promising

Promising Young Woman and the Limits of Female Rage

This article contains Promising Young Woman spoilers. Cinema is full of stories of righteously angry women who have suffered at the hands of wicked men. Invariably, these stories also see those women reclaim power over their own narratives by brutally punishing the men responsible. In Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, The Bride stands triumphant, holding a katana over the mangled bodies of those who have tried to do her harm. Jennifer Cheek makes the boys of Jennifer’s Body pay for their misogynist behavior with their own blood, literally feasting on their souls. Revenge socialite Jen reinvents herself as a gory action…
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Critics Choice Awards Favor Nomadland and Promising Young Woman, Reshape Awards Race

What a difference a week makes. Seven days ago, the Golden Globes arrived with controversy and allegedly upended the race with some major surprises (and major head scratchers). Is Jodie Foster really a contender for Best Supporting Actress? Was the support for Maria Bakalova just internet hype? There was plenty of hand-wringing, but Sunday night’s 26th annual Critics Choice Awards arrived to recalibrate the state of the awards race—and to give an interesting look at how a singular industry marches on during a pandemic. The biggest winner of the night was Nomadland, which picked up the Critics Choice Awards for…
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Promising Young Woman: Director Emerald Fennell Breaks Down the Ending

Contains spoilers for Promising Young Woman “Where does the pleasure stop and the truth begin?” poses Emerald Fennell, director of Promising Young Woman, a highly distinctive rape-revenge thriller starring Carey Mulligan which feels like a total subversion of the subgenre. Fennell’s debut is an incredibly contemporary, candy-colored fable about a former medical student, Cassie, who has dropped out of University and instead pursues a secret second life as an avenging angel, feigning extreme drunkenness until inevitably a ‘good guy’ picks her up and takes back to his home.  It’s very dark subject matter painted in bright, engaging strokes, and an…
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Promising Young Woman: the Significance of Clothing

Promising Young Woman is a rape revenge movie but it has a distinctly different look and feel to its iconic predecessors – movies like I Spit on Your Grave and Last House on the Left. Partly this is because the assault isn’t actually shown. But it’s also because of the aesthetic of the movie and in particular the costumes. Debut director Emerald Fennell creates a world of color and music and humor for her characters – primarily our avenging angel, Cassie, played by Carey Mulligan, to talk about rape culture from a very female perspective. During the day Cassie works…
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Promising Young Woman Review: a Revenge Fantasy for the Modern Female

Rape-revenge never looked so gorgeous in Promising Young Woman. Bright colors, exquisite clothes and Carey Mulligan’s beautiful face light up the screen even when the film is at its darkest. This is a very modern and very female take on that particular sub-genre for a post- #MeToo world and it’s one of the most compelling films of the year – one which is bound to provoke much discussion after the credits roll. This is the directorial debut of Emerald Fennell, writer and showrunner on Killing Eve Season Two who is also known for portraying Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown.…
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Promising Young Woman

Everyone said Cassie (Carey Mulligan) 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’s 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.Rated: RRelease Date: Dec 25, 2020
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Rogue Legacy 2 Early Access Showcases a Promising Return for the Rogue-lite

I was a latecomer to the roguelike genre, unable to comprehend how the concept of having your progress almost entirely wiped upon death could be fun – let alone rewarding. Then Rogue Legacy released in 2013 and everything changed. There was just something incredibly moreish about exploring these randomly generated dungeons, dying a lot, and yet still knowing that at least some of my character’s skills would be passed down to a new playable descendant. Cut to 2020 and I find myself uttering “just one more run” all over again in this inventive dungeon-diving sequel. Rogue Legacy 2 officially entered…
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