THE TOXIC AVENGER (PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN)

It's a massive shame that Emerald Fennell's 'Promising Young Woman' will be seen on the small screen by most audiences.

Covid has meant cinemas in a lot of countries are closed just as film buffs are trying to catch up with this year's slate of Oscar contenders.

Fennell's film especially demands to be seen on a big screen with big sound and an audience of complete strangers.

Not only are its bubblegum visuals to be savoured but it requires maximum concentration, away from the distraction of smartphones, barking dogs, crunchy food or casual commentary in the living room.

It is also the type of movie you could imagine audiences in a cinema flinching at, gasping and even cheering.

Fennell's Oscar contending film is a revenge tale but it isn't the first with a female protagonist.

Abel Ferrara, Ridley Scott, Neil Jordan and Quentin Tarantino have all waded into those waters with 'Ms. 45,' 'Thelma and Louise,' 'The Brave One' and the 'Kill Bill' movies.

However 'Promising Young Woman' feels different.

Fennell outguns them all with a cautionary #MeToo tale that every boy should see along with every girl because of its withering criticism of male sexual predatory behaviour.

No-one in their right mind could think the behaviour many of the men engage in is acceptable and it will make your toes curl.

Best Actress nominee Carey Mulligan plays Cassie, a young woman who quit medical school, works in a cafe and lives with her parents, Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown's Susan and Stanley Thomas.

But before the audience jumps to conclusions, we quickly realise that she is deeply traumatised by the rape of her friend at university.

As a result of this trauma, Cassie goes to bars or nightclubs at weekends, pretends she is stocious and then goes home with blokes masquerading as nice guys but with the intention of taking advantage of her and getting her into bed.

Her modus operandi sees her suddenly pulls the rug from under them as they realise she is not drunk and they are confronted with their sleazy behaviour.

We see Cassie do this to Adam Brody's Jerry and Christopher Mintz-Plasse's coked up dweeb Neil.

Both are rattled when Cassie exposes them as sexual predators.

Cassie works at a café run by Laverne Cox's Gail.

Going about her business, she encounters an old acquaintance from medical school, Bo Burnham's Ryan Cooper who is now a paediatrician.

He is surprised to see her behind the counter and awkwardly asks what she is doing working in a cafe.

Quickly realising how rude it sounds, Ryan says Cassie is perfectly in her rights to spit in his coffee if she wants which she duly does.

They start to date but Cassie's determination to avenge the rape of Nina inevitably scrapes up against the relationship as she focuses on exposing the attitudes that led to the perpetrator going unpunished.

Many viewers will recognise and cringe at the toxic one night stand culture Fennell is exposing in her film.

The culture of laddish behaviour, of mythologising hedonism and laughing at the walk of shame, the easy dismissal of women who are subsequently sexually assaulted is witheringly exposed in a movie tailor made for the #MeToo era.

However 'Promising Young Woman' is more than just about revenge fantasy.

It is about trauma and loss, with Cassie struggling to come to terms with the death of her friend.

The film confronts male privilege and how institutions - in this case, the medical school and the law - tend to make assumptions about young men and rally round them instead of paying sufficient attention to victims of sexual assault.

Sometimes these institutional biases can be quite subtle, as a sequence towards the end of the film reveals when a detective interviews Ryan.

Fennell's Oscar nominated screenplay also tackles the psychological violence that compounds the trauma of rape for many victims when their allegations are casually dismissed and their reputations are trashed by their peers and the law.

So skilfully is this done that Fennell's movie demands repeat viewing.

Viewers will be reminded as they watch it of Ridley Scott and Callie Khouri's 'Thelma and Louise' in the way that Cassie exposes the ignorance, arrogance and misplaced vanity of the men she encounters, striking fear into them as she turns the tables.

However the film also recalls the nod and a wink attitude of the excellent first series of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's 'Killing Eve', with Mulligan tapping into the same mix of knowing, smirking black comedy and emotional frailty as Jodie Comer achieved as the assassin Villanelle.

Looking uncannily like Britney Spears, whose hit 'Toxic' and its screeching violins provides a musical coda towards the end of the film, Mulligan is a revelation - mixing a hitherto unseen toughness with real vulnerability.

Burnham impresses too as Ryan who at times seems to have walked straight out of a romcom but who hints early on that there is more to him than initially might appear.

Fennell packs the film with terrific supporting turns as well from Alison Brie as a former friend from college who dismissed Nina's rape, Connie Britton as medical school head whose refusal to take sexual assault allegations seriously threatens to come back to bite her and, particularly, Alfred Molina who is fantastic as a lawyer haunted by the many cases of sexual assault he was able to have dropped by trashing and hounding the victims.

Brown and Coolidge are excellent as well as Cassie's parents who are desperate for her to settle down with a nice boyfriend.

Brody, Mintz-Plasse, Sam Richardson and Chris Lowell as the despicable Al Monroe gamely portray men whose predatory behaviour has been consistently indulged and covered up.

Max Greenfield, who fans of Fox's sitcom 'New Girl' will recognise as Schmidt, also oozes obnoxious white male privilege.

With superb production design by Michael Perry, costume design by Nancy Steiner and makeup and hairstyling by Angie Wells and Daniel Curet, Frederic Thoroval's Academy Award nominated film editing brings the best out of cinematographer Benjamin Kracun's arresting visuals.

Ultimately, though, 'Promising Young Woman's' greatest asset is Fennell's screenplay.

The film is too smart to follow the standard male fantasy of revenge.

And while Fennell and her audience have their fun amid all the discomfort, she is not afraid to show the limits of revenge.

'Promising Young Woman' feels like a film that will be debated for many years to come.

A lot of that is down to Mulligan's ground breaking performance.

However the bulk is down to Fennell's superb writing and direction.

When cinemas reopen, it deserves a theatrical run instead of being tucked away on streaming platforms.

Above all, it needs to be seen by men and their sons, so we can have a proper conversation about what is and isn't acceptable behaviour towards women.

This isn't a problem in US society.

It is an attitude that has festered globally and it needs to be confronted.

('Promising Young Woman' received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2020 and was made available on Sky Cinema and for streaming on Now TV on April 16, 2021)

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