Reviews
Apr 5, 2022
The film’s take on power and trauma is deeper than the usual pop feminism.
Aug 19, 2021
Fennell and Mulligan deliver what they promise, from the design and performances to the tension and provocation.
Apr 18, 2021
Mulligan's withering disdain is a thing of beauty.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Apr 17, 2021
Whenever Promising Young Woman approaches challenging material, it treats it like a hot stove and snaps its hand back as if on instinct.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Apr 17, 2021
The plot definitely has less plausible patches. Then again, because everything's so stylised, the lapses of logic don't grate. And though the upbeat ending has irked some critics, I adored it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Apr 16, 2021
Strong movies divide reactions. The great ones truly polarise. This is somewhere perfectly, smartly, sweetly in between.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Apr 16, 2021
An exquisite yet troubling film... Those looking for catharsis will not find it in Promising Young Woman.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Apr 16, 2021
Fennell cleverly mixes romantic comedy tropes with more serious issues to give us one of the most complex #MeToo narratives we've seen so far.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Apr 16, 2021
An entertaining, imaginative exercise in creative score-settling.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Apr 15, 2021
I was on the edge of my seat for this, and so much else. The promise of fear is fulfilled.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Apr 14, 2021
Promising Young Woman may not always be subtle but it is extremely effective, and the result is viscerally uncomfortable viewing, especially for anyone who likes to think of themselves as "a nice guy".
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Apr 13, 2021
An ambitious, original and surprisingly emotional calling card from Emerald Fennell, with a ferociously great Carey Mulligan performance and a theme that couldn't belong more to this cultural moment.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Feb 18, 2021
It's as if the movie wants to provide the audience with the satisfaction of a successful revenge plot while robbing its main character of everything the quest for vengeance was meant to give her in the first place...
Jan 22, 2021
In filmmaker Emerald Fennell's diabolically funny takedown of toxic masculinity, Carey Mulligan gives a dynamite performance that should make her a frontrunner in the Oscar race for Best Actress.
Jan 19, 2021
Manipulative and nihilistic, it forces a ruthlessly honest performance from Carey Mulligan to play along with its provocative, booby-trapped plot that comes riddled with "gotcha" moments.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Jan 16, 2021
This is lip-gloss misanthropy packaged as feminist manifesto, clever but not smart, cynical without being perceptive or particularly passionate. Women are angry for good reason. They also deserve better movies than this one.
Jan 16, 2021
A smart, provocative, pitch-black dark comedy and revenge movie with an astonishingly powerful, deeply layered performance by Carey Mulligan as Cassie...
Jan 14, 2021
Promising Young Woman is more profoundly a devastating reflection of a woman consumed with grief.
Jan 14, 2021
Fennell builds a backward fantasy that feels ultimately cathartic in a very real way, but where its opening tone comes across as far too light for the palpable gravity of its ending.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Jan 14, 2021
Whatever its flaws, "Promising Young Woman" really goes for it, and that makes it thrilling to watch.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4