The first few minutes of the movie had a grind house vibe and i was like YES a good revenge movie with a charismatic front.
And then it becomes a family drama then a rom-com then a thriller then a comedy then ... this movie has no idea what it wants to be. And it's full of plot holes.
The subject of the movie is really heavy. Feels like they are trying to say that there's 2 types of guys "the nice guy predator and the confident assh*le predator. No men in this movie is redeemable lol. But it's alright the message would not be as powerful if…
Review by Metalmarshall ★★★½

Great ending 👌
Review by thisissaira ★★★★★

A harrowing account of how sexual assault affects the lives of the victim and those around them.
Carey Mulligan is flawless.
Review by Cate ★★

I don’t really want to think about this movie after this..it felt like it wasn’t even made with survivors in mind so I’ll just say watch I may destroy you instead because this movie says nothing interesting.
Review by margaridagarcia ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I was truly hating this f*cking ending until I realized it wasn’t really the end.
Review by Nick Beardslee ★★★½

Simple but strong script (almost every scene is Carey Mulligan’s Cassandra talking to one other person). Mulligan and Burnham are both fantastic.
Review by burntpopcorn9 ★★★★½

Wow, what a roller coaster. I felt uncomfortable the whole way through. The writing is so clever: the most beloved rom-com tropes make you feel uneasy, you feel the weight of the context but laugh at the jokes, no blood and gore but you still feel sick, and your craving for justice escalates so much that even after leaving the cinema you’re still waiting for the third act twist. This is a revenge story that really goes beyond the film.
Casting was absolutely on point but I especially loved the care put into the aesthetic, the colour drew you in completely. I could easily spend a whole rewatch of this trying to catch the detail put into the set design.
Review by Anna ★★

When it comes to revenge films with women, I want something with a little more bite and acidity. However, this is like one of those candies that look inviting, but you end up finding a weird center and are left with an odd aftertaste.
Carey Mulligan is excellent as always, though.
Review by Theo ★★★ 2

A thrilling, glamorous, empowered, frequently destructive and passionately uncompassionate film, squandered by a brash and jarring ending that hedges it’s bets and misses the mark almost entirely. Despite being such an uncompromising film unwavering in it’s brutality and surreal realness, the ending feels compromised and the punches are pulled, as if trying to cynically separate Cassie’s morally questionable acts for a more ‘lawful’ approach that in turn leaves a sense of ungratifying frustration for a film that gives a front of subversiveness but in the end cops-out and makes the easy decisions all too often.
Carey Mulligan is on unstoppable pitch-perfect form, encapsulating her deeply-traumatised but mentally sturdy (or so it seems) and powerful Cassie with emotional range by the…
Review by Bob McCully ★★★½

I cannot make my mind up on this experience.
For the most part, this is a tight genre exercise, eschewing the expected levels of bloodshed in favour of a more twist-heavy plot. Carey Mulligan plays a steely woman whose identity rests solely on her quest for vengeance 7 years after her best friend was sexually assaulted and then killed themselves when no one believed her. So she spends her days working at a coffee shop, her nights pretending to be black-out drunk so she can trap predatorial men, and as we enter into her world, her plan for the ultimate vengeance is finally coming into fruition.
The film plays out accordingly all perfectly paced with symmetrical candy-coloured cinematography and a…