Promising Young Woman Reviews
December 23, 2020
Just because the subject is important doesn't mean the movie's good.
Full Review
| Original Score: C
December 23, 2020
It is good trash striving for something more respectable, and does not realize good trash can also have something to say.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
December 21, 2020
A stab at would-be outrage that starts off with a potentially incendiary premise and proceeds to squander it with a screenplay that pulls its punches more often than a boxer throwing a fight.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
December 17, 2020
Were it not for the presence of Carey Mulligan in the starring role, I'd give Promising Young Woman the shortest of shrifts as a festival of terrible acting (apart from her performance) and a stylized but airless polemic on a serious subject.
December 15, 2020
While I appreciated certain aspects of this highly stylized revenge tale, I ultimately found that it didn't have anything particularly interesting to say.
December 14, 2020
Unfortunately, like Hard Candy, Promising Young Woman is a sheep in wolf's clothing, a mousetrap made out of wax, good intentions, and the right politics that pulls its punches in absurd, and absurdly consistent, ways.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
November 25, 2020
Everything "Promising Young Woman" is trying to do has been done better.
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| Original Score: D
April 23, 2020
Ultimately, Fennell's debut is a noble effort weakened by a short-sighted adherence to old ideas of crime and punishment.
March 7, 2020
The ending manages to be both so bitter it curdles the whole picture but also cowardly in its crowd-pleasing wish-fulfilment.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
March 6, 2020
Fennell's directorial debut starts entertainingly... but it quickly morphs into an ill-judged exploitation film that doesn't so much subvert the casual misogyny of the genre as as reinforce its tropes.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
January 31, 2020
Actual satire is in short supply. In order to make this work, the director needs to have the pitch-perfect tone control which, at least to this point, Fennell does not possess.