This article contains major plot revelations from Promising Young Woman.
There’s no easy way to classify Promising Young Woman, the first feature written and directed by Emerald Fennell. The film, which premiered at Sundance in January and hit a handful of theaters on Christmas Day (talk about holiday counter-programming!), is certainly riffing on the rape-revenge genre… except that it doesn’t feature a lot of violence, which was pretty much the raison d’être of its grim, grimy ’70s and ’80s ancestors. You could call the movie a straight drama, but that wouldn’t account for its cotton-candy aesthetic and soundtrack of ironically deployed pop music. And categorizing it only as a black comedy would be a little misleading, too, given how straight Fennell plays many scenes. (Her script can be as serious as cancer. As unfunny, too.)
In other words, Promising Young Woman is a shape shifter. And the most devious form it takes is that of a slick, mainstream romantic comedy—an unexpected love story for Cassie (Carey Mulligan), the film’s vengeful and trauma-hardened heroine. This subplot, nestled into the margins of the movie, operates perfectly well within the tapestry of competing genres Fennell weaves. It’s also a trap every bit as expertly sprung as the one Cassie lays out for the sexual predators she confronts. That it can dual-function that way has a lot to do with the actor Fennell casts in the role of the love interest: comedian, fellow filmmaker, and one-time YouTube star Bo Burnham.
Burnham plays Ryan Cooper, a pediatric surgeon who Cassie knew back in med school, before she dropped out in the wake of her friend’s sexual assault. The two reconnect by chance, in the film’s version of a salty-sweet meet-cute, at the coffee shop where Cassie works. Ryan is funny and self-deprecating. He unabashedly sings along to Paris Hilton’s “Stars Are Blind” in a pharmacy. He heals sick kids for a living. He is model boyfriend material. And when we look at him, we’re meant to see the opposite of the business bros Cassie ensnares after hours, pretending to be blackout drunk to expose their opportunistic indifference to consent. Ryan is “one of the good ones,” a gentleman. And for Cassie, he represents the possibility of forgiveness, a light at the end of the dark tunnel she’s been traveling through since college.
Fennell, though, has other ideas. (Final warning: spoilers ahead.) It’s when Cassie gets her hands on a video of the night her friend was raped in college that the filmmaker pulls the rug out from under her and the audience. Ryan, as it turns out, was there that night—a bystander, not just allowing the assault to continue but laughing about it, too. It’s with this revelation that Promising Young Woman detonates its expert imitation of a romantic comedy, taking with it the #NotAllMen defense those scenes appear to be mounting, at least by implication. In the world Fennell has built around her protagonist, there are no “nice guys” with clean hands. Even those who didn’t participate are complicit for their silence, their justifications, their refusal to intervene.
None of this would work without the right actor in the role of Ryan. And Fennell found him in a comedian whose charisma and persona she could exploit. “I knew early on that I should pretty much deliver what I am,” Burnham told The A.V. Club over Zoom a couple weeks ago when discussing the movie. As a performer, on stage, screen, or webcam, Burnham has always exuded a certain sensitivity. There’s a boyish quality to him, and even at a towering 6 feet, 5 inches tall, he comes across as nonthreatening. His work, too, has painted the picture of an enlightened artist: He satirizes his own privilege on “Straight White Male,” one of the songs performed in his Netflix comedy special Make Happy, and empathetically gives voice to the anxieties of tween girls in his terrific directorial debut, Eighth Grade. Whether a viewer is familiar with his career or not, Burnham does not come across as a frat boy. He’s the “safe” alternative to that kind of masculinity—which, of course, makes him a perfect choice to play someone who’s nice on the surface but has enabled abuse.
Burnham hasn’t exactly been cast against type in Promising Young Woman. The film doesn’t so much subvert his charms as deploy them to deceptive ends. For a while, we really could be watching a “normal” romantic comedy—the film vaguely resembles, during these early stretches, the dynamic of something like Trainwreck, with the comic in the Bill Hader role of a doctor who offers the possibility of a healthier new life for our heroine. (Of course, here said heroine would be hypothetically dropping her elaborate revenge plot, not cutting back on the partying.) “I definitely wasn’t working backwards in any of those scenes,” Burnham insists, explaining that he never felt the urge to tease or hint that Ryan is not necessarily the pure innocent he appears to be. “I very quickly understood what my thematic function in the film was, and didn’t think of it ever again. I’m not going to externalize this guy too much.”
Still, some viewers might get ahead of the reveal. Partially, that’s because it’s a slow-motion variation on the film’s opening scene, where a dude played by Adam Brody (another actor who can do the decent nice guy—and subvert the type—in his sleep) swoops in to “rescue” an apparently wasted Cassie at the club, only to reroute the Uber to his place. But there are also subtle red flags in Ryan’s behavior, too: However close to the chest Burnham plays the character’s culpability, Fennell provides some tells that he’s not quite a dream guy, from the way he occasionally condescends to Cassie’s job to how he guilt-trips her about refusing to kiss him after a couple dates. Promising Young Woman doesn’t go overboard with these little dents in his armor, but it does use them to issue an implied critique of rom-coms and the kind of behavior we often shrug off when it’s presented in the context of that genre. The critique wouldn’t come through as strongly without Burnham’s general sincerity. He’s so likable in the role that you can’t help but hope he one day gets to play the romantic lead in a movie that doesn’t reveal some damning truth about his character.
To Burnham, who calls this “definitely the most substantial part” he’s ever acted, Ryan’s occupation is telling. “In certain levels of surgeons, you have to have a switch that blocks things out,” he says—a way to remove yourself from what you’re doing in the operating room. Compartmentalizing is the key. And Ryan has compartmentalized a lot of what happened in medical school. “What if I had forgotten that something I had done when I was 19 was that horrible and that traumatic?” Burnham muses. “At a certain point, I don’t think Ryan remembers the big revelation, which is probably even more damning.” That’s part of what Promising Young Woman is really about: The way rape culture often allows the perpetrators (and witnesses like Ryan) to move on with their lives, as the victims keep coping. Burnham plays the character unburdened because he is: Until Cassie pulls up the video, “He genuinely believes he’s a good guy who has done nothing wrong in his life.”
To that end, maybe the real genius of the casting is that it may force some uncomfortable identification. It’s easy for men to tell themselves they have nothing in common with someone like Brock Turner. But plenty of men (including the kind who would sympathize with the message of a #MeToo-era rape-revenge movie) might be happy, at first, to see themselves in Ryan—in his disarming wit and aw-shucks amiability, in the general Bo Burnham qualities that tend to mark someone as a “nice guy” who “gets it.” “We want to draw this big line in the sand: Here are the monsters, and here are the good guys,” Burnham says. “But for things to get better, we have to wrestle with not just the most monstrous forms of that behavior but the more common forms, which in the example of this film, are shared by your brother and your father and maybe you, if you’re being honest with yourself.” In Promising Young Woman, the actor holds a 6-foot, 5-inch vanity mirror up to the audience. It might catch a lot of promising young men in its reflection.
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I disagree.As a stand-up, Burnham has always exuded a self-satisfied, unctuous smarm. The reveal is about as surprising as a Star Trek admiral turning out to be evil/nuts.
Really what is it about Star Trek admirals always turning evil? Its such a weird repeat plot point.
They got the space madness
That’s canon.
Did someone covet their beloved ice-cream bar?
a self-satisfied, unctuous smarmThis is exactly the description I was looking for without realizing it until I saw you write it. It’s so accurate. Bo Burnham somehow makes Anthony Jeselnik look personable by comparison.
The true reveal will always be that Burnham, the kind of genial stand-up comedian, turned out to be the writer/director behind the almost impossibly sensitive gem Eighth Grade.
“We want to draw this big line in the sand: Here are the monsters, and here are the good guys,” Burnham says. Yep. What does a rapist “look like?” What does a monster “look like?”
The film “Water Power” taught me that they tend to look like scuzzy 70’s porn stars like Jamie Gillis?
Oooooof…well, since you’ve led me down this wikihole…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_H._Kenyon
Insane that it’s based on a real person, isn’t it?Man those “roughie” films of the 70’s were pretty fucking crazy
Yes! Yes, it is! Like…that shit wouldn’t ever occur to me. So wildly specific.
“Gimme your money and drop your pants! I’m gonna SHAVE YOUR BALLS!”
I recently checked out Eighth Grade, and it’s mostly pretty awesome, but oh man, was it an unfortunate choice to pick Olivia Jade as the influencer our heroine aspires to be like.
Honestly, how does it not make the movie even better that she aspired to be like someone who turned out to be shitty?
Ask a hundred 8th graders what they want as their future career. 90% of them will say “influencer” or “youtuber”. They don’t even see how bad Olivia Jade is. Just how popular.
Just rewatched an old Larry Sanders episode where Lori Laughlin steals money from Larry’s wallet.We should have known!!!
Is he that annoying, singing comedian?
Maybe this is better than that.
He’s often very funny (his Cancer joke in “Ironic” slays me every time), but his performance style is one of open contempt for anyone who’s paying attention to him.
That’s not true at all. He has open contempt for “influencers” and “stars”, not the audience. He just wants the audience to avoid a parasocial relationship that will lead to them spending a ton of money and getting nothing back.
Regardless of what he actually feels and to whom, and no matter what he’s talking or singing about, when he’s on stage, his face always looks like he’s about to throw a tantrum in a department store over their refusal to process his invalid return. If it’s a deliberate trait, then that’s his call I guess, but it’s not my jam.
I have been told that his recent material has improved, but much of his earlier material is utterly disingenuous and stomach-turning, with Bo exhibiting open contempt not just for his audience but for his actual work as a comedian—even for any kind of creative expression that dares to take its work seriously. Exhibit A is his performance of the dreck song “Art Is Dead” in front of no less than Garry Shandling, who you can sense cringing throughout. It is doubly cringeworthy because he otherwise seems like a talented person.
To me, nearly all “comedy songs” ruin jokes and music.
Grear movie. We caught it in an empty theater Christmas Day. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER The article makes a bunch of great points and picks up on things I missed, but doesn’t get to the end. He has an opportunity to redeem his “good guy-ness” and still doesn’t!
I’m late to the party on this (having completely dropped the ball on my Oscars viewing this year), but this was what I think/hope that a lot of viewers take away from the film and what it has to say about rape culture.Ryan has *so many* opportunities to redeem himself, like so many “promising young men,” and yet he repeatedly chooses not to out of self-interest. Fennell wisely lets the camera linger on those moments, not just so the viewer can be held in suspense, but so that viewers can have that moment of reckoning within themselves. “Would I really blow up my entire life to reveal the truth about what happened to a woman?” we’re meant to ask. Ryan gets that question basically three times—when he witnesses the assault, when he is confronted by Cassie, and when the police interview him—and he fails all three times. Each of those three failures is a gut punch to the viewer, who has been set up by the film and by genre conventions, to root for him to be the good guy. I felt it viscerally when I identified his voice on the (unseen) video. Then again when he drops the “good guy” veneer during their breakup and calls her a fucking failure. And finally when the camera slowly zooms in on his face when he’s being questioned by the detective and you see his mental calculus. He carefully considers what’s right and what’s comfortable, and chooses his own comfort. That scene with the policeman gives lie to Ryan’s defense from earlier in the film—that he was drunk and didn’t remember and would never behave that way now. When presented with the exact same situation, where he knows the truth about a woman’s victimization, he chooses in the sober light of day not to say anything. In doing so, it also gives lie to many viewers’ comforting notions of self, to the lies we tell ourselves about what we would do if we were ever in a position to intervene. Many women, myself included, know how hollow those self-assurances are—that bystanders rarely intervene, and most go about their lives continuing to think they’ve done nothing wrong and they aren’t part of the problem. I found it fascinating and gut wrenching to see it depicted so completely on screen.
Saw this at Sundance. I like it, but have somewhat soured on it as I’ve mulled it over. The one element that really has stood out for me is Bo Burnham. He’s incredible in the movie, and the reveal of his character is crushing, even if you suspect he’s got something lurking in the shadows. It’s one of the best supporting performances in a while and it’s so weird that for all of the praise this movie has been getting, Burnham seems a little left out of the conversation.
Meh. Bo Burnham’s not hot enough for this movie.
He’s a 6’5 caucasian celebrity millionaire. I know nothing about him, but I assume he’s sleeping with whoever he wants at will. Also we need movies to teach us that ALL men are rapists, even not rapists are rapists
#NotAllHotMen
I got into Bo when he first started, so like 2007-8 because of my GF. I feel like I aged out of his style of comedy, but watching that clip made me think I may give that Netflix special a shot. I mean, I still like Ben Folds after all these years, so why not. As an aside, I’m gonna be curious to see how John Mulaney deals with his rehab in the next couple years. Also going to be interesting when he makes his first in between interviews appearance on Seth Meyers show. Hopefully it will be without a trench coat and dark glasses.
I can’t imagine it will change anything. He had jokes already about getting blackout drunk in high school or doing hard drugs. The only difference between him and, say, Mitch hedburg, is he seemed to actually think it was a bad idea while he was doing it.
I think that, even if Bo Burnham doesn’t work for individuals in this role, he does work on a metatextual level. Bo Burnham is EXACTLY the sort of guy that a straight romantic comedy (and I mean that both in the sense of ‘a rom-com without a twist’ and ‘a rom-com with only straight people’) would cast as ‘the good one’. Even if he does have a condescending edge in his comedy, he’s the sort of guy that studios would be completely blind to when casting.
Wait I know Bo Burnham is a straight, white, cis male, but are we officially supposed to hate him now? Please be more clear about this, AV Club. I rely on you to feed my constant rage.
This entire article is about how great Bo is in the role. Also every comment of yours is bitching, what’s up with that?
Hey look at that, you invented something to get mad about! I guess you didn’t need to be worried about running out after all.
I don’t understand how anyone who has ever seen a movie wouldn’t see that “twist” or one like it coming. That’s the problem with Message Movies. Even the best of them so often fall prey to using their characters as tools of theme delivery. I’m looking forward to this movie but I’m increasingly nervous about its subtlety or lack thereof.
tricked in to an aw shucks. bastards.
Promising Young Woman somehow manages to indulge revenge fantasies while also subverting their guilty pleasures.So while Nina’s rape and suicide are avenged by Cassandra, the film chronicles the self destructive nature of revenge itself.To some extent, the film was really about a grief stricken woman trying to alleviate her own guilt and shame by shaming others into feeling more (or truly) responsible – and the avenging angel is invariably punished by her own righteous anger regardless.The fact that the film simultaneously succeeds as an indictment of rape culture is equally incredible: it was able to call into question shameful social norms and attitudes through her own questionable actions.The casting against type was one of the film’s many coups or strategic manoeuvres – it reinforced the theme of the normalization of rape culture (or the everyday fact that rapists and rape apologists don’t come with warning signs and are amongst the people we normally like and trust).Carey Mulligan was astonishing in the role – she conveyed a person *already* dead inside briefly reanimated through vengeful wrath and the (false) promise of renewal.The movie should be mandatory viewing for all young men and women – if not for their moral education, then as cautionary tale or warning.At the very least, it should be seen to provoke discussion about the pervasiveness and/or double standards of rape culture, or the way men and women similarly contribute to victim blaming/ slut shaming by offering impunity to the rapists.I just watched it again with my oldest daughter and her boyfriend, and I can confirm that it provoked an interesting and complex discussion. I also took solace from the fact that the film somehow managed to open her 19 year old boyfriend’s eyes to his own misogyny.I’ll never forgot my own experience of rape culture as a young man. Many years ago, I was at a public pool and witnessed many other young men and women talking (disparagingly) about another young woman at the pool.Apparently she got drunk and passed out at a party, and many guys literally lined up to have sex with her in a semi conscious state. She had no idea what happened to her, and only found out afterwards.Everyone was blaming her for the gang rape – and no one was criticizing the young men who clearly took advantage of a barely conscious woman, or the ‘innocent’ bystanders (other young men and women) who stood around and let it happen without protest or intervention.
Promising Young Woman somehow manages to indulge revenge fantasies while also subverting their guilty pleasures.So while Nina’s rape and suicide are avenged by Cassandra, the film chronicles the self destructive nature of revenge itself.To some extent, the film was really about a grief stricken woman trying to alleviate her own guilt and shame by shaming others into feeling more (or truly) responsible – and the avenging angel is invariably punished by her own righteous anger regardless.The fact that the film simultaneously succeeds as an indictment of rape culture is equally incredible: it was able to call into question shameful social norms and attitudes through her own questionable actions.The casting againgst type was one of the film’s many coups or strategic manoeuvres – it reinforced the theme of the normalization of rape culture (or the everyday fact that rapists and rape apologists don’t come with warning signs and are amongst the people we normally like and trust).Carey Mulligan was astonishing in the role – she conveyed a person *already* dead inside briefly reanimated through vengeful wrath and the (false) promise of renewal.The movie should be mandatory viewing for all young men and women – if not for their moral education, then as cautionary tale or warning.At the very least, it should be seen to provoke discussion about the pervasiveness and/or double standards of rape culture, or the way men and women similarly contribute to victim blaming/ slut shaming by offering impunity to the rapists.I just watched it again with my oldest daughter and her boyfriend, and I can confirm that it provoked an interesting and complex discussion. I also took solace from the fact that the film somehow managed to open her 19 year old boyfriend’s eyes to his own misogyny.I’ll never forgot my own experience of rape culture as a young man. Many years ago, I was at a public pool and witnessed many other young men and women talking (disparagingly) about another young woman at the pool.Apparently she got drunk and passed out at a party, and many guys literally lined up to have sex with her in a semi conscious state. She had no idea what happened to her, and only found out afterwards.Everyone was blaming her for the gang rape – and no one was criticizing the young men who clearly took advantage of a barely conscious woman, or the ‘innocent’ bystanders (other young men and women) who stood around and let it happen without protest or intervention.