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Promising Young Woman

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    #122
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,598 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    bb1234567 wrote: »
    Yes, there's literally no characters painted in a flattering light. Even her parents are unsympathetic and harsh. Maybe the cafe owner, is the only character who seems to have no immediately obvious personality flaw or problem.


    Her dad is Kurgan so definitely not a good guy.


    Good movie not what I expected was a bit more dark humour than the straight up thriller I thought it would be as I was expecting something more like the amazing and earlier mentioned Dead Mans Shoes.
    The characters were all great in the worst of ways and were a scarily realistic bunch of muppets for the most part


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    #123
    kerplun k
    Registered Users Posts: 2,380 ✭✭✭kerplun k


    Well, that was an impressive directorial debut from Camilla Parker Bowles. I’m a sucker for a good revenge story, so the The Count of Mulligan Carey was right down my alley.

    The premise of a girl pretending to be drunk to dupe unsuspecting predatory men is both super awkward and hilarious.

    It’s a paper thin plot which credit to writer/director the Duchess of Cornwall, manages to get plenty of mileage from from the basic story. Huge credit goes to the cast. Mulligan, Laverne Cox and Oh Bo Burnham are all excellent.

    The colouring really pops, I just loved watching every scene in that ice cream parlour. Parker Bowles is really showing her artistic hand here and it’s gorgeous.

    The image of Carey Mulligan as a sexy revenge thirsty nurse has burned itself into my brain, that scene alone should have earned this a best costume design nod at this years Oscars.

    There’s a part in this review where I go on about nuance and this film treating all men like one dimensional asshats and why that’s detrimental to the overall viewing experience, but let’s be honest, it’s more fun because it’s not, and I guess that’s the whole point. The whole “I’m a nice guy shtick” is what Parker Bowles is shoving in the face of her audience and she’s unflinching in doing so.

    Yeah, the ending wasn’t up to much, but the journey getting there was.

    I look forward to seeing what Emerald Fennell does next. Margot Robbie produced this, so maybe we’ll see The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel Part two directed by Fennell.

    Also, if anyone is looking to know the name of the Paris Hilton song from the dancing grocery store scene, it’s called Stars are Blind, and yes it fits right into a Spotify Workout playlist.


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    #124
    bb1234567
    Registered Users Posts: 5,495 ✭✭✭bb1234567


    yerwanthere123 wrote: »
    Thought this was great, would rate it 8/10. Don't think I've ever seen Carey Mulligan give a bad performance, a great actress. This was certainly the best of the Best Picture nominees I've seen so far anyway.

    It won't win though, Frances McDormand driving around America being poor and sad and talking to other people who're also poor and sad is obviously a better movie.

    This bugs me too I was discussing it with my family , promising young woman was one of the only Oscar movies we can actually can say we enjoyed , and yet we all said it's obvious nomadland which put us all to sleep will be reign supreme because it has the necessary grimness factor that is needed to sweep the Oscar awards


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    #125
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,598 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    bb1234567 wrote: »
    This bugs me too I was discussing it with my family , promising young woman was one of the only Oscar movies we can actually can say we enjoyed , and yet we all said it's obvious nomadland which put us all to sleep will be reign supreme because it has the necessary grimness factor that is needed to sweep the Oscar awards


    Im usually a fan of the slower arty films that win Cannes or Sundance but I watched 2 recent Oscar winners during lockdown Moonlight and Roma. There was so little of anything going on in them that they were almost like a joke parody of arthouse cinema. The Moonlight finale took me by surprise because I was still waiting for the story to start when it was about to finish. Slow quiet arthouse movies really need a lot of charm from the cast to keep you interested which is also where Promising Young Woman does so well and the movies above failed


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    #126
    The Princess Bride
    Registered Users Posts: 18,582 ✭✭✭✭The Princess Bride


    I enjoyed it.
    Carey Mulligan was brilliant, also a great soundtrack.

    I wasn't expecting the ending.
    And if you think about it, neither was Cassie.
    Gas, how "I'm falling in love with you" Ryan wasn't loyal to her even at the end, when the police came asking, that was his chance to redeem himself.

    I'm thinking she assumed she'd walk out of the stag party post her revenge.
    The scheduled text to Ryan, the winky emoji.
    When she composed it, she most likely didn't think she'd be dead when he read it. A mind game regardless of the intention.
    I wouldn't change it, not everything in life is happy ever after.

    Eitherway, I'd recommend it.


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    #127
    The DayDream
    Registered Users Posts: 508 ✭✭✭The DayDream


    flasher0030 wrote: »
    Why don't you watch it?

    I hate to use this term but I'm a 'frontline worker' and my work has been super busy, plus I wanted to wait closer to Oscar time. Finally got a gander Sat night as i waited for UFC to start.

    I enjoyed it though it was somewhat as I expected.

    Still, I stuck 50 quid on Carey for best actress. The poster saying she was miscast, sorry you are way way off imo she absolutely smashed it.

    Just won best Original Screenplay I see!


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    #128
    Canis Lupus
    Registered Users Posts: 9,893 ✭✭✭Canis Lupus


    I actually think the better twist would have been for the men to get away with it. I think it would have pushed home the theme up to that point that guys don't face punishment. They could have used a text maybe right at the close that hinted she'd a failsafe. Good enough movie to watch I guess.


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    #129
    bassy
    Registered Users Posts: 6,544 ✭✭✭bassy


    Was some load of crap,turned off after 10 mins and thank God I had it for free........


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    #130
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,598 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    Canis Lupus wrote: »
    I actually think the better twist would have been for the men to get away with it. I think it would have pushed home the theme up to that point that guys don't face punishment. They could have used a text maybe right at the close that hinted she'd a failsafe. Good enough movie to watch I guess.


    I agree with the first bit


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    #131
    yerwanthere123
    Registered Users, Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 7,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭yerwanthere123


    bassy wrote: »
    Was some load of crap,turned off after 10 mins and thank God I had it for free........

    10 minutes :rolleyes:


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    #132
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,598 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    yerwanthere123 wrote: »
    10 minutes :rolleyes:

    That first date scene was too close to the bone for some


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    #133
    Obvious Desperate Breakfasts
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,474 ✭✭✭Obvious Desperate Breakfasts


    adrian522 wrote: »
    Except he didn't say anything about her not being hot enough.

    Not explicitly. But reading between the lines, that’s the implication. What do you think he meant with the comparison to Margot Robbie if not that?


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    #134
    Fysh
    Moderators, Arts Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 11,016 Mod ✭✭✭✭Fysh


    Watched this last night and was quite impressed with it. As others have said, the ending itself is a bit contrived (
    tbh I feel the whole thing with the video turning up on Madison's phone was a plot-required contrivance, but not an impossible one, but OTOH ending on the corpse-burning would be Nightingale-levels of bleak
    ) but what keeps it going throughout is Mulligan's great performance. The writing and direction already move this film well beyond the ambition of exploitation fare like I Spit On Your Grave, but it's her central performance that pulls it together.
    That suffocation scene hits like a train, and really hits home the danger of what Cassie had been doing all along but also her recognition of her inability to accept and get over Nina's trauma and subsequent death.

    It might be the contrast with another film I saw recently (Lucky, a 2020 film picked up by Shudder) but I feel that Promising Young Woman has a much clearer sense of what it is about and how it presents that. It's not a perfect film, but I feel it achieves what it sets out to do very well.


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    #135
    HalloweenJack
    Registered Users Posts: 7,074 ✭✭✭HalloweenJack


    Powerful film and quite shocking in the end, though I imagine the message has greater impact with how the film climaxes.

    It was quite nicely shot and the music was nicely chosen. I liked that it had a comic twist and inverted a few tropes to make its point. Sadly, I don't think it'd get as much attention if had been completely serious.


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    #136
    yerwanthere123
    Registered Users, Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 7,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭yerwanthere123


    Also loved the 30th birthday 'present' the parents got for Cassie. That really was a "kick in the cúnt" :pac:


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    #137
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,962 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Canis Lupus wrote: »
    I actually think the better twist would have been for the men to get away with it. I think it would have pushed home the theme up to that point that guys don't face punishment. They could have used a text maybe right at the close that hinted she'd a failsafe. Good enough movie to watch I guess.
    I don't know - that would have been the predictable #MeToo narrative. I think Fennel was trying to tell a more nuanced story than a straight misandry rant.
    Don't forget that she intended to mutilate Al; the police will find the medical instruments she brought for that purpose, which will support his version of events. So I would expect the charges to be reduced to manslaughter.

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #138
    Bowlardo
    Registered Users Posts: 2,390 ✭✭✭Bowlardo


    bassy wrote: »
    Was some load of crap,turned off after 10 mins and thank God I had it for free........

    You turned the movie off after 10 minutes?


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    #139
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,962 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Yeesh - to me the first ten minutes were the least interesting, since our antiheroine was acting pretty much as expected. Things got a lot more complicated after that, of course, so I'm glad I stuck with it.

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #140
    sporina
    Registered Users Posts: 6,794 ✭✭✭sporina


    Watched this last night... was really enjoying it till the end... the ending ruined it for me.. for all the reasons (spoilers) mentioned previously by others in this thread..

    Shame as it was doing a very good job of addressing the issue of consent etc..

    Its as if Fennell didn't quite know what genre she wanted the movie to be.. she tried to do too much.. a good example of less is more..

    I didn't quite love Mulligan in it either.. her voice can be soo flat at times.. eg in the final bedroom scene.. and she had to work hard to get the tears to flow when she 1st watched the video of the night in question..

    Would loved to have seen Margot Robbie in that role.. same age as Bo too... Cassie and Ryan would have been the same age in theory as they wer in the same year in Med school but there was a v obvious age gap - and looked bigger to me as I think Bo looks v young for his age.. but the age gap was far from the main flaw with this movie..

    Such a shame how it ended really - twas farcical (to me anyway)


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    #141
    JP Liz V1
    Registered Users Posts: 85,342 ✭✭✭✭JP Liz V1


    Kingp35 wrote: »
    I think the film is absolutely brilliant up to the point where
    they burned her body
    . It should have ended there. The remainder of the film ruined what came before with a ludicrous ending, especially the
    scheduled texts
    which stretched all credibility.
    A shame as it really would have hit home if Fennell was allowed to use the ending she wanted to use.

    What was the ending she wanted?
    https://forumofgames.com/




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    #142
    Kingp35
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 12,253 Mod ✭✭✭✭Kingp35


    JP Liz V1 wrote: »
    What was the ending she wanted?
    The film would finish with Cassie's body being burned.


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    #143
    2smiggy
    Registered Users Posts: 20,047 ✭✭✭✭2smiggy


    JP Liz V1 wrote: »
    What was the ending she wanted?

    I believe that she wanted to end it with the lads at the party getting away with everything


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    #144
    JP Liz V1
    Registered Users Posts: 85,342 ✭✭✭✭JP Liz V1


    Kingp35 wrote: »
    The film would finish with Cassie's body being burned.
    2smiggy wrote: »
    I believe that she wanted to end it with the lads at the party getting away with everything

    I think that ending might have caused uproar with #metoo campaigners etc., plus all Cassie went through

    I was disappointed that
    Bo/Ryan despite what he did filming Nina's rape, told Cassie he loved her but wasn't worried or cared when she was missing and murdered
    https://forumofgames.com/




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    #145
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    I really liked it. I did get a big Veronica Mars vibe off of it which isn't a bad thing. It just had that quirky sense of humour going on throughout on top of serious. Also had a number of cast members from it so I suspect the director was a fan.


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    #146
    PokeHerKing
    Registered Users Posts: 4,293 ✭✭✭PokeHerKing


    _Whimsical_ wrote: »
    Another interesting element was the controversy surrounding a review in Variety where the main criticism of the film was that Carrie Mulligan was not hot enough to play the role, that it might have been more believable if she was a sexier actress.



    It thoughtlessly missed the entire premise of the film but also hugely reinforced it's commentary on the treatment of women in society as sex playthings whose value lies in their ability to titillate,and not as rounded human beings.

    Carrie answered it brilliantly thankfully.

    https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jan/28/carey-mulligan-review-variety-promising-young-woman

    I remember reading similar about Daniel Craig. Could it be, men get objectified in the same way :eek:

    I switched it off after she spits in the guys coffee, thought it was a bit ridiculous.


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    #147
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    Just watched this tonight. Definitely a thought provoking bit of cinema.

    Initially it felt like there was a question as to who really has the better grip on reality; but I'm not sure it went the right way.

    The ending was too jarring...
    regular guys burning a body? Who would do that? Never mind forgetting that she was about to carve some guy up with a scalpel. They're all extreme characters and not average people.i

    That said, a great movie.


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