Yes No Maybe So: "Promising Young Woman"

by Lynn Lee

Could this be Carey Mulligan’s year?  When the first trailer for Promising Young Woman hit theaters last December, this viewer, at least, immediately sat up and took notice.  Mulligan plays emphatically against type as a modern-day nemesis aptly named Cassandra, self-packaged as a poisoned bonbon of sexual pliability, and spurred to vengeance by an unpunished rape that caused her to drop out of medical school.  Reviews at Sundance affirmed the power of Mulligan’s performance, and the movie seemed poised to remind the world that she’s still a formidable actress who deserves way more attention than she’s received since her breakout Oscar-nominated turn in An Education. 

Then the pandemic happened, and PYW’s release—originally set for April— was indefinitely pushed back.  Now it’s rescheduled for Christmas Day, and the movie poster and a second trailer have dropped.  Will it be enough to get Mulligan in the 2020 awards conversation?  Let’s break the trailer down, YNMS style...

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Sundance Review: Promising Young Woman

by Murtada Elfadl

Carey Mulligan is an actress of immense range. Since her breakout at the 2009 edition of Sundance with An Education, she’s given us many tremendous performances. All of them heartbreaking and deeply felt in different ways, whether she’s a replicant trying to make human connections (Never Let Me Go), F Scott Fitzgerald’s famous Daisy (The Great Gatsby), a broken sister singing her heart out as a last cry for help (Shame) or a wife and mother facing the dissolution of her marriage and the paucity of choices after (Wildlife). And once again she gives an exceptional performance in Promising Young Woman.

This time she’s Cassie, who at 30 still lives home with her parents (Clancy Brown and Jennifer Coolidge), whiles her days away working in a coffee shop where even the boss (Laverene Cox) thinks the job is beneath her. Little by little we find out the reason for her apathy. An event that happened during college made her dropout and become a sorta avenger against “nice guys” who take advantage of vulnerable women...

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Carey Mulligan Hunts Bad Men

by Murtada Elfadl

When I recently listed five films premiering at January’s Sundance I’m most anticipating, Promising Young Woman didn’t make the cut. But then they went and released a most thrilling trailer. In lieu of YES NO MAYBE SO, since I’m 120% yes I will list 5 reasons to get excited about this movie...

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