Promising Young Woman (film): It's pretty good but might irk some people

This latest release from Netflix is basically forced upon you no matter what your usage record is. This is true of a lot of Netflix latest releases where they basically bypass your algorithm settings and suggest it to just everyone.

There are some political / PC aspects of this film that might get under the skin of overly sensitive viewers but for the most part I found it to be a pretty solid film that is worth watching.

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This is a revenge movie and I don't think that this is a spoiler at all by saying that since it is in the trailer and is pretty evident in the first 10 minutes of the film as well. Revenge for what you say? Well, let's just say that the main character "Cassie" had someone wronged very badly both by other people and the system in the past and the only way in which justice can actually be served is by taking matters into her own hands.

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Cassie on the surface appears to be a normal person in a dead end job with a "don't give a f**k" attitude towards most anything in her life. She has a mundane job, most people tend to like her, and she just goes through the motions in her day to day life. She lives with her parents and goes out at night, lying to her parents about things that someone her age shouldn't have to lie to her parents about. It's probably really common these days as it becomes increasingly impossible for people to move out on their own I would imagine - glad I got out before all that started. Anyway, she is a lot more than she appears because she has a massive vendetta towards a particular group of people that have wronged a friend of hers in the past. I am being intentionally vague about this because it is revealed slowly over the course of the film.

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In a way we, the audience, are the only people that are aware of what it is that she is really like, because she hasn't revealed her vengeance plans to anyone in her life and what seems to be just a normal silly night out on the town or a meeting with an old friend for lunch, actually has much deeper reasoning behind it than that. She is carefully calculating how she is going to get her revenge on those that wronged her, and her friend.

This is done kind of creatively and uniquely, but this is also where the more sensitive viewers, from a social justice perspective anyway, are probably going to get a bit peeved. This is very much a feminist revenge piece and for many, it might be skipping a bit of the entire picture of real world events, if these are based on any, and instead presenting men as scoundrels and women exclusively as their victims. The real world may or may not actually be this way, but I haven't personally experienced it so I don't really have an opinion. I simply watched the movie looking to be entertained.

Is it a little bit preachy? I think so, yes. But based on how Netflix has treated us over the past 5 years this is actually a much tamer version of that sort of preachiness than I have grown accustomed to receiving from the network. I think if you can get past that, or not view the movie as any sort of re-education, that it can and will be enjoyed by anyone.

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I enjoyed it all the way through and felt as though the pacing, the direction, and especially the music, were spot on. They actually made me like a Paris Hilton song and that is not easy to pull off.

If I was going to give one tiny piece of criticism and send it there way it would be this: "Cassie" is presented as a 29-year old that is going on 30 - and if that is to be believed than I can't wait to invite you to my 15th birthday party later this year. Carey Mulligan is nearly 40 years old in real life, and honestly and with no offense intended, that is exactly how old she looks. I think it was kind of stupid to even mention her age if they are going to cast someone who is 10 years older than that and looks like she could be as much as 15 year older than the character she is portraying.

No offense to Carey Mulligan of course. She is an excellent actress and absolutely nails this role. I just found it exceptionally unbelievable that this soccer-mom-looking woman is a 29 year old that lives at home with her parents.

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It's quite a minor thing and if you went to the bathroom during the one and only time that her age is mentioned, you wouldn't even realize that it was a factor. I think it would have been better if they just hadn't mentioned it at all because it doesn't really play any part in the plot so I can't really understand why they would even bring it up. When she is around "other people her age" in the movie she looks substantially older than they do and again, this wouldn't even be a factor if they hadn't brought it up in the rather stupid, birthday with her parents sequence that didn't need to be in the film at all.

You'll know it when you see and I think you will agree with me on this one. When I saw her in a lot of scenes after her age in the film is revealed I couldn't help but think about that scene with Steve Buscemi where he is in a high school with a skateboard and his hat on backwards saying "hello fellow teenagers!"

Should I watch it?

If you can put your views on social justice and feminism to the side when watching this I think that most people are going to find this film very entertaining. I am very difficult to captivate for 90 minutes especially when I am in bed at night and that is exactly where I found myself watching this. I didn't look at my phone the entire way through and found very little of the movie to be boring. Some of it was impractical and convenient such as when and how she encounters some of the people that she is going to get revenge on, but in the end, it is easy enough to look past all of that because the film overall is very well made. I approve!