Review: Promising Young Woman

AM's Writing > Review -- Promising Young Woman PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, 2020 FILM © 2022, A. Mead
	..... written & directed by Emerald Fennell, 2020 My Grandma used to threaten "if you kids don't behave, I'm going to jump out of my skin." As I tried to process Promising Young Woman's astonishing, brilliant ending, the intense moral ambiguity surrounding its characters' behavior, its blend of the Comedic and Tragic, before long I realized that my agitated tension was exactly Ms. Fennel's intention! I felt right on the edge of making the fatal leap Grandma had threatened. I can't remember being so excited and perplexed by a film's exquisite tangle of contrary values since Robert Altman's 1992 'The Player'! The problem here arose several years before we meet PYW Cassie and her 30ish pretty peers -- it arose from males' instinctive propensity to couple with female objects of their desire as often as possible, by whatever tactics the circumstances allow. In some sense, the problem goes back millions of years, as the association of sex with power (variously expressed, physical strength, social status, material wealth, attractiveness ...) is deeply rooted in the survival strategies of all life-forms: body and brain structures, animal & human social systems. As men evolved into civilized tribes they increasingly added moral strictures to overrule the 'might is right' principle of raw nature. Like every student of human nature, Freud realized the primitive substrate persists, and the civilized overlay is fragile. For ancient Greeks, for example, a male forcing himself on an unwilling female was a moral offense, deserving of punishment or retribution, even as they recognized gods and men would sometimes succumb to their irrational impulses (war-time mania, intoxication, need to dominate, etc.). Social groups always believe their current value configuration embodies eternal, universal Truth and Justice. As in the past, the current configuration has its idiosyncrasies. We no longer execute juveniles for murder or imprison them for life, now that we understand the susceptibility of the immature brain (especially those poisoned by testosterone) to impulsive destructive behavior. We execute men for heinous crimes that would have brought exile in a stone-age tribe. The common practice of infanticide in those groups is deemed criminal today. Mens' relations to young boys that were normal in Greco-Roman times now call for life-long confinement and calumny. Male sexual aggression is more aggressively prosecuted than before, but still not to the satisfaction of everybody. The current legal system in Western societies, defaulting to "innocent until proven guilty", certainly leaves many victims of awful crimes painfully convinced that Justice was not served in their case. Likewise, some alleged perpetrators, when they've been publicly vilified without evidence or due process. But few would endorse relatives / friends of an accuser executing 'justice' in their own way, as was the norm in less orderly times. Most of Cassie's pretty, funny, foul-mouthed friends have chosen to forget their irresponsible youthful offenses and complicities. But Cassie, once a Promising Young medical student, now a depressed, cynical barista, is obsessed with revenging a sexual assault on her close med-student friend Nina, a decade or so ago. That offense went unpunished, and Cassie thinks it resulted in Nina's suicide. Empathizing with Nina's trauma, Cassie had dropped her own medical studies, and hasn't been right since. We first see her in an upscale bar, role-playing a stumbling-drunk -- simulating a promising pick-up prospect to the gentlemen onlookers. When one of them, taking her home, attempts to take advantage of her impaired state, she reveals the ruse, to humiliate and chastise him. Turns out she's been playing this game for years, and chastised lots, whole lots of guys. Increasingly obsessed and dysfunctional, escalating her game, other role-playing schemes set out to physically and psychologically punish various people she blames for not properly prosecuting Nina's penetrator. As she learns the reasons behind their actions, their regrets about Nina, their own small part in the story, and from them, details about Nina's regularly 'party-ing' to the point of blackout, she decides to give up her violent vigilante pursuit. A new love-life with old med-school buddy Ryan seems much more fun. Then she accidentally discovers more evidence about the drunken assault on unconscious Nina, the passive complicity of other party-goers, and why it was so traumatic for Nina. Anger reawakened, she determines another elaborate scheme to punish the principal perpetrator quite severely. Outcome is quite bad for him and for herself. Even more than 'The Player,' this film is more fable than realistic drama; many characters are hyperbolic, and their story arcs bend incredibly: In current meat-space, Cassie's clubbing adventures would have soon been announced on the internet, "Not Wanted" posters erected in Mens' Rooms; collectively a little group might have formed to host a special party for her; or something. What's potentially more dangerous -- how many times would pretend-drunk Cassie have been escorted home by a seemingly 'nice guy' predator before encountering one that reacted violently to her surprise sobering up? What's the chance that such a obsessively rage-ful, but also depressed woman would keep up her appearance so beautifully? The alleged extensive drunkenness and blackout-facilitated sex, when they all were med students, seems highly unlikely. Exhausted, nerdy med students that I've known simply don't have time or inclination for those frat-boy antics. A scrambling of the realistic and fanciful pervades the entire film -- its set decor, coloring, make-up... Inside Cassie's parents' house, some rooms seem mid-western-normal, while others, the living room and Cassie's bedroom, are over-filled with garish '70's Las Vegas kitch. And why is boyfriend Ryan wearing various shades of mime-like white-face and lipstick? Maybe, like an ancient Greek masked actor, he's presenting a 'persona', at least to Cassie, that's a little more innocent than he really is? In fact, there are echoes of classical Greek tragedy throughout. In classical dramas, set in mythologic time before strong States firmed up the rule of law, justice was in the hands of family, tribe, or clan. Guilt might not dissipate with time; familial Duty to avenge wrongs could persist through generations. The wrongs of men interacted with fate and various gods' interventions, only partially comprehensible to humans. These key elements of Greek tragedy inform this film: peripati (sudden reversal of a character's fate), recognition (sudden discovery of some crucial hidden truth), pathos (unexpected fall from grace, violent disAster). The thematic axis of a Tragedy, its pivotal concern, was most often its hero's hubris -- offending the natural order of gods, fates, and society, by immodestly pursuing his/her obsession with enforcing their personally perceived notion of 'justice'. Here, the Promising Young Woman, Cassie, only partially embodies mythologic Cassandra, whose blessing/curse was to see the future, speak the truth, but not be believed. Unlike truth-speaking Cassandra, Cassie's every conversation shows her incessantly lying, then staging one after another deceptive role-playing scenario. But the moral complexity of mythic Cassandra persists in her modern counterpart. On one side of the coin, her cause is just -- force the male offenders and female enablers to face the truth and the damage they did, and continue to do. On the other side, she's clearly emotionally unstable, out of control, a tangle of contradictions, obsessed with vengeance against present and past wrongdoers, through psychologically and physically violent means, at severe cost to herself and everyone who cares for her. Hubris, taking on herself the role of exacting Justice upon one and all, was a minor element of mythic Cassandra's downfall, but central to this contemporary Cassie's. It's worth studying the Greek stories involving Cassandra, as the classic and modern Cassies share many more motifs, some quite subtle, and some of them inverted, as if the modern fable is mirroring the ancient (e.g. who spits in whose mouth)? Stylistically, Classical formalism pervades much of director Fennel's mise-en-scene as well. Symmetrical, static, minimalist setups -- a solitary character, centered in frame, and other structured compositions -- recall the stage-like framing of silent movies, or Yasujiro Ozu's classics. Chapters of this film are demarcated by Roman numerals, playfully modified at the end. More than a stylistic foible, these classical touches remind us of the tumultuous moral currents running deep beneath the amusing black Comedy. For it's portraying profound human issues: justice, truth, power, individual/group moral duties, our vulnerability to emotional & mental imbalance, irrational violence -- difficulties known to ancient people and very much still with us. Email comments to vamead@well.com AM's Writing > Review -- Promising Young Woman, 2020 film

AM's Writing > Review -- Promising Young Woman

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, 2020 FILM

..... written & directed by Emerald Fennell, 2020

My Grandma used to threaten "if you kids don't behave, I'm going to jump out of my skin." As I tried to process Promising Young Woman's astonishing, brilliant ending, the intense moral ambiguity surrounding its characters' behavior, its blend of the Comedic and Tragic, before long I realized that my agitated tension was exactly Ms. Fennel's intention! I felt right on the edge of making the fatal leap Grandma had threatened. I can't remember being so excited and perplexed by a film's exquisite tangle of contrary values since Robert Altman's 1992 'The Player'!

The problem here arose several years before we meet PYW Cassie and her 30ish pretty peers -- it arose from males' instinctive propensity to couple with female objects of their desire as often as possible, by whatever tactics the circumstances allow. In some sense, the problem goes back millions of years, as the association of sex with power (variously expressed, physical strength, social status, material wealth, attractiveness ...) is deeply rooted in the survival strategies of all life-forms: body and brain structures, animal & human social systems. As men evolved into civilized tribes they increasingly added moral strictures to overrule the 'might is right' principle of raw nature. Like every student of human nature, Freud realized the primitive substrate persists, and the civilized overlay is fragile. For ancient Greeks, for example, a male forcing himself on an unwilling female was a moral offense, deserving of punishment or retribution, even as they recognized gods and men would sometimes succumb to their irrational impulses (war-time mania, intoxication, need to dominate, etc.).

Social groups always believe their current value configuration embodies eternal, universal Truth and Justice. As in the past, the current configuration has its idiosyncrasies. We no longer execute juveniles for murder or imprison them for life, now that we understand the susceptibility of the immature brain (especially those poisoned by testosterone) to impulsive destructive behavior. We execute men for heinous crimes that would have brought exile in a stone-age tribe. The common practice of infanticide in those groups is deemed criminal today. Mens' relations to young boys that were normal in Greco-Roman times now call for life-long confinement and calumny. Male sexual aggression is more aggressively prosecuted than before, but still not to the satisfaction of everybody.

The current legal system in Western societies, defaulting to "innocent until proven guilty", certainly leaves many victims of awful crimes painfully convinced that Justice was not served in their case. Likewise, some alleged perpetrators, when they've been publicly vilified without evidence or due process. But few would endorse relatives / friends of an accuser executing 'justice' in their own way, as was the norm in less orderly times.

Most of Cassie's pretty, funny, foul-mouthed friends have chosen to forget their irresponsible youthful offenses and complicities. But Cassie, once a Promising Young medical student, now a depressed, cynical barista, is obsessed with revenging a sexual assault on her close med-student friend Nina, a decade or so ago. That offense went unpunished, and Cassie thinks it resulted in Nina's suicide. Empathizing with Nina's trauma, Cassie had dropped her own medical studies, and hasn't been right since. We first see her in an upscale bar, role-playing a stumbling-drunk -- simulating a promising pick-up prospect to the gentlemen onlookers. When one of them, taking her home, attempts to take advantage of her impaired state, she reveals the ruse, to humiliate and chastise him. Turns out she's been playing this game for years, and chastised lots, whole lots of guys.

Increasingly obsessed and dysfunctional, escalating her game, other role-playing schemes set out to physically and psychologically punish various people she blames for not properly prosecuting Nina's penetrator. As she learns the reasons behind their actions, their regrets about Nina, their own small part in the story, and from them, details about Nina's regularly 'party-ing' to the point of blackout, she decides to give up her violent vigilante pursuit. A new love-life with old med-school buddy Ryan seems much more fun.

Then she accidentally discovers more evidence about the drunken assault on unconscious Nina, the passive complicity of other party-goers, and why it was so traumatic for Nina. Anger reawakened, she determines another elaborate scheme to punish the principal perpetrator quite severely. Outcome is quite bad for him and for herself.

Even more than 'The Player,' this film is more fable than realistic drama; many characters are hyperbolic, and their story arcs bend incredibly:

In current meat-space, Cassie's clubbing adventures would have soon been announced on the internet, "Not Wanted" posters erected in Mens' Rooms; collectively a little group might have formed to host a special party for her; or something.

What's potentially more dangerous -- how many times would pretend-drunk Cassie have been escorted home by a seemingly 'nice guy' predator before encountering one that reacted violently to her surprise sobering up?

What's the chance that such a obsessively rage-ful, but also depressed woman would keep up her appearance so beautifully?

The alleged extensive drunkenness and blackout-facilitated sex, when they all were med students, seems highly unlikely. Exhausted, nerdy med students that I've known simply don't have time or inclination for those frat-boy antics.

A scrambling of the realistic and fanciful pervades the entire film -- its set decor, coloring, make-up... Inside Cassie's parents' house, some rooms seem mid-western-normal, while others, the living room and Cassie's bedroom, are over-filled with garish '70's Las Vegas kitch. And why is boyfriend Ryan wearing various shades of mime-like white-face and lipstick? Maybe, like an ancient Greek masked actor, he's presenting a 'persona', at least to Cassie, that's a little more innocent than he really is?

In fact, there are echoes of classical Greek tragedy throughout. In classical dramas, set in mythologic time before strong States firmed up the rule of law, justice was in the hands of family, tribe, or clan. Guilt might not dissipate with time; familial Duty to avenge wrongs could persist through generations. The wrongs of men interacted with fate and various gods' interventions, only partially comprehensible to humans. These key elements of Greek tragedy inform this film: peripati (sudden reversal of a character's fate), recognition (sudden discovery of some crucial hidden truth), pathos (unexpected fall from grace, violent disAster). The thematic axis of a Tragedy, its pivotal concern, was most often its hero's hubris -- offending the natural order of gods, fates, and society, by immodestly pursuing his/her obsession with enforcing their personally perceived notion of 'justice'.

Here, the Promising Young Woman, Cassie, only partially embodies mythologic Cassandra, whose blessing/curse was to see the future, speak the truth, but not be believed. Unlike truth-speaking Cassandra, Cassie's every conversation shows her incessantly lying, then staging one after another deceptive role-playing scenario. But the moral complexity of mythic Cassandra persists in her modern counterpart. On one side of the coin, her cause is just -- force the male offenders and female enablers to face the truth and the damage they did, and continue to do. On the other side, she's clearly emotionally unstable, out of control, a tangle of contradictions, obsessed with vengeance against present and past wrongdoers, through psychologically and physically violent means, at severe cost to herself and everyone who cares for her. Hubris, taking on herself the role of exacting Justice upon one and all, was a minor element of mythic Cassandra's downfall, but central to this contemporary Cassie's.

It's worth studying the Greek stories involving Cassandra, as the classic and modern Cassies share many more motifs, some quite subtle, and some of them inverted, as if the modern fable is mirroring the ancient (e.g. who spits in whose mouth)? Stylistically, Classical formalism pervades much of director Fennel's mise-en-scene as well. Symmetrical, static, minimalist setups -- a solitary character, centered in frame, and other structured compositions -- recall the stage-like framing of silent movies, or Yasujiro Ozu's classics. Chapters of this film are demarcated by Roman numerals, playfully modified at the end. More than a stylistic foible, these classical touches remind us of the tumultuous moral currents running deep beneath the amusing black Comedy. For it's portraying profound human issues: justice, truth, power, individual/group moral duties, our vulnerability to emotional & mental imbalance, irrational violence -- difficulties known to ancient people and very much still with us.

Email comments to vamead@well.com

AM's Writing > Review -- Promising Young Woman, 2020 film