Promising Young Woman


Promising Young Woman is a 2020 American thriller film directed, written, and co-produced by Emerald Fennell. It stars Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton, and Laverne Cox.
It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020.

Plot

Everyone said Cassie was a promising young woman, until a mysterious event abruptly derailed her future. But nothing in Cassie's life is what it appears to be: she's wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she is living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs of the past.

Cast

Production

In January 2019, it was announced Carey Mulligan had joined the cast of the film, with Emerald Fennell directing from a screenplay she wrote. In March 2019, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Connie Britton, Adam Brody, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Max Greenfield, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Sam Richardson and Molly Shannon joined the cast of the film. In April 2019, Angela Zhou and Clancy Brown joined the cast of the film.

Filming

began on March 26, 2019.

Release

In February 2019, Focus Features acquired distribution rights to the film. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020. It was scheduled to be released on April 17, 2020, but it was pulled from the schedule due to the closures of movie theaters since mid March because of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Critical reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 47 reviews, and an average rating of 7.54/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "A boldly provocative, timely thriller, Promising Young Woman is an auspicious feature debut for writer-director Emerald Fennell -- and a career highlight for Carey Mulligan." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".