If you loved the slick action and strong women of Killing Eve season two then you’re in luck as the showrunner of sophomore outing has a new film coming out which looks like a very timely revenge story starring Carey Mulligan and a host of famous men. Behold Promising Young Woman.
As the trailer showcases, Fennell is back at what she does best, dissecting the way that women interact with the world and how they survive it. Bringing her unique eye to what looks like a subversive exploration at rape culture and the idea of “the nice guy”. The official synopsis gives some good context to the brilliantly bleak trailer. “Everyone said Cassie (Carey Mulligan) was a promising young woman… until a mysterious event abruptly derailed her future. But nothing in Cassie’s life is what it appears to be: she’s wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs of the past in this thrilling and wildly entertaining story.”
We meet Cassie as she trawls clubs and bars pretending to be drunk in order to attract a number of predators. It seems like her plan is going worryingly well. According to her disappointed and jaded voiceover, each week she meets at least one “nice guy” who offers to help her. Of course, when they get there, and the men are eager to take advantage of the young, drunk, and possible unconscious woman in their beds, Cassie strikes. How she deals with these gross and abusive men is something we’ll have to discover in the film. Though, we do see her taking Adam Brody to task as he tries to bed her and later see her facing down with Christopher Mintz-Plasse. This is really solid casting that totally plays on the idea of geeky nice boys who wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Despite the fact that we could watch an entire movie about nothing more than that scheme it seems like the real conflict will come when Cassie bumps into an old college acquaintance, Ryan, played by Bo Burnham. From there on out it seems like Cassie will be seeking revenge for a friend who was assaulted and not believed, possibly leading to her suicide. As the string arrangement of “Toxic” by Britney Spears rises to a crescendo, we see Cassie in a leather latex nurse outfit looking to finally take her vengeance, on who? Well, we’ll have to wait to find out as Promising Young Woman doesn’t hit screens until April 17th, 2020.
We’re really excited for this one. Not only does the revenge thriller genre need a little bump, but it’s nice to see a female powerhouse like Fennell taking on the often rocky subgenre. She brings a distinctly female gaze and what seems like a totally unique take on the age-old story of a woman trying to wreak justice on the multiple men who have wronged her and the women she loves.
Header Image: Focus Features
