A raw, brutally honest tale of candy-coated retribution.

As genres go, there are few more cathartic than the revenge film. On the face of it, their mechanics are pretty simple, yet there’s no denying the emotional punch a good tale of vengeance can inflict.

Digging even deeper into this dark corner of exploitation cinema, the rape revenge sub-sub-genre brings with it a very particular form of catharsis. Frequently using violence and vengeful fantasy as a means to an end, these films bring with them the kind of cinematic closure that, while certainly giving audiences what they want, rarely translates to the harsh realities of sexual assault. 

Whether Gaspar Noé’s narrative-bending Irréversible or the psychological action of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the motivations and consequences of sexual assault that cinema frequently depicts are fairly clean cut. The criminal acts committed are abhorrent and there must be pay back in kind, yet the catharsis these movies provide is far from an accurate reflection of a painfully complex subject.

While in many ways it continues to feel trapped in the dark ages, society’s approach to sexual assault has nonetheless evolved. It’s painfully slow at times, but it’s getting there, and likewise, if the revenge film is to stay relevant at all, it needs to evolve with it. But is Promising Young Women really the evolution it’s bold approach promises?

Knocking on thirty and trapped by the tragedy of her past, emotionally scarred medical school dropout Cassie (Carey Mulligan) is well aware that some wounds just don’t heal. Still living at her parents and working a dead-end job, Cassie appears intent on letting her life slip away, yet, buried beneath the banality lurks a seething desire for vengeance that sees her prowling local bars and clubs to entrap nocturnal predators. However, an unexpected encounter with Ryan (Bo Burnham), a kindly and caring old classmate, offers Cassie the chance to sort her life out, but with the trauma of her past burning deep within, is she too far gone to turn back?

Whether we’re talking about The Bride in Kill Bill or Matilda Lutz’s socialite-turned-action-hero in Revenge, righteously angry women who’ve suffered at the hands of reprehensible men have a long cinematic history. However, the triumph of these vengeful acts is so often undermined by the oversimplified solution to what is an inherently complicated problem.

Of course, revenge fantasy is just that – a fantasy – and, as such, an easy fix wrapped up in a distinctly Hollywood promise that bad people will always get their comeuppance. And that’s fine, to a certain extent. It’s just not the kind of message that Promising Young Woman is willing to convey.

Despite the film’s bold colour pallet and heightened style, the actions and emotions that run through Promising Young Woman are very much rooted in the brutal truths of sexual assault. More than any other entry into the revenge sub-genre, this is a film that truly cuts to the heart of the realities of its horrors, cleverly presenting itself as a hyper-stylised riff on sexual assault and vengeance, yet swiftly shows itself to be an achingly truthful dissection of the issue.

Laced with candy-coated visuals and a bold bubble-gum colour pallet, Promising Young Women makes damn sure to get your attention in ways many films attempting to tackle such delicate subject matter wouldn’t dare. It’s an unequivocally brazen approach and one that leads us down a certain path, however, once writer-director Emerald Fennell has you reeled in, she hits us with a raw and furiously honest depiction of rape that will have you absolutely floored.

In its unassuming depiction of rape as a frequently insidious act performed by perceived ‘nice guys’, the film instantly sets itself apart from likeminded stories. A form of sexual assault so often shrugged off as folly, Promising Young Women dares us to take a very different look at the issue, one of drunken frat parties and inconspicuous men rather than dark alleyways and weapon-wielding psychopaths.

It’s certainly a brave choice of approach but one that undoubtedly forces us to confront a form of assault that so frequently hovers in society’s blind spots. It’s also an approach that relies heavily in its protagonist to carry it, but in Carey Mulligan, the film has the pitch perfect performer for the job.

With power and painful vulnerability, Mulligan puts in an astonishing performance that beautifully showcases her versatility as an actor, skipping from vengeance-fuelled rage to an assassin-like cool to aching fragility in the blink of an eye. Embracing Cassie’s faults, Mulligan presents a character driven by her pain and a burning desire for revenge yet trapped within them, crafting someone that’s both thoroughly unlikable and utterly sympathetic.

Dripping with charm and underscored with a surprising sense of humour, Cassie is a confounding yet magnetic protagonist that works perfectly to convey such incredibly complex issues. In many ways, she is the archetypal revenge-fuelled lone wolf, however, while Cassie’s self-imposed loner status is undeniable, it’s in the support of the extended cast around Carey Mulligan that the film really comes to life.

Surrounded by the likes of Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, and Laverne Cox, Mulligan is flanked by ample support, assisting her through the complexities of the story, however, it’s with the introduction of Bo Burnham that sparks really start to fly. As immense as Mulligan is on her own, the noticeable chemistry between her and Burnham takes the film to a whole new level and into another tonal realm; one that, despite the darkness bubbling just beneath, works to lighten the mood and offer hope, even if it’s temporary. 

Much like Burnham’s Ryan, Promising Young Women goes out of its way to surround Cassie with overly soft-looking ‘good guy’ types and the kind of bloke that’s a million miles away from your average movie rapist, yet no less monstrous because of it. Utilising notable nice guys like Adam Brody, Chris Lowell, and even McLovin himself, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Fennell is ready to play with our preconceptions of what a predator is at every turn, something that’s as refreshing as it is uncomfortable.

This striking contrast between the comfortable and the overtly uncomfortable runs straight through the entire film, as dayglo visuals and good guys give way to pitch-black darkness and toxic masculinity. It’s also a theme that bleeds through into Emerald Fennell’s soundtrack choice, as the bubble-gum pop of Britney Spears, The Weather Girls, and Paris Hilton are put through the ringer to resemble something far bleaker, more mangled, and irreparably broken. 

The balancing act needed for this contrast is a tricky one and not something that Fennell always gets right, as the film constantly wobbles along a fine tonal line that seems to want its cake and eat it by playing it straight and distancing itself from the revenge flicks of the past, yet happy to lean into the broadness of its stylistic approach until the bitter end.

It’s an issue that finds itself bleeding into the film’s plot itself, with a blazing start leading to a struggle to hold its contrasting sides together as things progress. As the story nears its end and the narrative twists and turns, things begin to visibly wobble, bringing with it gaps in logic and several tonal shifts that will leave you scrambling to stay with the plot.

However, despite these issues, it’s hard to deny the power of Emerald Fennel’s vision, as Promising Young Women deals a damning blow to our hopelessly misguided preconceptions of sexual assault. Picking a style and running with it, Fennell puts her all into the film to offer something that’s both righteously entertaining and devastatingly effective.

Deliciously provocative and unnervingly thrilling, Promising Young Woman marks a searing directorial debut for Emerald Fennell and a career high water mark for Carey Mulligan. Despite a few issues with the plotting and its tonal balancing act, Promising Young Woman is a powerful and exquisitely troubling film that refuses to offer catharsis for the trauma it presents, yet delivers a narrative that’s complex, visceral, and devastatingly moving in ways most tales of vengeance could only dream of.

Promising Young Woman is available to stream on Sky Cinema (UK) and all other good VOD platforms now.