#christopher lowell

[addictivecontradiction]

Promising young woman, 2020

[angelstills]

Promising Young Woman (2020)

[internetgreatesthits]

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

Have you seen How I Met Your Father (2022-2023)?

Yes

Partially

No, but I've heard of it

Never heard of it

Voting ended onNov 22, 2024

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[50books50movies]

Promising Young Woman

Let’s start with the positive: the casting decisions were spot on. Carey Mulligan plays Cassandra as the angry vigilante really well. In her confrontations, her acidity bubbles under her calm exterior. Bo Burnham plays Ryan with the right level of sweetness and charm to make the rug pull sting. Casting Adam Brody, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Max Greenfield, and Christopher Lowell to bring their TV personas’ baggage with them (Seth Cohen, McLovin, Schmidt, and Piz) was a fun meta fictional touch. Laverne Cox, Jennifer Coolidge, and Clancy Brown feel wasted by the nature of their roles. (Criticizing how Cox is used in particular seems unfair, as if it’s meant to punish the film for casting a black trans actor there when it wouldn’t have triggered any reaction if the director had cast a white cis character actor.)

I think there is a big logic hole about what Cassandra does in her encounters with men in her small, suburban town. She clearly does something, since Jerry’s friend remarks upon it at the end of their encounter. Her commitment to making men confront themselves makes no sense; the film does not present such a heightened reality that her moral avenger act wouldn’t have put her at risk of physical harm, and Cassandra doesn’t seem to reflect or contend with that risk. One could argue that Cassandra has been effectively a dead woman walking since her friend was assaulted, and there is the adage that when one who seeks revenge should dig two graves. Branching from that, Cassandra’s self-sacrifice play seems logical, but it still seems delusional. Why would Cassandra, who feels burned by how institutions sheltered the man who assaulted her friend, leave it to the same culture and institutions to get the revenge she wants? 

Still, I admire the trick the film does in particular with Ryan. Burnham makes Ryan very likable, and the viewer is led to root for him to help Cassandra out of her funk. When Ryan is implicated in Nina’s assault, it feels like a rug pull meant to activate all of the ways we would try to defend Ryan because we like him. The film uses that reflexive thought to implicate us and reflect the way rape culture is engrained our thinking. We can claim that Ryan did nothing because he was struck by the bystander effect (that doesn’t absolve him), or that “he was just a kid” like Al Monroe claims (they’re 23 years old, so they’re legally adults), or that he had nothing to do with Nina’s assault (he was there and should have done something), or that he was drunk (he sounded pretty sober on the tape), but he is guilty of inaction and should still face justice. Turning our affection against ourselves is Emerald Fennell’s greatest achievement with this film.

[darwinsfinchesx]

How I Met Your Father | 2.08 'Rewardishment'

[moviemosaics]

Perpetrator

directed by Jennifer Reeder, 2023